Moving Forward, Not Starting Over


"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

-John Augustus Shedd

On Thursday we made our second free flight attempt with the Morpheus prototype vehicle.  As you can see in the video below, shortly after liftoff we experienced a hardware failure and lost the vehicle.  The root cause is still under investigation,  but what we do know is that at the start of  ascent we lost data from the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) that supplies navigation updates to the flight computer.  Without this measurement the vehicle is blind and does not know which way it is pointing or accelerating.  Since this data is needed to maintain stable flight, the vehicle could not determine which way was up and began to tumble and  impacted the ground about 50 feet from the launch site.  No one was injured, no property was damaged besides the vehicle and we have been able to recover significant data, which will give us greater insight into the source of the problem.


We have said it before and will continue to say, this is why we test.  We have already learned a lot from this test and will continue to learn as we recover data and evaluate the hardware.   No test article should be too precious to lose.  A spare vehicle was planned from the start and is just a few months away from completion.  The basic development approach is to quickly build, test and redesign the hardware to achieve many design cycles and maturity before building flight articles.



These types of incidents are expected during hardware development.  We have been reminded by many of Space Shuttle Main Engine tests during early engine development where a very expensive test asset ended up in the flame trench at Stennis or of the lunar lander training vehicle at Ellington that Neil Armstrong bailed out of during training prior to Apollo 11.  Both of those Programs found the problem, implemented a solution, and moved on to be extremely successful.  We will do the same.  We appreciate all the well wishes and encouragement.  The team is in good spirits and eager to be back at KSC as soon as possible with unit B.

19 comments:

  1. Dig the quote, and admire the message. Keep rocking it Morpheus team, looking forward to more work and more success!

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  2. I believe in this project, and i'll see you soon in KSC rocking the hell out of a fully functional Unit B. Keep up the good work guys!

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  3. Disappointed, but not discouraged. How can we learn if we don't try...

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  4. Having Spent Many Years In The U.S. Navy...I Loved The Quote....

    Keep Up The Good Work....

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  5. The next time you crash your test unit could you please arrange for all four pressurized tanks to go up all at once?

    Just kidding!

    Looking forward to watching you fly the lessons you learned.

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  6. I am really impressed with the positive attitude taken in the face of something so potentially discouraging. Best of luck moving forward!

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  7. Rage against the diminishing light; rage against the growing darkness; Just rage savage and rowdy in the direction that is the one of progress, whether that be forward or not. The God of Dreams lander is alive and will Rise again. Godspeed ... and he will.

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  8. I know what the problem is with your vihecle. I will make a clear explanation and post it on my google plus and facebook. And youtube.

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  9. Pick yourself up.
    Dust yourself off.
    Start all over again.

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  10. Why wasn't the IMU doubled? It would seem logical for such a critical piece of hardware.

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    1. I think just about everyone with technical knowledge is asking this. It seems a system architecture problem as well as hardware unit. Maybe they should have a "devil's advocate" who goes in and randomly generates a fault to test the outcome (while tethered). Isn't this part of the statistical failure analysis? Unfortunately there isn't much technical info online.

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  11. I appreciate that not only you show your successes but you also show us the fails that lead to your success. This shows us how you test and learn and inspires us to also deal with our own failings and lead us to our own successes

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  12. loss of IMU should immediately cause engine cutoff which apparently did not happen. Poor range safety

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    1. This vehicle is bad by it's design. It's to short and the tank is too big and it have no pitching thrusters

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    2. Why 48 inch tanks when they are only filled a third?

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  13. I am reminded of many engineers who say (with respect to X-planes) "if you didn't bend the plane, you weren't pushing it hard enough."

    Keep pushing, guys.

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  14. This stuff is hard.... I offer two videos in consolation...

    Death of a camera...
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cjWTWrma9Q&list=UUZI0BwkiC2Vm9VuIeliRxmg&index=6&feature=plcp
    and
    Murphy vs rockets...
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzl_IaSJx28&list=UUZI0BwkiC2Vm9VuIeliRxmg&index=7&feature=plcp

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  15. It is now January 2013. How is construction of the replacement landers going?

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