I agree that the legal situation seems unclear at worst. The tech needed
for autonomous navigation already exists, is open-sourced, and is even
manufactured overseas. I think in the worst case a recovery system
flyer would need to register it as a drone, but that's fuzzy because we're
already flying rockets in controlled, NOTAMified airspace as-is. I'm
inclined to believe that it is safe but it's something I would get official
clarification for if and when this moves to market.
On Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 10:45 PM Paul Breed <paul@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
BTW: Unit will never be able to have the landing spot “programmed” in.That would be targeting and is illegal
I built hovering rockets with a definite target landing position...
Can you quote/reference the relevant law here? I've heard much "it must be
so", but never a specific statute.
See also INAV, ARDUPILOT, Betaflight, etc.....
This horse has been out of the barn for a very long time see the TAM
project. AKA The Spirt of Butt's farm.
On Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 4:51 PM Matt Boyles <chucknorris.rules@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Regarding the Apogee project status -
Tim ordered the parachutes some time back and they must be stuck in a
boat somewhere as I haven’t heard anything lately. I know they were
shipping them. First units will be RC and should be available soon after
Tim gets them. No GPS units for some time because there are no sensor
chips, CPU chips, etc available probably this year anyways….
BTW: Unit will never be able to have the landing spot “programmed” in.
That would be targeting and is illegal. Lands where it left from…
On Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 4:50 PM Matthew JL <prmattjl@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm glad to see enthusiasm for the idea! If I'm gonna pour a ton of
effort into R&Ding this stuff I'd hope it would pay off for the rest of the
HPR community. Still working on a lot of the preliminary stuff.
Now to reply in turn:
Ben:
The Wamore hardware was a big chunky formed sheet metal box maybe1.5x1x0.5 ft with two servo windlasses to pull the steering/braking lines
on a parafoil. I think Russ is still on here and could talk better to how
well that system worked, and how heavy it was.
Yeah, I thought that was a pretty cool concept when I first saw it. If
Russ wants to talk more about it I'd love to hear some of his insights.
Bill B:
we would be *very* interested in a turnkey autonomous system forvertical 🚀takeoff, with a transition to winged horizontal flight followed
by transition a vertical 🚀 tailsitter landing, similar to the X-13
jet 🙂 (but without the landing trailer):
I can't promise that but I don't think the technology space is too far
behind accomplishing something like it. Maybe 5ish years away? An
autonomous DC-X would be pretty cool.
Bill C:
I’d much rather pay five times your high cost point for a turnkeyguidance system that flies straight up.
I think the tech for something like this is also within consumer reach,
but that warrants more research. The silicon shortage is affecting some of
my plans to that end, but Jim Jarvis did a lot of work similar to what I'd
implement myself.
DH:
Apogee Components had a demo for the hobby space, but I haven't heardanything in a while.
Yeah, I'm not sure what happened with that project. From what I heard
most of their issues were with trimming the wing for the flight home, but I
think I've hit on a solution to that problem with my knowledge of
semi-rigid wings. It requires a little sleight of hand but nothing that I
think is unworkable.
On Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 10:18 AM DH Barr <dhbarr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Apogee Components had a demo for the hobby space, but I haven't heard
anything in a while.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5BlaElarkk
On Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 9:09 AM William Claybaugh <
wclaybaugh2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Matt:
I’d much rather pay five times your high cost point for a turnkey
guidance system that flies straight up.
But I’d buy a “pinpoint” recovery system.
Bill
On Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 1:00 AM Matthew JL <prmattjl@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
What’s the interest in a turnkey autonomous system at a price point
of around $300 to $500? Whole CONOPS is just programming a landing point
before flight and letting the rocket glide down to it. No muss no fuss,
fits in any DD airframe bigger than 3”.
Not committing to anything yet, just wanted to gauge whether this is
“cool” or “eh.”
