The Fourth of July display at the cape has been scrubbed for the day due to weather.
If they don’t do it tomorrow morning, they’ll be delayed for weeks. Of course, tomorrow morning will also see a much more promising, if less spectacular event, with Masten’s attempt to win Level II of the Lunar Lander Challenge in Mojave. Unfortunately, the weather may not cooperate for that, either. A high is settling in over the Great Basin, and combined with the low over the eastern Pacific off shore, that means Santa Anas (though cold ones this time). There are gusts of 60 mph forecast for the desert this afternoon, and it’s not expected to die down much until later tomorrow. I don’t know what kind of wind conditions Masten has designed for, but if they can handle winds, I’m sure that the steadier the better. There’s got to be a certain point at which they will decide not to fly, not just risking a bad flight, but the vehicle itself. I’ll keep checking in throughout the day, and decide if I’m going to go up in the morning or not.
[Update mid morning]
There is a certain irony that a prize planned with the intent of developing lunar landing technologies would be affected by wind. Of course, a big side benefit for both NASA and those developing the vehicles (though it’s not clear that the former recognizes it) is that it also contributes to technology that could eventually lead to reduced launch costs and increased operability from earth to space.
[Update a couple minutes later]
From Dave Masten’s Facebook notes:
I think we are ready for #ngllc level 2. All tests are done. Last was a nice stable hover of 195sec in 30+ knot winds.
Sounds like it may be worth the trip. Though I wonder how steady the winds were. As I said, I would think that, short of a hurricane, the wind variation is more of an issue than the magnitude per se.
I’m not sure (Dave’s the one who handles the FAA waiver stuff), but I think our wind cutoff for freeflights right now is 40 knots. But you’re right–for landing accuracy purposes, we’d like a lot calmer.
Based on discussion on NASAspaceflight.com it seems rain tonight could thwart tomorrow’s attempt. Something about not being able to replace covers. Let’s get rain dancing people!
“Let’s get rain dancing people!”
(shrug) Why draw out the agony?
I want to get it over with, and let the pieces fall where they may…
(not literally, one hopes)
I agree with Frank. Ares I-X needs to be gotten out of the way.
There was a sensor (likely a pitot tube) at the nose of the vehicle which they removed once they committed to going under 4 minutes. A little bit of Marx Brothers activity as the cover wouldn’t come completely off. The final answer was for the guys pulling on the lanyard to pull harder. I could see how it would be a problem if the sensors got wet, and it would take a couple cherry-picker utility trucks stacked on top of each other to reach that height!
Echo Frank and Karl…get the thing outta here, one way or another.
Rand,
Wind has been really gusty. It’s fortunate we got the flight in when we did. It’s even worse now.
~Jon
I’ll see if I can get a Youtube up later.
Forecast for Wed. in Mojave is for gusty wind, 12-18 knots from NE until about 11 am, then 7 knots from NNE until about 5 pm, when the gusts pick up again. I’m glad Masten got their flights in early today because the wind has gotten nastier. The road from the north of Mojave to the bypass is closed, a certain sign of killer wind coming down the Tehachapi pass.
Concur w/ wind assessments. It is easier for the ground crew to fly untethered, because we don’t have to balance vehicles on ABS pipe “stilts”.
Calm at landing is a good thing.
Rand,
MHV AWOS was reporting winds at 22 gusting to 34 knots right before the flight.
There are two problems with winds. The first is gusts exceeding control authority, which is what you allude to. The second is performance loss from maintaining the desired trajectory in the wind.
Dave