
A 1/48 scale model of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket - pmorici
https://bps.space/falcon-heavy
======
spuz
This is all the more impressive when you realise all the design, build,
programming, filming, editing and even the music is done by one guy. I highly
recommend subscribing to his YouTube channel to keep up with his current
project: [https://youtu.be/eh8ic1-5wFo](https://youtu.be/eh8ic1-5wFo)

~~~
throwablePie
From his about page: "I studied music production in college, and after seeing
the ambition of SpaceX, and the excitement in the new space industry, I was
hooked. I wanted to work in aerospace... "

At first, I wondered what SpaceX role would suit him best and why SpaceX
hadn't hired him. Then it occurred to me that humanity might be better off
with passionate polymaths such as him working outside as opposed to inside the
establishment. After all, Elon Musk started his aerospace career outside the
establishment. And SpaceX is now establishment?

Polymaths have been quite productive in crypto and other low-startup-cost
environments. But, apparently, not so much in autonomous vehicles, etc. This
could be a function of the learnings required for physical world projects, to
wit: quaternions, telematics, aerodynamics, etc.

So, would we/he be better off inside or outside the Borg? Thoughts?

~~~
albntomat0
What he's done is super impressive and cool, but has he acquired the necessary
base knowledge to work on an avionics, propulsion, etc team at SpaceX?

I'm not in any of those fields, but I'd have to imagine there's a large amount
of background knowledge that someone with an aero or mechanical engineering
degree has, that he hasn't picked up with model rockets.

~~~
NikolaeVarius
Majority of engineers with a degree are useless right after graduation. Its a
ton of random math that (most) of which you don't use again since you use
modeling software.

Source: Did Aero

Someone doing this as a Amateur can damn well pick up whatever they need to.

~~~
esmi
> Its a ton of random math that (most) of which you don't use again since you
> use modeling software.

You absolutely need that math because you need to know when the modeling
software is giving the wrong answer. You’re supposed to do quick and dirty
calc by hand (ok fine I use mathematica) in a simplified system, then you
refine with numerical software and compare the two. It’s shockingly easy to
get the wrong answer with numerical CAD.

~~~
kortex
Not a mech eng but I've taken several eng classes and do a lot of DIY stuff.
I've been designing a swing set/exercise rig for myself in Inventor and using
FEA to sanity check my beam sizes for the given loads, just cause why not.
Since I already had it parameterized, I wanted to see what load it would take
with legs made out of 1.25x5.5 boards, just cause. The sim showed it would
take several hundred pounds with almost no lateral deflection. Hmmm.

Anyone who's worked with decking boards knows they are pretty wobbly by
themselves. I'm staring at the results, intuitively knowing they're dead
wrong. So I model a plain column of one of these boards 16' long and 2000lbs,
straight down. Zero side deflection.

Ah, I realized, it doesn't model buckling.

Map != territory.

It's always important to have multiple perspective of inference on a problem.

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throwablePie
SpaceX has a huge potential opportunity for raising funding / earning profits
via toy licensing and sales: [https://www.barrons.com/articles/spacex-
overwhelmed-by-deman...](https://www.barrons.com/articles/spacex-overwhelmed-
by-demand-for-toy-dinosaur-that-went-into-orbit-51590931933)

Wouldn't it be interesting if Elon could achieve his Mars objectives faster
not by selling LEO satellite services or space launch capacity but by selling
and/or licensing toys (and sparking dreams) here on Earth?

Despite the current pandemic, this is a great time to be a young person.
Dreams and human potential seem infinite.

Edit: Who would own the IP, NASA or SpaceX or both?

~~~
qzw
Absolutely. I would buy the heck out of a 4000-piece Falcon Heavy LEGO set,
and I suspect I’m not alone.

~~~
rootusrootus
Yep, it can go right next to my 1969 piece Saturn V.

~~~
rurounijones
Saturn V scale Falcon 9 fan submission under review.

[https://ideas.lego.com/projects/1abc6458-52e8-4e7d-a04c-04ba...](https://ideas.lego.com/projects/1abc6458-52e8-4e7d-a04c-04ba917b6e5b)

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bkfh
That's exactly the content I'm on HN for

~~~
amelius
Yes, this is cool to see.

But at the same time it shows that rocket tech is not as difficult as people
make it out to be. (Rockets were difficult when we didn't have computers.)
Also, some universities have student teams which regularly launch similar
rockets.

I'm personally hoping for someone to build an IC fab or even a wafer stepper
in their garage.

~~~
humbledrone
> But at the same time it shows that rocket tech is not as difficult as people
> make it out to be.

It really doesn't. The scale model probably weighs a few pounds where as the
real Falcon Heavy weighs 3 million pounds [1]. Think about what a different
scale that is!

Also note that the scale model's (really cool) test flight failed -- with the
real Falcon Heavy that lesson would cost something like $150M.

I think this is kind of similar to: it's really easy to query/serve a SQL
database even if it's a few tens of terabytes in size. But make it a few tens
of exabytes, and things are dramatically more difficult due to the scale. The
architecture that works at the terabyte size (single machine) falls over
completely.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy)

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liquidify
The whole time I was reading this article, I was hoping I would eventually see
a "buy now" button at the end. Alas...

~~~
shash7
He has a shop here - [https://bps.space/shop](https://bps.space/shop)

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SupriseAnxiety
I remember my first play around with the small rocket kits. 1 small motor and
you press “Fire” annnnd it’s gone. You can’t see it anymore and it’s lost lol.

