back to article NASA’s new lander CRASHES AND BURNS

NASA’s prototype landing craft of the future, Morpheus, has crashed and burned in its latest launch test. Morpheus is designed to become a general-purpose lander capable of setting down payloads wherever NASA wants them. The Moon, Mars and even asteroids are mentioned in its design brief. The craft has undergone several tests …

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  1. jungle_jim

    !

    Great balls of fire!

    1. Mips
      Childcatcher

      Re: !

      That's what happens to my erection if I have too much beer.

  2. TheRealRoland

    I see this...

    As a very well thought-out PR campaign - to bring everybody back to Earth (geddit? ;-), and showing that the Curiosity landing was pretty extraordinary, and that failure every now and then is acceptable (even though it's expensive).

    Nice, honest, upfront.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I see this...

      Your probably right. After all they did fake the moon landing so why not this.

      1. A J Stiles

        Faking the Moon landings

        All "The Moon Landings were faked!!!1!" conspiracy theories overlook one very important point:

        Producing convincing fakes of the Moon Landings, and keeping everything under wraps for so long, would have been more effort than actually getting to the Moon.

        1. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

          Re: Faking the Moon landings

          Of course, everyone knows that the conspirators went to the Moon to plant convincing evidence in order to throw the public off the scent. It's the US military-industrial complex after all. With the money they had at stake, they did not spare any expense to make sure that noone will ever discover their plot. I heard they even sent as many as 12 people down to the Moon surface so that they could then convince everyone that the landings have happened... oh, wait a second...

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I see this...

        They're pretty good then. Because if you point a telescope at the landing sites THEY COME AND FAKE THE IMAGE RIGHT THERE IN YOUR TELESCOPE in order to show you the shit that got left up there.

        1. Naughtyhorse
          Joke

          Re: I see this...

          yeah!, man thats why they putt all that lsd in the water supply!!

          you can never be too careful when yuor dealing with 'the man' ya know!

      3. Bill Neal
        Joke

        Re: I see this...

        Unfortunately, you cannot be told what 'a hardware component failure' is. You have to see it for yourself.

    2. ItsNotMe
      Pint

      Re: I see this...

      Or just maybe NASA are trying to make the Russians feel just a little bit better, after some of their recent cockups.

      You know...compost happens folks.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I see this...

      only as far as actualy having some point.otherwise just a waste.

  3. Robert Heffernan
    Flame

    Armadillo?

    To me, that looks like a lander based on Armadillo Aerospace's Pixel lander design.

    I know they were doing some NASA work based on that design and the Armadillo site has been quiet since feb so i can imagine this is what they been upto. Plus the crane teathered tests are definately Armadillos style.

    1. Hoagiebot

      Re: Armadillo?

      FYI: The text introduction at the beginning of the NASA video clearly states that this lander was partially manufactured and assembled by Armadillo Aerospace.

      1. Robert Heffernan
        WTF?

        Re: Armadillo?

        FYI, try viewing the article on an Android device. There is no video at all. If i had seen it i wouldn't have posted the comment.

        1. Frank Rysanek
          Thumb Up

          Re: Armadillo?

          It was an interesting and insightful comment nonetheless - thanks for that.

    2. Levente Szileszky
      FAIL

      Re: Armadillo?

      Yeah, that explains a lot - maybe it was running on a Doom 3-derived, outdated-at-launch Carmack-style engine...

      ...it would certainly explain such an awful launch. ;)

  4. MondoMan
    Meh

    Given that it's been 15 years since DC-X, it's sad that the NASA-aerospace complex has been able to stifle the development of decent launch technology.

    http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/DCX/

  5. Thorne

    To quote The Tick "Gravity is a harsh mistress"

    1. ElNumbre
      Joke

      To quote Zapp Brannigan

      "You win again, gravity!"

      Also,

      "She's built like a steakhouse but she handles like a bistro"

      Zapp Brannigan, the velour fog.

      1. Bob Merkin
        Coffee/keyboard

        Re: To quote Zapp Brannigan

        The best part was when my brain read that back to me in Zapp's voice.

  6. Hoagiebot

    I will have to remember this the next time one of my little hobby electronics projects go awry-- even things designed and controlled by the brilliant minds at NASA fail sometimes.

    In any case, while I found this video fairly amusing, I sincerely hope that the U.S. Congressmen don't get the wrong idea from it. As NASA stated, it is far better for problems to crop up during the prototype phase here on Earth when it is still early in the program instead of having these problems crop up in the atmosphere of Mars years later after billions of dollars has been spent. Even so, I could see a U.S. Congressmen seeing this video and interpreting it as yet more "wasted" tax payer money literally going up in smoke, and then slashing NASA's budget even further to the bone. NASA's one of the shining examples of the good that the United States can do, so I would hate to see anything that would cause NASA to get crippled even further than it already has been by the U.S. government.

    1. Charles 9

      All NASA would need to do in reply is to show some videos of weapons testing (funded by the DoD) going awry as well, then ask the Congressman why the favoritism. Why does no one look at all the money lost in Defense testing, hmm? Point of the matter is, pricey as it was, test models going kablooey like this are par for the course, seeing as they're testing complex systems that, for the most part, haven't been seen in action before. In the great dark unknown, scientists and engineers have come to expect the occasional Murphy moment.

      1. Nigel 11

        Trident Missile test fail

        Much more expensive, much more spectacular.

