Principia Labs

This is the original Principia Aerospace documentary, which chronicles the spring 2002 launch season in Palm Bay and Vero Beach, Florida. Footage was shot by the entire team over a period of several weeks, and the finished product was directed and edited by Andrew McCombs. Enjoy! ...

In his book, Entering Space, Dr. Robert Zubrin argues that just as the survival of early humans depended upon their ability to adapt to the harsh environments into which they migrated, so too does the survival of our modern society depend on our mastery of the solar system, and our continued push to explore and expand. "Societies, like individuals," says Zubrin, "grow when challenged and stagnate when not." Fifty years after the Wright Brothers first flight in 1903, commercial aviation was a thriving entity. Boeing launched the revolutionary 707 jet airliner in 1958. Today, millions of people travel by air each year. In the almost fifty years since the first manned space flight on April 12, 1961, fewer than 500 people have flown in space. That's akin to the number of people who have stood on the summit of Mount Everest. What's the problem? If ours is to become a spacefaring civilization, we will first require a more cost-effective means of getting off the ground in the ...

Space Access Society is a grassroots volunteer group whose stated purpose is "to promote routine, reliable, radically cheaper access to space ... within the decade." Their "Policy Summary" is reprinted below, and you can read more about the organization and their annual Space Access conference at www.space-access.org. What Do We Believe?Image credit: t/Space We believe radically cheaper space access (ten to a hundred times less than current costs) would be a massive public good. It would enhance existing space markets and open up potentially huge new ones, creating new opportunities for research, exploration, commerce, and defense. We believe such radically cheaper access is practical without radical new technology. Why Do We Believe This Is Possible? Current US launch costs are dominated by large fixed development, personnel, and facilities overheads amortized over a very small number of launches, plus the direct and indirect costs of throwing away or completely rebuil ...

After making a comfortable fortune designing the wildly popular computer games Doom and Quake, John Carmack focused his attention and financial resources on a grassroots spaceflight effort called Armadillo Aerospace. From humble beginnings, this all-volunteer team has managed to create some spectacular vehicles, culminating in Pixel, a rocket-powered vertical-takeoff-and-landing demonstrator which flew at last fall's XPrize Cup in New Mexico. (Video copyright Armadillo Aerospace) "Real experience isn't gained by running computer simulations and doing paper studies. You get it by actually building and testing things." -- John Carmack ...

Take a flight in the Beech 1900D from Rutland, Vermont to Boston -- in about a minute. Shot and edited by yours truly. ...

The Rocket-Mounted Video Camera Project came to an abrupt end as the V-2 model rocket Prima Donna suffered a catastrophic failure (CATO) on its first launch attempt. Although tragic, the CATO was captured on video from multiple angles, and represents a classic case of a rare Estes engine failure. [Scroll down for videos.] An examination of the video and debris is currently underway, but the consensus is that the extreme cold (-15°C) caused the propellant grain to separate from the interior wall of the rocket motor case. When the motor was ignited, the rising pressure in the combustion chamber forced the unburned portion of the propellant violently up and out of the case, destroying the engine mount and tailcone. The propellant grain was then ejected out the top of the airframe, cracking the base of the nosecone, and continued to sail roughly twenty meters into the air. All of this happened in an instant. For more information on Estes engine design and catastrophic failure, ...

The Rocket-Mounted Video Camera project is nearing completion. Prior to the flight test phase, however, prudence demands that we run a few simulations to ensure that the rocket will have a safe and stable flight. Initial Evaluation Before beginning construction, we made a few ballpark calculations using (a free trial version of) RockSim, a Windows-based model rocket design tool, to verify that the addition of the camera wouldn't adversely affect the model's flight characteristics. To increase performance, we also swapped the specified D12 engine for a higher-impulse E9. The images below show the results of this evaluation. You can see from the flight profile graph on the left that the predicted maximum altitude with the E9 motor is nearly 1000 feet. The stability diagram on the right shows the center of gravity (CG) position with the E9 engine, but without the addition of the video camera in the nose. Although the CG was a little further aft than is desirable, we determi ...

This isn't related to any specific project, but the included video was too cool to pass up. If nothing else, it's a great example of a geek's dream lab. Check it out: ...

It's hard to believe how rewarding it can be making something this pointless! This is my version of "Hello World" on the Arduino. Instead of just flashing an LED on and off, this variation flashes a three-letter Morse code navaid identifier (something familiar to aviators). The Arduino is a wonderful new open-source physical computing platform and programming environment. It is based on the Atmel ATmega8 microcontroller, and is cheap and easy to learn. Microcontrollers can be used in everything from automation and robotics to interactive art projects. Get the skinny at http://arduino.cc/. Here's a (silent) video of the Morse LED flasher. See if you can guess the identifier! (Try not to fall asleep watching the blinkety-blinks.) The code (abridged): /* LED morse code blink * ------------ * * Blinks an LED connected to a digital pin. * Pin 13 on the Arduino board is used because * it has a resistor attached to it, needing only an LED * */ int ledPin = 13; // digital pin ...

by Robert C. Truax Image credit: SpaceX.com The story of turbopump rocket development is an interesting one of trial and error. Many sidelines were explored before the objectives of light weight and high performance were finally attained with the main engines for the Shuttle. Russian rocket development followed a somewhat similar path, and the end result was very similar: a topping cycle with high combustion chamber pressures. But turbopump engines, whether high pressure or low, were a mistake from the very beginning. They simply are not worth what they cost in time and money. In all the early development efforts, pump-fed systems were preceded by a pressure-fed version. In every case, the mission was accomplished and the program goals met before the development of the pump system was completed. After the X-I broke the sound barrier with its pressure-fed rocket engine, who ever heard of the D-558-2-powered by a pump-fed engine? Technically simple two-stage launchers with pressure-f ...

A brief non-scientific summary: Two non-functional headsets, one diagnosed as a solder disconnect at the earpiece speaker (HS1); and one diagnosed as a possible broken wire inside the insulation near the earpiece (HS2). The moulding for the earpiece on HS1 was damaged during dissection. The moulding for HS2 was removed and transferred to HS1, after re-solder the earpiece was still non-functional. The wire to the earpiece of HS1 was trimmed to a point before the suspected wire damage inside the insulation and then soldered to the speaker. The earpiece was functional. It was then noted that the earpiece moulding had not been assembled prior to soldering, a necessary step. The speaker was de-soldered, moulding assembled, and the wire was again soldered to the speaker. The headset is now functional. The assembly for HS2 is available for a future project involving a complete speaker and earpiece replacement. This would involve grafting an earpiece (from a stereo headset) assembly to t ...