[AR] Re: Spartan: Hovering hybrid
- From: Jonathan Goff <jongoff@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 09:33:55 -0600
Dave,
Fair point. While I think it's a silly way to solve the problem, part of
the fun of amateur rocketry is getting to try out odd things to see if they
really are as odd as they look. Sometimes life surprises you (in a good
way).
~Jon
On Thu, Oct 16, 2014 at 8:49 AM, David Weinshenker <daze39@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Jonathan Goff wrote:
> > I mean, cool if they can pull it off, but I've got to scratch my head on
> > why they'd do it that way. There *are* places where hybrids might make
> > sense, but I have a hard time believing a hovering vehicle is one of
> them.
> > Unless bobbing around like crazy in a semi-controlled fashion is good
> > enough.
>
> Well, I have operated a throttled hybrid, and that one, at least, did in
> fact have a smooth response to oxidizer flow changes in the operating
> range.
> Perhaps the global calibration might not be as exactly mappable as with a
> liquid biprop, but the observed response definitely seemed like something
> that one could close a loop around (e.g. with an accelerometer and
> altimeter)
> without "bobbing around like crazy in a semi-controlled fashion".
>
> (Oxidizer was H2O2 w/silver-plated-screen catalyst pack; fuel grain was
> mostly HTPB with a dash of AL and AP.)
>
> So I wouldn't categorically conclude that something like
> this can't be made to work decently.
>
> -dave w
>
>
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