BPS.space

LIVE Scout F Launch/Landing - Saturday Morning!

Hey Patrons, lots of posts lately but it's cause there's lots to do! We've got a launch coming up Saturday morning bright and early. This will be Flight 7 of Scout F, and I'm feeling pretty good about our chances of landing upright on this.

I've got a few changes from Flight 6, mostly that we're aiming for better attitude control at the end of the landing burn, which should help with how much the rocket tips. We're also just sliiiightly lowering the target burnout altitude. Mild risk of...

Scout F - Raw Footage - Flights 4, 5, and 6

Hey Patrons! I've got a ton of raw footage for ya here!

I fell behind on the raw footage and data reviews for flights 4, 5, and 6 and am playing catch-up now. I'll have those up in a few days or so, but after a slow August we're back to burnin real hard on Scout flights.

This means that we're flying again Saturday morning for Flight 7 (livestream link soon!), and pending the results of that, we might fly another time after. I want a few good landings under my belt and I'm convince...

BPS.space Discord Link

Hey folks, I am not sure why the Discord/Patreon link keeps breaking - until that gets fixed for good though, if you're looking for a valid Discord link, here you go!

https://discord.gg/xbpnDtW39N

Thanks,

Joe

Scout Live Launch Tuesday Morning!

HOWDY PATRONS! I took a few needed weeks off of rocket launches and am back with more Scout flights! Scout Flight 6 will be largely similar to flight 5 with a few small improvements. 

Flight 5 still had some rough velocity control on landing, and I've increased control gains to fix that. Throttle control also had a sample rate problem where the PID controller looking at descent rate thought our descent was a lot more jittery than reality. That's all fixed up now too :)

I'm ex...

BPS.space Discord and Patron Hangout Tomorrow!

Howdy Patrons!

A few folks have had some trouble getting into the BPS Discord, so here's a link that should get you fixed up if you're not in there already!

https://discord.gg/JEfruvtggV

Also tomorrow(Wednesday August 3rd) I'm doing a Patron hangout in the BPS Discord where I'd love to chat and answer questions! The hangout will happen at 12 noon PT / 3pm ET and we usually hang out for an hour and change.<...

LIVE LAUNCH SUNDAY MORNING

Will go live at 5am Pacific Time! Stream Link: https://youtu.be/-80oQsVljus

Okay Patrons, time to try this landing thing *again*! Last flight looked pretty great, it almost seemed like if the legs had deployed we could have landed it! That said I still updated the throttle controller to be a little less aggressive on velocity control, and raised the leg deployment altitude a bit(and shortened the nichrome wire, both th...

LIVE LAUNCH TOMORROW MORNING

Link: https://youtu.be/V6YxLqkgUcg

Back at it for flight 4 of Scout F! It's the Summer of Scout and we're landing this thing upright, one way or another. Stream goes live at 5:05am PT, keep your fingers crossed :)

Scout F Flight 3 Raw Footage + Data Review

Hey 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 - a...

LIVE LAUNCH TOMORROW MORNING

Going live at 5:05AM PT for a launch around 5:30AM PT!

Stream Link: https://youtu.be/_z80KgNeTQI

Scout F Flight 3! It's happening! We've got a new aluminum TVC mount and I'm ready to try this thing again. It's a lot more stiff than last time with almost no play in the linkages. Cross your fingers...

Scout F Flight 2 Footage and Data Review

Link: https://youtu.be/4YOvagPNfWc

Hey Patrons! Welp, not an amazing flight, and I kinda hate saying this because of how cliche it is, but we can still learn a lot! The thing I'm most exited about is how accurate our Kalman filter looks in spite of some pretty iffy GPS data. The big thing to fix for the next flight is going to be how wiggly and sloppy that TVC mount is. We "can" fly with the current one, but it require...

Launch Rescheduled to Thursday!

