Scout F Flight 3 Raw Footage + Data Review
Added 2022-07-11 20:16:16 +0000 UTCHey Patrons, more footage and data for you here! To TLDR it in case you don't have a bunch of time to spare - here's what I have found.
1. Somewhere along the line, the TVC mount got un-calibrated before launch. I have a sneaking suspicion is has to do with me re-tightening two of the screws for the mount after the drive out. Regardless, without this misalignment we still have other problems...
2. The position estimates I'm getting are not as accurate as I had been planning on - about 5 seconds into flight we're seeing great data across the board on position/velocity estimates, but by 10 seconds we're a meter or two off in some cases. If we want to "listen to the data" (a thing I'm constantly trying to get better at), that tells me the landing pad we have is not big enough...
3. That leads me to part 3, which is that the point of the pad was to provide a squishy surface to touch down on. I didn't like using the syringes on Scout E, but if we can't hit the pad we have, I figure we should take another crack and including dampers in the legs.
So I've got a few little linear dampers that I'm hooking up to the leg struts today. I'll test them out over the next day or two, and if things look good we'll try for another flight later this week, or early next week!
It's the Summer of Scout and I'm not stopping this project until we land it, or Elon Musk himself appoints me as CEO of the moon.
Blue skies,
Joe
