parachute
Latest
FAA blamed after parachute show leads to Congress evacuation
US Congress was evacuated yesterday after Capitol Police said it was "tracking an aircraft that poses a possible threat to the Capitol Complex."
SpaceX shows off a highlight reel of Crew Dragon parachute tests
As SpaceX continues its progress toward a Demo-2 launch of its Crew Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts aboard the company put together this reel of parachute tests. According to the tag, "SpaceX is returning human spaceflight capabilities to the United States with one of the safest, most advanced systems ever built." I didn't spot a clip from the failed test in April, but that's part of the reason why SpaceX is doing repeated tests from various heights and setups like the one it failed where one of the parachutes was intentionally disabled. It's all to make sure that the system works when it's called upon to provide a safe ocean landing for actual people. Boeing already announced the competing Starliner project has completed a qualification test for its parachute system, although both programs have faced technical issues, like the explosive incident SpaceX recently traced to an oxidizer leak.
Boeing shows off its Starliner's latest parachute test
As SpaceX and Boeing continue with their commercial crew space race, Boeing posted this video showing a test of the parachutes on its Starliner vehicle. The plan is for the crew to parachute down in the American southwest after departing the ISS aboard Boeing's spacecraft, and keep it in good enough shape to be reused up to ten times. We've seen video of similar tests for the SpaceX Dragon capsule, and even close-up images of the Starliner crashing down on its airbags. The spacecraft's first uncrewed flight test has been pushed back repeatedly and is now on the schedule for August -- while we hope we never see these features deployed, they're important to test before anyone actually takes a ride in the thing.
ESA tests its giant Mars mission parachute
The European Space Agency has put one of ExoMars' landing parachutes to the test for the first time. And while it was deployed from a helicopter merely less than a mile above the ground, its successful descent is a major milestone for the mission. The ESA's test focused on the project's second main parachute, the largest to ever fly on a Mars mission with a diameter of 115 feet. It's also one of the two designed to safely deliver the ExoMars rover and science platform to the surface of the red planet in 2021.
Amazon's drone deliveries could include shipping label parachutes
It's hard to believe it's been almost three years since Amazon announced its plan to deliver packages via drone. The first air delivery occurred last December in the UK and the retailer continues to refine the concept with futuristic ideas to perch the flying couriers on streetlights and deploy them from flying warehouses. In a new patent discovered by GeekWire, Amazon's next step is an "Aerial Package Delivery System," a delivery label that includes one of those parachutes that could make shipping via an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that much easier.
Amazon's delivery drones could drop packages with parachutes
Amazon's much-anticipated (and long time coming) drone deliveries might technically finally be happening, but a new patent spotted by CNN suggests your next book or box-set might actually arrive via parachute. There are many practical, legal and technical challenges that drone deliveries present -- and getting the parcel on the ground is just one of them.
Watch a parachute rescue a drone in free fall
Drone operators dread the thought of their vehicle losing power mid-flight, and not just because of the expensive crash that's likely to follow -- it's that the drone might hit something or someone on its way down. ParaZero thinks it can set those pilots' minds at ease, however. It recently unveiled a reusable parachute system, SafeAir, that slows drones when they're in free fall. The concept isn't completely novel, but it promises extremely quick reactions that could avoid accidents. As you'll see in the clips below, the chute deploys within milliseconds and can rescue a craft even if it's at very low altitudes. A lightweight drone (under 4.4 pounds) should be relatively safe even if it drops from 6.6 feet above the ground.
NASA's Orion spacecraft takes another parachute test, intentionally fails (video)
Ideally, Astronauts want to return to Earth in fully functional space capsules, but sometimes things can go awry. That's why NASA is making a point of testing the Orion spacecraft's parachute deployment system for failures. The team's latest parachute test saw a test capsule falling from 25,000 feet with two of three drogue chutes rigged to fail and for one of two main parachutes to skip its inflation stage -- despite the handicap, the empty craft landed safely. "Parachute deployment is inherently chaotic and not easily predictable," Explains the Orion's landing and recovery system manager, Stu McClung. "The end result can be very unforgiving. That's why we test. If we have problems with the system, we want to know about them now." NASA plans to perform additional parachute tests at higher altitudes in July to help balance and reduce risk for Orion's crew. Check out NASA's official press release and a brief video of the test after the break.
NASA completes successful parachute drop simulation for Orion spacecraft
NASA has always used the desert as its own personal playground, and we'd imagine that its team had a blast in Arizona yesterday, as a mock parachute compartment of the Orion spacecraft was dropped from 25,000 feet above Earth. The dart-shaped object experienced free fall for 5,000 feet, at which point, drogue chutes were deployed at 20,000 feet. This was then followed by pilot chutes, which then activated the main chutes. As you'd imagine, these things are monsters: the main parachutes -- three in all -- each measure 116 feet wide and weigh more than 300 pounds. Better yet, the mission was successful. Naturally, all of this is in preparation for Orion's first test flight -- currently scheduled for 2014 -- where the unmanned craft will travel 15 times further than the ISS and jam through space at 20,000 mph before returning to Earth. Yesterday's outing is merely one in a series of drop tests, and yes, it's important to remove any unknowns from the situation: eventually, humans will be along for the ride.
