Tag Archives: parachute

NASA’s Flying Saucer for Mars Landing Suffers Parachute Failure

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NASA simulated a second time a descent onto Mars using the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) or also known as Flying Saucer on Monday. All went well and NASA engineers had a lot to cheer...

SmartChutes Automatic Parachute for Multicopters

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Zwier Spanjer became Internet famous back in January when he uploaded a video of himself saving his brand new and expensive quadcopter from falling into a ditch after its battery died. It’s hilarious to watch, but it could have ended horribly. Michael Pick fears the same thing could happen to his quadcopter so he came up with SmartChutes, an automatic parachute deployment system for lightweight multicopters.

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SmartChutes supports multicopters that weigh up to 4 lbs. and comes with a carbon fiber mount. When its gyroscope and accelerometer sense that the multicopter is in free fall or has tilted by more than 90º, SmartChutes will automatically deploy its 36″ parachute within 350ms, reducing the risk of damage from impact and hopefully giving you time to go catch your precious copter.

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If you have any concern about the SmartChute throwing off the balance or stability of your quadcopter, not to worry. Its creator says that it’s so light that drones can easily compensate for the tiny bit of added weight.

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Because SmartChutes has its own sensor and battery, it will work even if your multicopter’s own battery runs out or if it goes out of your remote control’s range. And you can force SmartChutes to activate by making your multicopter go into freefall.

Pledge at least $130 (USD) on Kickstarter to receive a SmartChutes unit as a reward. Note that the images and video show Michael’s working prototype; he estimates that the final version will be 30% smaller.

[via Digital Trends]

NASA postpones ‘flying saucer’ test

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Bad weather is preventing NASA from launching a "flying saucer" into Earth's atmosphere to test technology that could be used to land on Mars.The space agency postponed a launch Wednesday and later...

A Little More Context On That Fired Yahoo Exec’s Massive Golden Parachute

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As crazy as it sounds, severance packages worth more than $100 million — like the one Yahoo gave fired COO Henrique De Castro this week — occur with some regularity in corporate America, and have...
    






New Video Shows Stratos Skydive from Jumper’s Point of View

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Just over a year ago on October 14, 2012, daredevil Felix Baumgartner made history with his daring jump from 128,000 feet – setting a record for the world’s highest skydive. Baumgartner exceeded speeds of 825 mph and broke the sound barrier without the use of an aircraft. One of the coolest things about the jump was that there were cameras everywhere to capture the record setting feat.

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Video footage captured by some of those cameras has already been viewed, but there were cameras attached to the balloon and to Baumgartner himself, much of which hasn’t been shared publicly. The footage from the cameras attached to the balloon and Baumgartner have now been put together and used to create a documentary commemorating the entire launch. To go along with the upcoming documentary, Red Bull has now offered up footage of the jump from the Baumgartner’s perspective.

The video includes embedded statistics such as air speed, elevation, and biometrics. Check out the 9-minute-plus clip above to see this epic feat from the jumper’s point of view. Be sure to set the video to 1080p and full-screen mode for the best experience. It starts out chaotically, but gradually lulls you into a strange calmness as Baumgartner gets closer to the Earth.

[via Forbes]

NASA’s Orion spacecraft takes another parachute test, intentionally fails (video)

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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.

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Felix Baumgartner versus Joe Kittinger Space Jump

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Felix Baumgartner is now scheduled to attempt the record breaking Red Bull Stratos mission on Sunday at 6:30am MTD. We will be again covering the Felix Baumgartner Space Jump live with video. Update...

GoPro Camera Survives 12,500-Foot Fall!

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I’ve heard of cameras being rugged, but surviving a 12,500-foot drop is quite impressive. A skydiver apparently lost his GoPro camera on the way down and it managed to survive the fall, in fact, well enough to record its owner’s landing a few minutes later.

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Lucas Damm was skydiving in Canada with some friends, and was using his GoPro camera to catch all of the action. It was mounted on his helmet in a protective case, but was knocked out when he clipped it on the plane’s door while leaving. It spun wildly and fell to the ground, but landed upright and into the right direction to catch the skydiver’s landing.

Lucas noticed that the camera was missing only after he had landed. However, one of his friends noticed a shiny object and they discovered the still-functioning GoPro. It may sound like a fake or a publicity stunt for GoPro, but Lucas swears that it’s legit.

[via DVice]


NASA completes successful parachute drop simulation for Orion spacecraft

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NASA completes successful parachute drop simulation of 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.

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NASA completes successful parachute drop simulation for Orion spacecraft originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 07:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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