End of the Year Update: I'm integrating the Saitek X52 Flight Control System with the Arduino Uno R3 and USB 2.0 Shield. If you have any links to share, I'd be appreciative. I'm working off the following pages for now:
- https://github.com/felis/USB_Host_Shield_2.0
-...
Update: The project is progressing. I have received all my Arduino shields. I also visited my local FabLab and now have a manufacturing base for the developmental hardware. After a review of the Space Shuttle avionics architecture, I have decided to add rudder pedals to the integrat3d...
Going supersonic is not a simple and uniform process. Different parts of the aircraft breach the soundwall at different times, which places huge asymetrical forces on the body and control surfaces. It's easy to understand how the feather actuators could have been overpowered.
As Bob states, the SS2 pilots probably assumed the feather actuators were strong enough to keep the feathers n the horizontal position. I'm sure the NTSB want to have a close look at them to figure out what happened.
Spend a little time going through VG's web site and you'll discover that "airline-grade safety on space travel" is exactly what they are pitching to their customer base. The challenge is tall, but not impossible, IMHO. Yes, we are dealing with Rocket Science and monster loads of energy expended...
Also, when all fails, and you are down to essential equipment, the right seat equipment is sacrificed and left seat equipment is that which remains in control and powered from emergency power, if necessary.
This "prototype", as you call it, was meant to take on passengers within a year. When it comes to lifes, you add the complexity you need to add to keep those lifes safe... and twice as true when you are flying passengers that have some expecrations of making it back home in one piece and...
If the feathers were allowed to go to the unlocked condition while in a flight condition under which it was clearly unsafe to do so, I would see that as a major failure of the SpaceShipTwo safety analysis process.
Are you talking about the NASA Anomaly Report? One such compilation report is generated for each NASA miasion and lists every "anomalous event" encountered during that mission. I'm not sure Virgin Galactic has adopted the practice.
To be precise, we are talking about an accident here, not an anomaly. We can add, in terms of the SAE ARP 4761 Aircraft Safety Analysis standard that the accident can be categorized as catastrophic, given the sustained failure resulted in the sudden termination of the flight with loss of life.
That's what I think as well. Replicating the cold soaking of the solid rocket fuel, then simulating the temperature and pressure gradients overlayed on the solid propellant burn rates, oxydiser feed rates and the perfomance of rocket engine components is one tough challenge.
Then, there is also...
8ndeed. The Spaceship Two is not equipped with ejection seats, only an escape hatch. Also, the test pilots were not wearing pressure suits. For test flights, it is customary for test pilots to don parachutes, as was the case for this flight. @MaverickSawyer is probably right. The ship probably...
Let's just say I won't be hustling to the front of the line to volunteer for the first passenger flights on either the Virgin Spaceship or the Dragon V2.
Add to that the explosion of the SpaceX F9R during launch in August and the half failure of the 11 Oct Falcon 9 launch that failed to push an Orbcomm satellite into orbit and one can safely say that rocket science is still... yup... Rocket Science!