muunbo

The helicopter flight was a test of our gondola's ability to control the heading of the rocket. Our actual launches are not on a helicopter but rather on a high altitude balloon, which allows us to go up and launch from the stratosphere.

So there's not "no air" but rather just low pressure. The props can be designed to work at certain high altitudes, although they will be less effective at higher altitudes. But this only means that it takes longer to change the yaw of the gondola to the desired heading.

Most likely, yes, but it's not necessarily the case. We could pitch the rocket up slightly if it helps to achieve a specific target trajectory.

Why not both? :)

Hi! We are not currently hiring in Ottawa, only in Vaughan (close to Toronto): https://www.spaceryde.com/careers. Let your friends know!

Hi, great questions! 1) Yes you're right - the 'big quad thing', a.k.a rocket carrier a.k.a gondola, stabilizes the heading of the rocket. 2) It does not necessarily imply that, but yes that would be a great way to do it so that the rocket control system doesn't need to correct for the tumble. 3) There are multiple ways to pitch up the rocket, and you are right that one of them is to use the props. Alternatives are to have thrusters on the rocket or have gimballing on the rocket nozzle. All are viable approaches. 4) This is a complex question as we have many variables to play with, such as choice of launch altitude, size and design of propellers, etc.

Disclaimer: I am an Avionics Specialist at SpaceRyde. Ask questions!

In other news, the pot calls the kettle black

There are challenges retaining users and bringing them back to a webapp instead of a native app. That being said I also am hugely in favour of web apps because the likelihood of people visiting my site is higher than them downloading my app. So user acquisition is easier but retention is hard. I do like the idea of email notifications as a replacement for push notifications - I think others such as Twitter/FB notifications could also work.

There have been a lot of requests for the table of contents. It’s on my todo list; I’ll post again when it’s ready :)

Hmm I have no idea! Are the IPC standards publicly available for me to check out?

Haha! It’s helpful regardless for non-space projects. For e.g. I made “rave skates” (colour shifting LEDs on ice skates) and the connections on it have to be robust to abrupt movements and forces.

“It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!” should’ve been the name of this release

This is exactly how Amazon got its start: Jeff Bezos didn’t have a stockpile of books; he only ordered them when a customer made an order on his site. The difference of course was that he did physically handle the books.