Super quick update, sorry for all the notifs! Same livestream link, same everything, we just hit a few issues with the TVC wiggle today that need another day or two of work to get ironed out. Otherwise, things are looking great for Flight 2, just want to make sure we don't succumb to Go Fever :)

Link: https://youtu.be/aUFtknBOTA8

SCOUT F FLIGHT 2 TOMORROW MORNING

Live launch! Flight 2! Very exiting!

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUFtknBOTA8

Alright, we're goin live super early tomorrow morning to fly again - I've got an updated set of gains, a lighter vehicle, and some minor bugs fixed. The goal is to keep a faster flight cadence than Scout E, which shouldn't be hard. It might not always be this fast of a turnaround but it feels good to try keeping ...

Scout F Flight 1 Footage and Data Review

Howdy Patrons, I've got LOTS of footage and data for ya!

Video Link: https://youtu.be/9KReMmgEgus (the 4K version is still processing and should be done in a few hours max)

Scout F finally lifted off, and things didn't go amazing, but they didn't go terribly! The rocket is in great shape, and I think we can probably try flying again late May or early June if we push hard. The goal of Scout F is to test A LOT - on...

FLYING TOMORROW!

Hey Patrons, we’re going to try to fly Scout again tomorrow at about 6am Pacific Time - that’s the best situation for wind for the next week! I’m sorry for the late notice, once we can get a flight in and start iterating, we should be able to get some better flight times. Until then, the most important thing is getting this rocket off the launch pad as soon as safely possible so we can get some flight data!

Stream time will be wrong for a little bit, but it’ll be the same link ...

LIVE LAUNCH+LANDING TOMORROW

Get STOKED: https://youtu.be/oUpPu-P15A0

ITS HAPPENINGGGGGGGGG - Scout F is ready to go for a launch tomorrow! I'm super excited! We're aiming for a 7:30pm PT liftoff, and the stream will go live at least 30 min before. The legs work, the TVC mount works, the throttle control works, the computer works, the kalman filter works, the GPS works, the reaction wheel works, the cameras work, the pad leveling mount works... we...

LIVE Scout F Launch(next Wednesday evening)!

Livestream Link: https://youtu.be/oUpPu-P15A0

Alright folks, it's time to fly! Almost...

Scout F has gone through a bunch of testing and it feels like we're about ready to fly. I have a few small details to close out, but flight software is ready, the rocket is built, simulations look good, skies are blue, and winds are... high.

Wind for the next week solid is too high to launch. Looks like it starts to die...

March 2022 Patron Update!

Video Link: https://youtu.be/7a_BIZCLaqk

Howdy Patrons! Here's a little update on Scout F, which is what I've been workin on for the last month or so! We're looking good for a first flight in April, and I've been doing my best to learn from the things that didn't work with Scout E.

In other news, at the end of the video, I need some ideas - I've got a ton of metal shavings that are cut from making these parts for...

Throttle Control Data

Howdy Patrons!

Here's the data I've collected on the throttle control mechanism I built. Feel free to use it for your own builds - I'll be publishing the STEP files for the mechanism at the MECO tier in a few minutes as well. If you're having trouble opening the XLSX file, you can import it using Google Sheets and then export as whatever format you'd like!

More details about the mechanism: https://youtu.be/8sksiYfkse...

Throttle Control with the G8 Long Burn Motor

Link: https://youtu.be/73htcqE3pR4

Super quick update! Video on all the throttle control stuff will be out next week, but y'all get the first look of course :) This will make a big difference for projects like the Starship model, I'm really stoked about it. More soon!

BPS.space Discord

Hey Patrons! Real quick, not sure what's up with the Discord/Patreon connection that keeps breaking. If you're having trouble gaining access, please use this link! For obvious reasons, please don't share it :)

https://discord.gg/Nnt7sCHaWj

Thanks,

Joe

Patron Update!

