Posted on 08/10/2012 9:26:18 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Vid NASAs prototype landing craft of the future, Morpheus, has crashed and burned in its latest launch test.
Morpheus is designed to become a general-purpose lander capable of setting down payloads wherever NASA wants them. The Moon, Mars and even asteroids are mentioned in its design brief.
The craft has undergone several tests when suspended on a tether beneath a crane while its engines get a workout. Those tests have gone well, but a new test of the lander flying all by itself went rather badly, as can be seen in the video below at about the 6:15 mark when it veers of scarily, hits the ground and then bursts into flame.
NASA says the cause of the crash was a hardware component failure, which prevented it from maintaining stable flight.
The agency also says this kind of fiery dénouement is to be expected from time to time, stating that:
Failures such as these were anticipated prior to the test and are part of the development process for any complex spaceflight hardware. What we learn from these tests will help us build the best possible system in the future.
NASA's prototype Morpheus lander, amid the kind of boulder-strewn terrain in which it is designed to land
Given that the best possible system, as of this week, is Curiosity, its hard to criticise that approach. If you still want to get narky with NASA, go play some Lunar Lander and see if you can do any better. ®
Go to the website for the video.
click on the black screen and work on it....I had trouble initially getting it going.
fyi
Maybe they should have named it “Neo” instead.
Today's Americans want instant gratification at little cost and they don't have the attention span to focus beyond any failed attempts.
Thanks to the socialist (RAT) takeover of the public schools, we are turning out drones. They have managed to suppress the entrepreneurial genes that our ancestors exploited to come to and succeed in the "New World".
After retirement ...tried teaching Math....very few were really into focusing on something that takes time.
Ad astra per aspera...
Have you seen any of the failures from Russia or China (both are rare and hard to find) :p
At least we have the tests out in an area that wont normall put any populated areas in danger :^/
That is what testing is for. Blowing stuff up so you can fix the design so that it doesn’t blow up.
Probably a good test in NASA’s eyes.
Actually, some of the failures are kinda funny to watch. :0)
Nasa personnel don’t know how to count down from 10 to 0? The count went from 2 straight to 0 — no wonder the little ‘bot got confused! Fortunately, the stores of pressurized fuel looked to be SEVERAL YARDS away from the blast.
That’s why you build prototypes.
HF
Well, that’s what the testing phase is for; weed out the problems before you get to the point where they can’t be fixed.
That game program came on my HP-67, c. 1976. Still got the card somewhere.
Another article said a prime objective of this lander is to use “green” fuels. No wonder it crashed.
L
If a “prime objective” of a lander is to use fuel — of any sort — then somebody up the chain of command has some pretty twisted mission criteria.
Thanks Ernest. An ‘extra, extra’ ping to the APoD members. And the Perseid shower is coming up, people.
If only they could get it to decapitate.....
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