IXV successful test
Discussion
Re-entry test vehicle zips off for an orbit of Earth and returns an hour and a half later at 7,500 m/s.
"The IXV, an unmanned craft about the size of a small car, launched on top a Vega rocket from the Guiana Space Centre near Kourou, French Guiana at 1340 GMT [yesterday]."
Taken from New Scientist article here: CLICK.
MartG said:
Indeed - IXV itself is very reminiscent of the USAF ASSET/PRIME test vehicles from the 1960s
Luckily the basic physics behind aerothermodynamics hasn't changed in the last 50 years! (Just the speed with which we can do those basic calculations) ;-)When you look at the detail design and parameterisation done on current projects like Nasa's Orion etc, it's pretty astonishing what was achieved with some basic knowledge, some slide rules and a LOT of thinking time back in the late 50's early 60's!!
Max_Torque said:
Luckily the basic physics behind aerothermodynamics hasn't changed in the last 50 years! (Just the speed with which we can do those basic calculations) ;-)
When you look at the detail design and parameterisation done on current projects like Nasa's Orion etc, it's pretty astonishing what was achieved with some basic knowledge, some slide rules and a LOT of thinking time back in the late 50's early 60's!!
Agreed - it sometimes seems these days they'd rather spend years & $$$$ tweaking a design on a computer screen to get the 'perfect' vehicle ( which then hits problems due to unforeseen 'real world' factors ) rather than try flying something which would be 95% ideal and learn from experience.When you look at the detail design and parameterisation done on current projects like Nasa's Orion etc, it's pretty astonishing what was achieved with some basic knowledge, some slide rules and a LOT of thinking time back in the late 50's early 60's!!
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