Hey folks, quick video to keep you in the loop on what's happening. The TLDW...? Too long didn't watch:

- Next video is about throttle control for solid motors! Got it working well so far

- Then a design video about an 8ft tall Starship/Superheavy model we're gonna make

- Project with Mark Rober comes out... sometime?? soon?? Took 10000% longer than we thought

- Meat Seeking Missile(new name needed)(silly project, but helps with spaceshot)

More soon, 

...

Throttle Control with Solid Motors?

Yes! Well... sorta...

For the last few weeks (and a few weeks in the fall too) I've been trying to get throttle control with these Estes F15 rocket motors that Scout(the landing rocket) uses. That's the last step toward closing in on landing this thing after a billion years of trying.

First I tried messing with something called the Krushnic effect: https://www.nar.org/pdf/TCR1.pdf

This is where you push...

Live Launch this Saturday Evening!

Hey Patrons! Something very different for you here...

Xyla Foxlin and I have been collaborating on a ridiculous holiday themed project, and it's time to fly it! We're shoving an L1000 rocket motor into a full sized Christmas tree in the name of holiday spirit!

We're flying it out in Mojave and the stream quality should be pretty good. There's not much scientific value here BUT it will be a lot of fun. It's very hard to simulate the aerodynamics of a Christmas tree, and boy have I ...

Fineas Flight 1 - Raw Video

Hey Patrons! Thanks for the patience with yesterday's stream - I can't believe video cut out RIGHT at launch... Luckily, we have plenty of angles of the flight here, hopefully that makes up for it a bit.

I haven't taken a close look at the data yet, and we'll do that breakdown in a few days or so, but my current guess is that the connection between the servos/actuators and the fins was slipping in flight. This sorta invalidates a lot of the control data we might otherwise have for the s...

Take 2: LIVE LAUNCH SATURDAY

Howdy Patrons! Trying this again...

Last week we tried to fly the Fineas rocket at ROCstock out in the Lucerne Dry Lakebed. Although the day was beautiful and all seemed well, we ran into some nasty RF problems out at the pad. A totally fascinating error lead to us getting great GPS connectivity while on external power, and absolutely nothing while on internal power. I've since shifted the batteries and antennas around in the vehicle and everything is much happier now.

We'll try f...

LIVE LAUNCH TOMORROW!

Howdy Patrons! 

I've got a new rocket, and it's called Fineas... because it uses active fins :) Tomorrow I'm going to try to fly around 12 noon Pacific Time at the ROCstock launch out in Lucerne CA. If you're going to ROCstock please come say hello and wish Fineas good luck! The rocket will try to fly a small 90 degree roll program for this first flight. I've worked hard to get things working, but aero control surfaces are difficult, so ya never know...

We're also using some ...

Scout E - Engineering Cut Early Access

Howdy Patrons! You get the first look at the Engineering Cut for Scout E! I put a whole lot of detail in here, and I hope you enjoy it :)

https://youtu.be/QM6tvAVNLnk (Patreon wouldn't let me post this as a video here, not sure why)

Thanks,

Joe

Scout E Flight 2 Footage and Data Review

Howdy Patrons! Buncha footage and data for ya here!

Unfortunately a pretty bad flight. Had tons of camera issues, ascent motor didn't eject, I think a good chunk of this is a result of not flying this for so long. Silver lining, in light of this flight I think it's time to try a new design with a stiffer airframe, and FINALLY some position control on landing, which would allow for a landing pad, which would fix leg bounce. Perhaps one day I'll actually land one of these things...

...

Patreon Discord!

Hey Patrons - I'm not sure what's up with the connection between Patreon and Discord right now, but it seems like something is broken. In any case, I'll leave this here - you can click the link below to join the BPS Discord if Patreon didn't do that for you automatically!

https://discord.gg/P9Z3G7xmXb

Blue Skies,

Joe

Patron Video Update

Howdy Patrons!

It has been a little while - here's a video about what has happened and what's coming up in the next few months! 

Thanks as always for your support, and more soon!

Joe