paramat

Epic project.

Huge news, i am so excited.

At last here's the first flight of F9R dev, the second test vehicle, 60% larger than grasshopper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjWqQPWmsY

Latest news on the F9R flight to the ISS is that the experimental soft landing at sea with legs equipped went well, see Elon's twitter feed for details https://twitter.com/elonmusk This could be the start of low cost space access and serious space colonisation, which of course is a central theme of Macross.

Good work!

Official update on the relight test:

"Though not a primary mission objective, SpaceX was also able to initiate two engine relights on the first stage. For the first restart burn, we lit three engines to do a supersonic retro propulsion, which we believe may be the first attempt by any rocket stage. The first restart burn was completed well and enabled the stage to survive reentering the atmosphere in a controlled fashion.

SpaceX then lit the center engine for a single engine burn. That relight also went well, however we exceeded the roll control authority of the attitude control thrusters. This particular stage was not equipped with landing gear which could have helped stabilize the stage like fins would on an aircraft. The stage ended up spinning to a degree that was greater than we could control with the gas thrusters on board and ultimately we hit the water relatively hard.

However, SpaceX recovered portions of the stage and now, along with the Grasshopper tests, we believe we have all the pieces to achieve a full recovery of the boost stage."

At last here's rocket cam of the next generation Falcon 9 1st stage relighting at 64km / 4200mph, at 2:40 minutes in. A quick view before the exhaust fogs the camera. This new Falcon 9 has relightable engines (for testing) but not yet legs.

See this thread for details of grasshopper 2 and a photo of a folding leg http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1150976-spacex-reusable-launcher-grasshopper-thread-2/

Oh yeah!

Elon is making the Macross dream of space colonisation reality.

This is excellent, and even more interesting because it's an original VF design.

Good work yet again. The Zzard is very interesting and has a mind blowing transformation.

Big day!

Elon Musk on twitter:

"Rocket booster relit twice (supersonic retro & landing), but spun up due to aero torque, so fuel centrifuged & we flamed out"

"Between this flight & Grasshopper tests, I think we now have all the pieces of the puzzle to bring the rocket back home."

Elon is the most important person on this planet, and it looks like it will be private companies that colonise space and mine the solar system, where governments have of course failed to realise the importance. Just divert half of military costs, the tech is similar and the military industrial complex can become the space industrial complex and save humanity in the process.

Best video is not the official one, at the end this video shows puffs of thrusters that may be the prototype reusable 1st stage orientating for a controlled re-entry.

Skip to 1:13 for the close focus shot.

Lateral test another angle.

Latest test with lateral motion.

The answer to the topic title is no it isn't

The size is one thing you don't alter for something to remain Macross.

I've looked through your blog and very much like the model and the video, i appreciate someone modelling a parked folded fighter mode too.

I feel a cockpit naturally has an ergonomic form derived from the pilot, like the cabin of a car does ... so because your rescaling is so extreme i find your pilot figure looks funny and ridiculous. The design can certainly look good at a larger size but only with a reproportioned cockpit. However a fighter would naturally want the nose as slim as possible for downward visibility reasons.

My own 3D model is unfinished and in LEGO at 47ft. and has a rotating rising seat, the only way i can do that is by having the nosewheel strut not canon ... super-thin and compact and moving the nosewheel out of the way in battroid as shown in the illustration posted in this forum.

Here is as it should be, such that a female japanese pilot looks proportioned ...

^ What he said.

Try this at 47 feet ...

I wuv it.

325m test, looks like sci-fi especially on the way down.

An international team of scientists found a record-breaking three potentially habitable planets around the star Gliese 667C, a star 22 light-years from Earth that is orbited by at least six planets, and possibly as many as seven, researchers said. The three planet contenders for alien life are in the star's "habitable zone" the temperature region around the star where liquid water could exist. Gliese 667C is part of a three-star system, so the planets could see three suns in their daytime skies.

Artists impression showing the view from the exoplanet Gliese 667Cd looking toward the planets parent star (Gliese 667C). In the background to the right the more distant stars in this triple system (Gliese 667A and Gliese 667B) are visible and to the left in the sky one of the other planets, the newly discovered Gliese 667Ce, can be seen as a crescent. A record-breaking three planets in this system are super-Earths lying in the zone around the star where liquid water could exist, making them possible candidates for the presence of life.

Text and images from www.space.com.

I'm rebuilding my transforming LEGO VF1 to a minifig scale 47 ft. length and i have managed to fit a minifig, rotating seat and forward landing gear in there ... but only just. VF1 looks better at a smaller size to me.

I found this impressive transforming VF 25 on the Flickr Macross LEGO pool.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58766720@N05/sets/

In the photo set he has super packs as well.

Beautiful work, never seen a fanracer look so good.

EDIT Just seen your excellent LEGO modelling work, i still love and design with LEGO, space LEGO was a huge part of my youth.

I always assumed it was United Nations SPACe agenCY.

I actually stumbled across your latest video last night while searching for 'transforming mecha'.

Have you seen this site? http://www.luft46.com/luftart.html Lots of interesting concept aircraft as designed by Germany during WWII, they were so ahead of their time.

Thanks Duymon for the images, a beautiful design.

Very cute girls play on the e-sports ground.

That's excellent.

Here's my VF-1. For this i prioritised proportions over a fully connected transformation, so the arms, legs, chest plate, canopy shield and tail fins are all detached and re-attached during transformation. The cockpit rotates and there is an escape hatch under the head.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11181786@N02/