Latest progress on Armadillo Aerospace's amateur vertical takeoff and
landing rocket project.
8 second flight. Turns towards cameraman before landing. "Hissing noise" is
the 4 rocket motors.
Monoprop peroxide doesn't have to be especially noisy.
Plume above one motor (mounted midway out on struts) is catalysed peroxide
via a leaking seal.

Text update

> http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/Updates/jul28_01.htm

3.3 MB video link on this page.

486 on board processor.
3 Fibre Optic gyros and 3 axis accelerometers.Rocket motor throttle
solenoids draw 35 amps from onboard battery !

Manned version shortly :-) !!!

John says -

802.11b wireless networking.
802.11b runs adaptively from 1Mb/s to 12Mb/s, but we don't push huge
amounts over it.  The laptop only sends tiny packets with joystick
positions (the actual rate is variable to minimize latency, but never less
than 20hz), while the flight computer sends back moderately bulky (1000
bytes or so) telemetry frames with all the sensor and state information at
a constant 30hz rate.

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