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z-3fjg4dYY

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        granted.so what are they all aiming at,in the long run.

        is there not one project here on earth that they could not aim at and improve things a bit down here.

        yes,its all very tech and geeky but the point is what,the first step towards,a usable ftl drive or a usable time machine,what are they actualy aiming for

        1. Ian Yates

          They're aiming for understanding more of our solar system and what was/is in it with the goal of expanding our tiny biological accident of a species on to other planet(s) before it's too late.

    2. JimC

      Or even...

      If we only test things that are guaranteed to work perfectly, what's the point of doing the testing...

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      you mean the electronics that would have happened anyway,wether nasa had existed or not.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    It was the countdown...

    ... 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 0

    No wonder it went bad.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It was the countdown...

      Yeah really. WTF was that? Do "Merkins" not know how to count backwards? Is that the standard NASA countdown? Very strange.

      1. BristolBachelor Gold badge
        Joke

        Re: It was the countdown...

        It may have been a rounding error; after doing the conversion from feet to cm?

    2. Mr. Great Sage
      Joke

      Re: It was the countdown...

      "Ok then on three. Everyone ready? One.... Two..... Five!"

      "three sir..."

      "Three! Chaaaaaaaarge!"

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: It was the countdown...

        They got distracted by Tweeting, Facebook and even Google+ the launch.

  8. Steve Knox
    Mushroom

    Lunar Lander

    Thanks for the link to the past. Now I'm sure to get even less done...

    Pic is related (to my playing skill, at least.)

    1. Not That Andrew

      Re: Lunar Lander

      You should try Kerbal Space Program. You can biuld all sorts of unusual rockets and space planes and kill dozens hundreds of Kerbals before making orbit, and learn a lot about orbital mechanics and rocket engineering at the same time.

      1. ElectricFox
        Alien

        Re: Lunar Lander

        While we're talking about such games, you should give Lunar Flight a go. It's the spiritual successor to Lunar Lander brought into 3d land with nice graphics and avionics.

        http://www.shovsoft.com/lunarflight/

        I bought it for a couple of quid in a steam sale and it's great fun.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Lunar Lander

        > You should try Kerbal Space Program.

        NASA would benefit from a MechJeb here I feel.

  9. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

    My commiserations to the people working on this. That teethered flight looked really good. It's a pity it couldn't obtain a stable take-off.

  10. Arachnoid
    Thumb Up

    Hmmm..reminds me of a Space 1999 hopper design,maybe they consulted Gerry Anderson over the design specs.

    1. heyrick Silver badge
      Happy

      Ah, Gerry Anderson. That explains the unfeasibly large fireball.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    deja-vu

    I remember playing that (albeit in 23x80) on an Altair 8080 in 1976-77.

    Now I really feel old. And I landed successfully on my second try.

    I think that game is what got me into I.T., if not into space...

  12. Pete 47

    And that ladies and gentlemen...

    ..is how the first interplanetary war will start.

  13. David 45

    Blue screen

    Run by Windows?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    doh

    you are joking,briliant minds at nasa,if they had brains,they left nasa years ago,to get a job at a private firm that will still be there in10-15 years,nasa is on its knees and dieing,its a minor thing called money,nasa still pisses cash away as if it grows on trees,they not learned much since the 60's and what do they do for yank public,not a lot realy,even stupid yank public is starting to realise it.

    exactly what galaxy shaking data do they expect from curiosity etc,oh look,a manky dead worn out planet,just like we knew a century ago,brilant.

    you know why they all reacted so over the top at control when curiosity did'nt smash itself to pieces,its simple,they all have nice lazy well paid jobs pissing about for the next ten years at the tax payers cost.

    would you employ an ex nasa person in your business,what they going to do for you,think up ways waste money/time/resources or something productive? nasa has always been a joke and will slide into history as a complete waster of supposed talent and cash.

    next "bright idea" resurected from 1965,lets build super saturn launcher,we have only sat on idea for 50 years,perhaps most of folk who remember it first time round who sadi no then are dead,maybe we can slip it past congress etc this time.expect some realy spectacular youtube clips when an early one goes of bang on pad

    1. Deadmonty
      WTF?

      Re: doh

      Could employ them to teach you the basics of English and punctuation.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Down

        Re: doh

        why.most of you appear to have understood and got the sentiment i intended,if so anal that every single post must use "correct" english you must be busier whiner than even i am.

        go get a life.post was submited to try and get some folk to try thinking for themselves,not to pass an english exam,this is possibly one of many reasons this country so deep in the shite.

    2. Tank boy

      Re: doh

      You're an idiot. NASA spent roughly 2 million dollars US in R and D and actually building it. They claim that it's about a 500k machine, which for a truck (or lorry if you prefer) to deliver supplies TO THE MOON, isn't really going to break the bank.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        moron

        er,you probably mean billions.

        i think you will find it costs more than 2·5 million to fuel first stage on launcher.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      oh really,how very interesting,thats good to know

      I'm afraid that I can't take on board for consideration any opinion written by someone who abuses commas like that.

      Did you swap all your capitalisation for them, thinking that you'd got yourself a bargain?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Angel

        Re: oh really,how very interesting,thats good to know

        another one.

        yes,correct punctuation spelling can be important.sometimes.

        please see above answers to others.

    4. Colin Brett
      Thumb Down

      Re: doh

      Nice try. Not enough RandDOm capITALs but pretty good, I think. A flame of the week candidate, perhaps?

      Colin

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