Blue Origin spins up lunar gravity for New Shepard flight

Blue Origin has sent its reusable New Shepard rocket on another suborbital lob, this time simulating lunar gravity for capsule payloads. The rocket launched this week following delays due to thick clouds and vehicle avionics issues. Liftoff occurred at 1600 UTC, and the capsule reached 105 km above sea level before returning …

[steelpillow]

flight time

Cool. Glad Blue Origin are finding customers.

A shame the flight is quite so sub-orbital, as sustaining the gees comes for free once you have spun up. Wonder if a kind of hybrid suborbital spaceplane thingy might last longer.

[that one in the corner]

Re: flight time

> sustaining the gees comes for free once you have spun up

Just so long as nothing runs around the spin equator for too long or too fast.

If you want to test a Lunar Rover's traction (not necessarily adult-human-sized Rover, might get crowded) then you need to make sure it reverses direction regularly (or you run two, one spinwards, one anti-spin).

Although, at 11 RPM, your Rover's are going to have to go slow to avoid affecting their effective weight too much.

[the spectacularly refined chap]

Re: flight time

It's more than that, it ceases to be "free" the instant anything moves, i.e. if something "falls" under the simulated gravity the natural tendency is to slow the rotation unless that is compensated for. Conservation of angular momentum.

[beast666]

A safety critical system severely underperformed.

I hope the FAA is looking into BO's mishap report very carefully.

[STOP_FORTH]

Expensive solution

Are centrifuges not a thing?

[IGotOut]

Re: Expensive solution

Sure, just lob one into space and off you go.

[steelpillow]

Re: Expensive solution

Which is basically what Blue Origin did. Just didn't quite lob hard enough.

For those who are basic-physics challenged, a ground-based centrifuge can only do G-forces above 1.0. To get lower than that, you have to at least go on a semi-ballistic trajectory.

[STOP_FORTH]

Re: Expensive solution

I apologize. Are jelly filled mineshafts not a thing?

[STOP_FORTH]

Re: Expensive solution

Actually, forget the jelly. Just dig a really deep mineshaft.

[Flocke Kroes]

Re: Deep mine shaft

Although Kola is 12km deep much of that is full of water. Towers are cheaper than holes. Fallturm delivers about 9 seconds of free fall, does not fill up with water but does need vacuum pumps. Aircraft can counter air resistance with a little thrust and score 25 seconds of weightlessness. New Shepard gets about 60km of unpowered flight which should last 220 seconds.

[STOP_FORTH]

Re: Deep mine shaft

I have rethought this. All we need to do is drop a centrifuge from a Zeppelin. If we drop it into a deep mineshaft, so much the better.

This means we can simulate any gravitational field up to the breaking point of the centrifuge.

Am just off to the Patent Office.

[steelpillow]

Re: Deep mine shaft

The jelly is still important, so the centrifuge doesn't break up when it lands.

Grading the jelly from thin and wobbly at the top to stiff and trifle-like at the bottom would help reduce the depth needed.

In fact it doesn't have to be a gee simulator for this to work. I have now patented the graded-jelly-filled shaft for all vertical landers.

[STOP_FORTH]

Re: Deep mine shaft

Now I know how Elisha Gray felt.

[steelpillow]

Re: Deep mine shaft

And porridge. Porridge at the bottom.

If you go through all the jelly and trifle, you get a second helping of porridge.

[werdsmith]

Re: Expensive solution

You can get simulated zero G for part of the revolution on a ground based centrifuge with its axis parallel to the ground. Old fashioned amusement park rides do it, I don't recommend them though, because you can get barfed on.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Expensive solution

Why can't you just run it backwards?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Expensive solution

I think you got down voted due to posting AC and there lacked the ability to attach the joke icon.

FWIW, that my first thought too and patently a ridiculous statement and therefore a joke :-)

Have an icon on me.

[David M]

Extremely unique...

"New Shepard's ability to provide a lunar gravity environment is an extremely unique..."

Sorry, but something can't be extremely unique. It's either unique (i.e. there's only one of it) or it isn't.

[TDog]

Re: Extremely unique...

So far, a unique response. But should someone reply to you too, it's uniquity shall disapear with the sands of time. So limited temporal uniqueness. Almost almost unique.

[nautica]

Re: Extremely unique...

"I have to be firm on this: unique is not to be modified. Adding very or absolutely is like putting a propeller on a rabbit to make him hop better. It won't work, and he won't be a rabbit anymore."--Roy Blount, Jr.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Extremely unique...

Propellers are carefully balanced to minimize vibration. Rabbits rely on a significant off axis mass to deliberately produce vibration on demand.

Or am I thinking of the wrong kind of rabbit.

[John Robson]

Re: Extremely unique...

It can be unique and extremely unusual...

[PerlyKing]

Spin gravity

You'll get lunar gravity at a precise distance from the axis ("at the midpoint of the crew capsule lockers"), but at every other distance it will be either lesser or greater than that. In such a small capsule the difference will be pretty noticeable, and the Coriolis force will probably also be apparent. So I suspect that this is only going to be useful for pretty small experiments.

Still pretty cool though :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Spin gravity

This could be a good thing. If you want to know what G force your process works best at, line a set of experiments up at different distances from the centre.