Re: Armadillo 4/18

At 11:54 AM 4/19/2004 -0400, you wrote:
>When the rocket tips over at what point will it be unrecoverable? That is 
>using just main engine thrust steering with no thrusters for just 
>steering. Thrust can't go negative and can only go so high. Have you 
>modeled this?

If everything is operating properly, it is only unrecoverable if the cg 
moves outside the polygon enclosing the centers of the engines, or if the 
propellant sloshes enough to uncover the feed inlet, starving the 
engines.  Theoretically, it can fly upside down and sideways, as long as it 
is accelerating enough to keep the propellant going to the 
engines.  However, if it hasn't been able to catch whatever was wrong by 
the time it gets 20 degree away from the desired position, it probably 
isn't going to,  because the control parameters are probably wrong.

John Carmack