SpaceX test-fires its 'super' rocket engines (video)
Spaceflight start-up, SpaceX, has been demonstrating the potency of its SuperDraco rockets, testing at its own facility over in Texas. The rockets will help land its Dragon spacecraft -- as demonstrated in a swish animation last year. They will also power emergency escape functions, something that will, according to founder Elon Musk, make the Dragon "the safest spacecraft in history." It has already made a successful orbital flight and will tote eight engines apparently offering up to 120,000 pounds of thrust to the spaceship. Unfortunately, SpaceX's plan for a February launch was postponed in favor of continued development time, but we're not going complain if the company still fulfills its promise of ferrying people to the ISS. Countdown from ten for ignition right after the break.
Encased iPad survives 1300 foot drop, because why not?
The folks at G-Form make athletic pads and rugged iPad cases, but they must really hate Apple's tablet over there. Not only did they drop a bowling ball on it and drop it out of a plane at 500 feet, but now they've doubled that distance, throwing a couple of encased iPads from a parachute at a height of 1300 feet (almost 400 meters), complete with movies playing. Since you probably wouldn't be watching the video below if the iPad broke, the case indeed does protect the devices (though that case does look a little worse for the wear). In a review of G-Form's cases, we liked the protection a lot, but I agree -- it's not a very good looking case, and especially if (like me), you like to keep the iPad's form factor lean and sleek, it's not a good choice for that either. But then again, if you're in a situation where you absolutely need to protect your iPad and aren't worried about how it ends up looking, it certainly seems like G-Form's protection is a good way to go. [via TechCrunch]
Future SpaceX rockets will set you down gently after your long commute (video)
Elon Musk's space ferries will one day require nothing so prosaic as parachutes to soften their landings. Instead, SpaceX's latest 'Dragon' design will rely totally on rocket boosters for the final leg of its descent. In fact, take that notion and triple it: it's intended that each of the Dragon's three sub-sections will be able to return to earth separately under boost power, making the system 100 percent reusable. Check out the slick animation after the break and then see this for a dose of reality.
Paraswift climbs buildings, jumps, lives to tell the tale (video)
Looks like not even our parachuting jobs are safe from the robot onslaught. Disney Research and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have joined forces to bring the world Paraswift, a plucky little robot with a penchant for scaling buildings and a thirst for thrills. The team recently posted some video of the 'bot, which can climb a wall, deploy a parachute and then coast relatively safely to the ground. Paraswift is more than just a mechanical thrill-seeker, however -- the machine has a built-in camera that can be used to record footage for use in 3D models. Death-defying video after the break.
Swiss rocketeer jetpacks above Grand Canyon, lives to tell the tale (video)
There's "crazy" and then there's "craaazy." Crazy is going swimming five minutes after eating, or wearing white after Labor Day. Craaazy, on the other hand, is Yves "Jetman" Rossy -- a Swiss flight fanatic who jetpacked across the Grand Canyon at 190-mph yesterday morning. Rossy's suicide mission began inside a helicopter hovering some 8,000 feet above the canyon's floor. After hurling himself out of the chopper, Jetman ignited his four-motor jetpack and, using his body as a rudder, gently steered himself across the abyss. The daredevil proceeded to coast for a full eight minutes at just 200 feet above the canyon ridge before he presumably realized that he was flying above the Grand Canyon and decided to parachute down to the bottom. Rossy completed the flight with his physical health fully intact, though his mental condition remains up for debate. Blast past the break for a video that'll throw your acrophobia into overdrive.
GPS parachutes delivering blood to front lines in the coming years
GPS-guided parachutes are nothing new -- in fact, we're guessing that a few are being dropped somewhere in this wide world right now -- but a new deal between the Armed Services Blood Program and US Joint Forces Command will allow these devices to start saving even more lives in 2011. As the story goes, a cadre of air-dropped 'chutes will be sent to the front lines of the battlefield in order to deliver vital blood to medics. For those unaware, blood loss is a major cause of death in war, and by skipping over the lengthy process that's currently in place for delivery, the powers that be feel that more soldiers can be saved. Reportedly, the JPADS system "is a family of guided parachutes that can carry payloads ranging from about 150 to 60,000 pounds," and at a predetermined altitude, a "parafoil deploys and a GPS-device steers supplies to an exact target." The new system, however, will rely on ultralight versions of the aforesaid JPADS in order to sneak into locations that were previously thought impossible to penetrate. 'Course, all of this will be a moot point once the robot armies rise to power and start pulverizing each other with scrap metal, but hey...
