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. ®
That is why it is called a “TEST”.
Remember how hard it was getting that first Satellite into orbit, back in the day?
But we eventually landed on the Moon.
I hope I can see a little of it here, but we have a lot of ambient light. Still, I’m hopeful.
That was Dr Morbius.
Morpheus was in Greek mythology
Means nothing at this early stage.
You should see some of the RC quadcopter crash videos on Youtube prior to getting the stabilization issues worked out. Later on they fly like on a magic carpet.
In the 50's a schoolyard joke went like this.
Q. How do they count backwards at Cape Canaveral?
A. 5...4...3...2...1...OH s#!t, back to the drawing boards.
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