Grasshopper

[aronth5]

Another source confirming Grasshoppers launch last Friday. Should be seeing a tweet from Elon anytime now. Probably after the battery swap though he doesn't like to one up his companies.

 

[doug]

 

[ggr]

Woohoo! I can't get enough of that Grasshopper. How did you get the video?

 

[Palpatine]

I have been checking that channel for SpaceX regularly, it was not visible. But it says uploaded June 18th. Must have been hidden.

Great stuff Grasshopper !!!

 

[Doug_G]

SpaceX needs to do a launchpad abort test. That is scheduled for 2014 I think. That involves actually launching a rocket, then while rising, do a manual abort with the Dragon Capsule.

It will shoot up and to the side to get clear of the main first and second stage of the Falcon Rocket. Then the Dragon will land with parachutes in the Atlantic Ocean.

Did they ever do that live test on an actual launch for Gemini or Apollo? (And the Shuttle couldn't abort of course.)

- - - Updated - - -

Wow that is Buck Rogers stuff!

 

[Lump]

Elon tweeted the video, you guys should follow him
@elonmusk

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Elon tweeted the video, you guys should follow him
@elonmusk

It's a great video. It looks so easy. All they're doing is raising an apartment block almost 1,000 ft in the air and landing it down undamaged.

 

[Palpatine]

All they're doing is raising an apartment block almost 1,000 ft in the air and landing it down undamaged.

 

[rolosrevenge]

But the real question is, when do we get the Johnny Cash mix version?

 

[Grendal]

Grasshopper Divert | Single Cam - YouTube

A new grasshopper video testing maneuverability.

Both the launch and the landing are very cool.

The video reminds me of my youth playing a video game where you were trying to land a lander on the moon safely.

 

[doug]

Now that was incredibly impressive.

 

[Grendal]

Now that was incredibly impressive.

Truly. I think one of the most exciting things about these grasshopper experiments is not the taking off and landings, which is unbelievably cool to watch, but the reusability factor. SpaceX is not remaking this rocket from scratch every time they do one of these tests. That is exactly what happens with every single launch to space for SpaceX and every other company putting stuff into orbit. That is the fundamentally remarkable thing being achieved with this. The fact they are turning this craft around in just one month time frame to do the next test is ground breaking. I really hope they succeed at this.

 

[ElSupreme]

A new grasshopper video testing maneuverability.

Both the launch and the landing are very cool.

The video reminds me of my youth playing a video game where you were trying to land a lander on the moon safely.

And I thought the other Grasshopper videos were impressive. This just seems magic.

 

[Grendal]

And I thought the other Grasshopper videos were impressive. This just seems magic.

The maneuvering looks an awful like what you'd see during a launch failure. It just goes to show how far SpaceX has come in such a short time.

Rocket Launch Failures Compilation - YouTube

 

[Doug_G]

Reminds me of the old lunar lander game.

 

[dsm363]

A new grasshopper video testing maneuverability.

Both the launch and the landing are very cool.

The video reminds me of my youth playing a video game where you were trying to land a lander on the moon safely.

Wow. That is simply impressive.

 

[brianman]

The video reminds me of my youth playing a video game where you were trying to land a lander on the moon safely.

Lunar Lander:

 

[vfx]

Blast Star?

 

[Grendal]

Reminds me of the old lunar lander game.

View attachment 28303

Yep. That's the one.

Here's a new version that you can play:

Atari Arcade

 

[PV4EV]

Lunar Lander: MAME emulator video

That's doesn't do the real LL any justice. But this does :-












I fondly remember playing Lunar Lander in arcades back in the day (1979 !) as well as endless early home computer versions, and eventually tracked down a real one about 15 yrs ago. Its mint and 100% reliable 34 yrs later !

Sadly, MAME emulators cannot replicate the intensity and smooth line drawing of a real vector beam on a CRT, and anyone young'ish who plays it is usually very surprised at the how good the original machines display is when compared to their mame set up on their PC / iphone / flat screen etc. "Asteroids" is probably the best example of this, because watching your spaceship blasting rocks on the real vector monitor produces an intensely bright explosion that's almost painful on the retina !

The huge meaty thrust controller is well weighted and nicely spring loaded. The loud bassy thrust noises make the whole machine vibrate, and you almost feel like you're landing for real.


Meanwhile, back to Space-X ;-)