World's Largest Radio Control Robot Dragon

I finally have something interesting to post here...

Called "Tradinno", this massive mechanical dragon has been declared the world's largest 4-legged walking robot by Guinness World Records 2014.

It is a 11-ton dragon that has a length of 51 feet and a wingspan of 40 feet.  This behemoth was built by Germany's Zollner Elektronik AG.  This robot was built for show buiness - but we will not be seeing it on a new season of "Game of Thrones" or a updated Harry Potter project.  Instead, this robot will appear in a old folk play called "Drachenstich".  It is performed every August in the Bavarian town of Furth im Wald.

For more details, just copy and paste the link below in the "Ref" section.

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Ref.
1.  nbcnews.com. "World's largest walking robot is a fire-breathing dragon ... of course" by Helen A.S. Popklin. Sept. 13, 2013.  (http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/worlds-largest-walking-robot-fire-breathing-dragon-course-8C11150626). image from same website.

SpaceX Dragon Has Done IT!

SpaceX Dragon, world's first private spacecraft, has been captured by the International Space Station's robotic arm, and has grappled the Dragon spacecraft to the Harmony module on the space station.

Quoting astronaut Don Pettit who operated the robotic arm:  “Looks like we’ve got a Dragon by the tail.”

Pettit's successful capture of the Dragon cause SpaceX Hawthorne headquarters and NASA's Houston Mission Control to errupt in cheers.

It was not a smooth approach according to the article in Wired.com (see link below in Ref Section). Problem with Dragon's thermal camera kept the spacecraft holding at the 250 meter point away from the ISS.  Then there was the interaction between the thermal camera and the on-board LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors.

Several times, SpaceX approached the ISS only to issue a retreat due to the sensor information they were getting.  Basically getting stray LIDAR signals coming off of the Japanese Kibo laboratory module on the station.  Future correction for this problem would be to put on "blinders" to limit the Dragon's LIDAR so it could only see "straight ahead."

Eventually, Dragon was finally brought in to the 30 meter point and then the 10 meter point where it could be caputured by the station's robotic arm.

Now the ISS crew will be unloading the 1,014 pounds(460 kilogram) cargo from the capsule and the station in turn will load up nearly 1,367 pounds (620 kilograms) of return to earth cargo.



Dragon is expected to splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on May 31st if all goes to plan.

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Ref.
1. Wired. "ISS Welcomes SpaceX Dragon — First Private Spacecraft at Station" by Jason Paur. May 25, 2012. ( http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/05/spacex-docking/ ). images from same article.

HMS Dragon - A Type 45 Destroyer

I recently came across a posting about the launch of the 4th Type 45 Destroyer-named HMS Dragon. What caught my eye was the painting on both sides of the bow, was a dragon.

Checking out some other websites, HMS Dragon has a 18-meter long Welsh Dragon painted on it's 152 meter length hull when it was launched from BVT shipyard at Govan into the river Clyde on November 17, 2008.

This ship is the fourth of eight planned Type 45 destroyers for the British Royal Navy. This type of vessel is planned as escorts for the new British carrier (yet to be built). The rear flightdeck can operate helicopters up to the size of a Chinook type helicopter. It will normally carry a Lynx or Merlin type helicopter.

It has the latest satellite communication systems and packing the Principal Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS). Other missile systems include Surface-toAir (SAM) Sea Vipers. Then smaller Aster 15 and Aster 32 missiles.

As for guns, it has 1 Vickers 4.5 inch and two 20mm Vulcan Phalanx Close-in Weapon systems guns.

Max speed will be about 29 knots and the ship can cruise up to 7000 nautical miles at 18 knots. Crew numbers about 187.

As an added bonus, in my search I came across the Marine Traffic.com website and it showed the current postion of this warship as it was sailing down the Clyde. Pretty cool. In time of war, I hope that the British (or the American) warships are not tracked like this.

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Ref.

1. Armed Forces UK, Navy ( http://www.armedforces.co.uk/navy/listings/l0014.html ).

2. Kincardineshire Observer. "" by . August 27, 2011. ( http://www.kincardineshireobserver.co.uk/news/scottish-headlines/warship_dragon_heads_to_new_home_1_1808760 ).

3. Marine Traffic.com. HMS Dragon ( http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?MMSI=235053408 ).

Two Shuttles Might Stick Around Through 2017!

Found this little bit of news on the nsmbc.mns.com website.

NASA is consider keeping shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis in flight-ready condition after Endeavour's last scheduled mission instead of turning it into a museum piece. Endeavour was the replacement shuttle for the space shuttle Challenger that was lost in a lift-off explosion 25 years ago this year.

Thanks to the proposal from Commercial Space Transportation Service, or CSTS. They would use Endeavour as well as a sister shuttle, Atlantis, to fly two missions a year from 2013 to 2017 at an annual cost of $1.5 billion.

The contractor that currently manages the shuttle program on NASA’s behalf, United Space Alliance; has offered this proposal for the second round of funding from the space agency’s Commercial Crew Development initiative, also known as CCDev 2. United Space Alliance is the only company that proposes keeping the shuttles operational.

Other companies like Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp, SpaceX, etc. plan on their own replacement vehicles to the shuttle. SpaceX has just successfully flown their Dragon capsule that they propose to make it human-rated.

For more information, check out the link below.

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Ref.

1. msnbc.msn.com. "NASA weighs plan to keep space shuttle until 2017" by Rob Coppinger. February 3, 2011. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41397955/ns/technology_and_science-space/).

2. Picture of a space shuttle on launch pad.