Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/03/23/diy-model-rocket-with-drone-no.html
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makes me want to strap a model rocket engine to my Mavic Pro. Drocket??
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Climbing to altitude is a slow battery-killer, so there might be rocket-launched drone applications where getting an eye in the sky quickly is useful.
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Reminds me of the Roton Rotary Rocket, which was a turn-of-the-century Gary Hudson/Scaled Composites SSTO rocket project that, along with the Delta Clipper, grew out of the Phoenix SSTO program of the '70s.
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The crux of San’s video title (… without being a billionaire…) is… cute… and I’m sure that San’s more than smart enough to know that a ‘helicopter’ return wouldn’t be possible for a near/from orbit landing system. High velocities, a helicopter system’s additional weight, and space-frame stow-ability just wouldn’t cut it. Not to mention, if one already has the engines to get up, then using them to get back down (using landing algorithms, which, along with on-board computers which, comparatively, weigh next to nothing) makes sense.
This is cool in many ways.
I could seem him jettisoning the booster and having a downward-facing camera in the nosecone. Of course, that would kinda eliminate the reason for the propellers.
His recent video shows magnetic landing legs that release when the foldable drone-props activate.
He could have the second section with a parachute and camera, and actuated canards (or gridfins) that could steer it to landing.
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That would be the Estes Camroc of about 50 years ago.
The landing legs were on Wayne Kellner’s Mars Lander Estes model design of about 45 years ago.
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Cool!
Well, I guess some ideas never are lost to the sands of time (unless the parachute doesn’t open).
I like how the reusable rocket part and the drone part take turns being the payload. I wonder if adding a parachute to the mix - like the ones used on many model rockets, would provide any benefit.
I thought that he was going to use autorotation to slow down and land. That would scale better to a larger size.
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