~~~
dTal
That just means you put too big a motor in it! Each motor letter designation
is double the total impulse of the previous one - it's a log scale. If you
stick a C motor into a small, well-built, lightweight rocket, it's going to go
over a thousand feet. Unless you painted it a _very_ bright color, you're
probably going to struggle... so stick to the A motors for your maiden flight!

(Also: launch from the upwind edge of the field!)

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wbl
Gimballed thrust puts this squarely into all the cool hobbies involve ITAR
territory.

~~~
Havoc
The tube launched rocket looked decidedly weapon-like too.

Cool tech though. Hope he doesn't get into trouble

~~~
chrisdalke
He’s been pretty careful to not do anything illegal (he’s talked about this in
a few live-streams), for example not open-sourcing any of his control software
and using just local IMU data for in-flight control.

~~~
alkonaut
Is this a typically US thing or does this kind of thing risk getting you into
trouble elsewhere too? I mean the first thing you'd want to try once you have
a "platform" is things like GPS guidance, adding wings & making cruising
rockets, trying terrain guidance etc. Isn't the cat out of the bag with this
kind of tech already, much like strong crypto was once a non-exportaple
technology in the US, but now it isn't? What exactly is the tech that is off
limits (I don't mean tech that will get someone to come to your house and ask
questions, but tech that is actually 100 % certainly illegal?)

~~~
bigiain
Didn't work out great for this guy from New Zealand:
[http://www.aardvark.co.nz/pjet/cruise.shtml](http://www.aardvark.co.nz/pjet/cruise.shtml)

(Not "go to jail" bad, but "The New Zealand government has moved aggressively
to shut down this project -- and by using quite unscrupulous methods which
appear to be in breach of the law." type of bad...)

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Ericson2314
The guy even looks a bit like Elon. 1/48 scale net worth too?

~~~
hn_check
Shouldn't it be 1 / 110,592 scale net worth though? Saying 1/48th model is a
bit misleading as it's 1/48th in 3 dimensions, whereas worth is one
dimensional.

~~~
rfrey
Not really, since we're really talking about the size of swimming pool you
need to hold the coins you dive into.

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BasedCode
If it's possible to fit that electronic hardware on something the size of a
credit card how does it compare to what is used for that purpose in a real
orbital rocket other than redundacy features?

~~~
lisper
It's basically the same technology. They're pretty common in airplanes
nowadays. Here is an example of a portable unit intended for use as a backup:

[https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/iLevilSport.p...](https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/iLevilSport.php)

And another one designed to be panel-mounted:

[https://www.dynonavionics.com/pocket-
panel.php](https://www.dynonavionics.com/pocket-panel.php)

If you want to get more details, the search terms you want are EFIS
(electronic flight instrument system) and AHRS (attitude and heading reference
system, pronounced "ay-harz").

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throwawaysea
I was just watching this channel yesterday after the SpaceX launch. Anyone
know what he uses for the actual rocket engine bit? They don’t seem like
something that can be throttled.

And yes he definitely looks like Elon!

~~~
JulianMorrison
If nothing has changed from my childhood, probably Estes model rocket engines,
that are solid fuel.

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stwr
Longtime supporter of Joe and his incredible model flights. Also worth looking
up his Sprite development!

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rydre
Been watching Joe for a long time. The dude deserves more support

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scottrogowski
How high does this thing go? I read the article but as far as I can tell, it
was never mentioned.

~~~
pageandrew
Based on the videos, maybe 100-300ft?

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ChrisMarshallNY
That's really cool!

I wonder what the bottom-line price tag on something like that would be.

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amenghra
Qu8k
([https://ddeville.com/derek/Qu8k.html](https://ddeville.com/derek/Qu8k.html))
is some impressive amateur rocketry from 2011.

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aj7
Well, not exactly. First stage has 27 Merlin 1D engines.

~~~
mandeepj
Depends which Falcon. Falcone 9 has 10 Merlin engines, while Heavy has 28.

[https://www.spacex.com/media/falcon_users_guide_042020.pdf](https://www.spacex.com/media/falcon_users_guide_042020.pdf)

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whoisjuan
Wow, he is even is trying to design landable boosters like in the real thing!
WTF!

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eggy
If SpaceX doesn't hire him, then Space Force surely has an opening!

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TangoFB
Did it blow up during an engine test?

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piyushpr134
A single guy has probably achieved what a whole division of a large
corporation or a large govt agency would not be able to achieve in years

~~~
qzw
In a just world, he would have 1/48th of Elon’s fame/fortune too.

~~~
baggy_trough
Unfortunately, sending 1/48 of an astronaut into orbit is not as valuable.

~~~
bigiain
At around $3k per kilo to orbit, I'd bet he'd be _very_ happy with the $6k or
so 1/48th of a ~100kg astronaut+spacesuit would mean per launch!

He ain't getting anywhere near orbit using Estes motors though... Not even
1/48th of the way to orbit I'd guess...

(Hmmm, spaceflight.com's pricing page says they'll send a 3U 5kg cubesat
payload to LEO for $295,000... That's I guess pretty close to "1/24th of an
astronaut to orbit"? Minus the ~10,000% surcharge for "manrated" though, I'm
guessing.)

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calin2k
amazing perseverence, but a bit overproduced :)

