Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's another guy who's been blowing up the /r/electronics subreddit for making his own pick'n'place machine. It makes me wonder if their endgame is productizing their projects, or trying to "make it" as YouTubers, or they are just having fun and documenting the process of their fun-having.
Do you have a link for that pickandplace machine?
A 1/48 scale model of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
71–80 of 96 posts
Re: A 1/48 scale model of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
#72This is all the more impressive when you realise all the design, build, programming, filming, editing and even the music is done by one guy. I highly recommend subscribing to his YouTube channel to keep up with his current project: https://youtu.be/eh8ic1-5wFo
From his about page: "I studied music production in college, and after seeing the ambition of SpaceX, and the excitement in the new space industry, I was hooked. I wanted to work in aerospace... " At first, I wondered what SpaceX role would suit him best and why SpaceX hadn't hired him. Then it occurred to me that humanity might be better off with passionate polymaths such as him working outside as opposed to inside…
Autonomous vehicles is maybe not the best example, with geohot, of all people, founding a self-driving car startup.
Re: A 1/48 scale model of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even at space X level of innovation ? I was under that impression that maths could still be useful when working at the very bleeding edge of an engineering field.
Bear in mind that companies at the scale of Space X doing safety critical work tend to parcel up tasks fairly minutely. Everything is compartmentalised, tested separately and there are whole teams devoted to the large scale architecture and integration. There's a joke that back in the space race days, an engineer might be responsible for a single screw on the Saturn V (and you'd be damn sure if the thing blew up, it…
This doesn’t seem to be SpaceX philosophy. See from about 3:25 where Elon discusses the problems caused by departmental structure, not questioning constraints, and ‘optimising something that shouldn’t exist’.
Re: A 1/48 scale model of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
#74Did it blow up during an engine test?
Re: A 1/48 scale model of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a just world, he would have 1/48th of Elon’s fame/fortune too.
Unfortunately, sending 1/48 of an astronaut into orbit is not as valuable.
Sending 1/48th of an astronaut into orbit would be a great achievement actually. The problem is when you said an astronaut into 1/48th of an orbit, which is what this is currently doing :)
Re: A 1/48 scale model of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
#76This is all the more impressive when you realise all the design, build, programming, filming, editing and even the music is done by one guy. I highly recommend subscribing to his YouTube channel to keep up with his current project: https://youtu.be/eh8ic1-5wFo
There's another guy who's been blowing up the /r/electronics subreddit for making his own pick'n'place machine. It makes me wonder if their endgame is productizing their projects, or trying to "make it" as YouTubers, or they are just having fun and documenting the process of their fun-having.
It's not a bad a early career move, especially if you're still in college--much better than a paper resume.
Peter Stripol is my favorite of these types of channels. Guy built (and flew!) an airplane out of styrofoam.
Re: A 1/48 scale model of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
What he's done is super impressive and cool, but has he acquired the necessary base knowledge to work on an avionics, propulsion, etc team at SpaceX? I'm not in any of those fields, but I'd have to imagine there's a large amount of background knowledge that someone with an aero or mechanical engineering degree has, that he hasn't picked up with model rockets.
Majority of engineers with a degree are useless right after graduation. Its a ton of random math that (most) of which you don't use again since you use modeling software. Source: Did Aero Someone doing this as a Amateur can damn well pick up whatever they need to.
I agree that a fresh-grad engineer will need some hand-holding in order to get them up to speed, but I disagree they are equivalent to an amateur in the similar field. The mathematical/engineering education obtained through their degree teaches them the thinking and underlying scientific principles that justifies concepts/design, which is knowledge often lacked in amateur community.
Using a modeling software still requires validation from an engineer and the "random math" is useful for that. Often times we have to do redundant calculations to confirm that the computer solution is logical. Beyond that, the "random math" is often key to the development of an innovative method that is superior to existing solutions.
In general, amateur's goal is to make something work. Engineer's goal is to make something work, prove it works, and show why the solution was chosen.
Re: A 1/48 scale model of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
#78That's exactly the content I'm on HN for
Yes, this is cool to see. But at the same time it shows that rocket tech is not as difficult as people make it out to be. (Rockets were difficult when we didn't have computers.) Also, some universities have student teams which regularly launch similar rockets. I'm personally hoping for someone to build an IC fab or even a wafer stepper in their garage.
> But at the same time it shows that rocket tech is not as difficult as people make it out to be.
It really doesn't. The scale model probably weighs a few pounds where as the real Falcon Heavy weighs 3 million pounds [1]. Think about what a different scale that is!
Also note that the scale model's (really cool) test flight failed -- with the real Falcon Heavy that lesson would cost something like $150M.
I think this is kind of similar to: it's really easy to query/serve a SQL database even if it's a few tens of terabytes in size. But make it a few tens of exabytes, and things are dramatically more difficult due to the scale. The architecture that works at the terabyte size (single machine) falls over completely.
Re: A 1/48 scale model of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are liquid engines still in the realm of hobbyists? The estes engines he's using are pretty widely used and understood to be fairly safe, is there something equivalent for liquid rockets?
>> understood to be fairly safe, is there something equivalent for liquid rockets? No. Lighter fluid can be a reasonable fuel, but the oxidizer is the issue. Either you use liquid oxygen (very cold, explosive, generally dangerous) or something nasty like nitric acid or MMH that will eat your flesh for lunch. Given the altitudes involved, I would suggest that small jet/turbine engines meant for model aircraft would be…
LOX isn't explosive. And LN2 is quite popular/widely used, and of arguably little danger.
What I'm not sure about is whether it's safe to get (small amounts of) LOX spilled on your hand (LN2 is safe, my hands still work and the teacher didn't complain in like 2012 (between 2008 and 2015, but I can't guarantee anything tighter)).
Yes, LOX is cold. So what? Just look at, say, [0] for information on what materials you can use for the LOX parts. Just use a simple pressurized tank configuration. Small amounts (sub-kg) of LOX only really restrict you from certain surfaces, such as asphalt, due to the risk of LOX spilling into the ground and turning it explosive.
Otherwise it's arguably safer than everything except maybe 30% peroxide/aluminium in a hybrid rocket.
[0]: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/197600...
Re: A 1/48 scale model of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
He’s been pretty careful to not do anything illegal (he’s talked about this in a few live-streams), for example not open-sourcing any of his control software and using just local IMU data for in-flight control.
Is this a typically US thing or does this kind of thing risk getting you into trouble elsewhere too? I mean the first thing you'd want to try once you have a "platform" is things like GPS guidance, adding wings & making cruising rockets, trying terrain guidance etc. Isn't the cat out of the bag with this kind of tech already, much like strong crypto was once a non-exportaple technology in the US, but now it isn't? Wh…
Accessible to nation state actors, and order-able off Alibaba, are 2 different levels of "available.
You would be surprised, that most acts of aggression do not have months of planning and 1M+ engineering budgets. Remember the most "special" tooling the 9/11 terrorists had was some cash plus basic flight training.