CubeSail parachute to drag old satellites from orbit, keep atmospheric roads clear
It's not something laypeople think about very often (space debris, for those wondering), but it's clearly on the minds of boffins at the University of Surrey. Over the years, the amount of defunct equipment hovering around beyond our view has increased significantly, with some reports suggesting that over 5,500 tonnes of exhausted kit is currently hanging around somewhere up there as a result of "abandoning spacecraft." In order to prevent the problem from growing (and to possibly reverse some of the damage), the CubeSail has been created. Put simply (or as simply as possible), this here parachute could be remotely deployed once a satellite had accomplished what it set out to do, essentially dragging it back through a fiery re-entry that it would never survive and clearing out the orbital pathway that it was using. We're told that it'll be ready for deployment in late 2011, but for now you can check out an all-too-brief demonstration vid just beyond the break.
Dare to be Creative announces Parachute backup utility for Mac OS X
If there's one thing you've probably learned over the years from reading TUAW, it's that backups are important. Many of the bloggers here are obsessive about backups, doing Time Machine backups, SuperDuper! bootable backups, and using services like BackBlaze for offsite backups -- and that's all for one Mac! With the importance of viable and easy-to-create backups for your Mac, it's not surprising that Belgium development firm Dare to be Creative has just announced a new backup utility, Parachute [US$39.00]. The application is Snow Leopard-ready, and can be used to back up your Mac's data to your primary hard disk (definitely not recommended by our team), external disks, FTP or SFTP servers, USB drives, network volumes, and even your iDisk. Parachute has many features that are found on other backup utilities. For example, you can schedule backups to run hourly, daily, weekly, or manually. The application also does incremental backups after the initial full backup, so subsequent backups take much less time. There is one feature that does appear to be unique to Parachute, and that's the ability to create multiple backup tasks for different files and folders on your Mac, and use a variety of destinations for each task. There's a 15-day full-functioning trial available for download here. While you are in your tryptophan-induced coma after tomorrow's Thanksgiving Day feast, you can set up some Parachute backups and rest assured that your data is safe.
Just Cause 2 dev diary is free, free fallin'
Spider-Man's got nothing on Just Cause 2's returning protagonist, Rico Rodriguez. Sure, Spidey's got a whole host of arachnid super-enhancements -- but Rico's various modes of aerial travel make web-swinging seem so ... pedestrian. The dev diary posted above gives a great look at our hero's proclivity for base jumping, hookshotting, parachuting and helicopter-jacking. We're sure Isaac Newton would have a few hang-ups about the poetic liberties Just Cause 2 is taking with physics -- but you'll hear no objections from us.
The Art of War(craft): Examining the Isle of Conquest
Wow. Can I just say that again? Wow. When Blizzard announced that they were introducing a new Battleground with Patch 3.2, I personally thought it was going to be some mid-scale map similar to Strand of the Ancients or Arathi Basin. Being a Battlegrounds nut, I was completely stoked. When Zarhym hinted that the new map would be "Wintergrasp combined with Alterac Valley," it became clear to me that Blizzard was thinking on a much bigger scale. If we look at their development patch for Battlegrounds and world PvP, it's no stretch to say that the Isle of Conquest is their most ambitious PvP project yet. More ambitious than Wintergrasp, in fact.How can anything be more ambitious than Wintergrasp, which proved to be so tremendously popular that it tends to break realms? Well, the only real limitation to Wintergrasp was because it had no limits with the number of participants. That was the only thing that brought servers down to their knees. The Isle of Conquest takes care of that problem by limiting participation to a (mere) eighty people. This then leaves Blizzard free to implement all sorts of cooler stuff like parachuting into enemy territory. The new Battleground brings the much anticipated aerial combat element into World of Warcraft PvP.
Zarhym talks about the Isle of Conquest battleground
So one of the things we have coming our way in patch 3.2 will be the new Isle of Conquest battleground. Unfortunately, we don't know much more about it than the name, but that has not stopped everyone from speculating on what it could bring, whether it be a combination of some of the old mechanics from previous battlegrounds (Much like Eye of the Storm was a combination of Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch) or completely new ideas. There's been hints it's more like Alterac Valley than other old battlegrounds, but for now, we're waiting impatiently for the PTR in the hopes of getting a real look.Zarhym chimed in on one of these threads a couple days ago, and while he mostly told people they'd have to wait and see, one reply he did give suggests a sneak peek into what the battleground could be: "If "conquest" means the ability to catapult or parachute players behind enemy lines, then yes."Ok, so it's not much, but it's there. There will be Catapults, and we will be flinging players in them! I know one of my favorite things to do in Alterac Valley back when it lasted hours was to sneak behind enemy lines to capture objectives or gather Frostwolf Hides and the like. Of course, I could do this because I played a stealthing Druid. Non-stealthers generally did not have the ability to sneak past all the PCs and NPCs blocking their way. But the idea of sending paratrooping special forces in to complete small objectives or even just flank the enemy is just plain sort of cool, if it ends up working out like that.Beyond that, Zarhym also hinted that the Battleground revamp is coming along, but of course, once again, he had no information to offer. Will we see it in Patch 3.2? Hopefully, the PTR will come up soon and we'll know more for sure.
