Future Reseach

John Carmack

Future research

Carmack has stated in his monthly reports and in forum posts that he expects his path to an orbital vehicle to include modular rockets similar to OTRAG technology. Lutz Kayser, the founding engineer of OTRAG, visited Armadillo in May, 2006 and loaned Carmack some of their original research hardware.

"I have been corresponding with
Lutz for a few months now, and I
have learned quite a few things.
I seriously considered an OTRAG
style massive-cluster-of-cheap-
modules orbital design back when
we had 98% peroxide (assumed to
be a biprop with kerosene), and I
have always considered it one of
the viable routes to significant
reduction in orbital launch costs.
After really going over the trades
and details with Lutz, I am quite
convinced that this is the lowest
development cost route to
significant orbital capability.
Eventually, reusable stages will
take over, but I actually think that we
can make it all the way to orbit on
our current budget by following this path.
The individual modules are less complicated
than our current vehicles, and
I am becoming more and more
fond of high production methods over
hand crafter prototypes."
June 2006 Armadillo Aerospace Update

Staff and funding

Widget
Armadillo is headed and has been largely funded by John Carmack, a developer of computer games including the Doom and Quake series. All of its employees (including Carmack) have other, full-time jobs and contribute their efforts twice weekly to Armadillo on a voluntary basis. Armadillo has a relatively small budget and is not supported by aerospace companies or agencies like NASA, ESA, or Boeing. Armadillo Aerospace has publicly declared itself fully self-funded.

In February 2006

Carmack stated that the program so far had cost slightly over $2 million.Even by the standards of X-Prize candidates, this is a low budget. Scaled Composites is estimated to have spent $25 million on its SpaceShipOne development program.

On August 8, 2006

Armadillo Aerospace announced that it had reached a sponsorship deal with NVIDIA. While details were sparse, John Carmack said, "There is a chance at this point that I may have written the last personal check I need to for Armadillo."

On April 2, 2008

Carmack offered an updated figure of "total cost to date, about $3.5 million". He estimated that another $2 million would be needed to achieve a manned flight to 100 km using Armadillo's modular design in a "six-pack" configuration.

The company has a mascot armadillo named Widget.

The Quad Vehicle designed

Quad vehicle

The specification for Pixel/Texel for level 1
Width: ~75 inches
Height: ~75 inches
Dry weight: 650 pounds
Gross Lift Off Weight (GLOW): ~1500 pounds (360 pounds ethanol, ~500 LOX)
Payload: 55 pounds
Engines: 1 (+ 4 cold gas attitude jets)
Thrust (sl): ~3000 pounds Engine (XPC-06):
thrust: ~3000 pounds (throttleable to 25%)
chamber pressure: 300 psi
Nozzle area ratio: 2:1
Isp (sl): ~140-~200 seconds (low-high throttle)
length: 20 inches
diameter: 8 inches
chamber: carbon fiber reinforced graphite built by Cesaroni aerospace
Burn time: >100 seconds, expected >180 for level 2, with approximately double the propellant mass.

The quad vehicle design is pressure fed in blow down mode from an initial pressure of 320 psi for level 1 (400 psi level 2). The roll thrusters are cross-fed by gas drawn from ullage space of the opposite tank. The vehicle is able to transfer propellant through connecting pipes between opposite tanks by controlling ullage pressures with the thrusters; this helps it balance, minimizing gas use. The main engine has two-axis thrust vectoring. The vehicle is fully computer controlled; with guidance from GPS and fiber optic gyros.

Armadillo 2006 Mission Patch

Armadillo Aerospace competed in the 2006 Wirefly X PRIZE Cup. Armadillo Aerospace was the only competitor in the Lunar Lander Challenge. The company took two similar vehicles, Pixel and Texel, to the event. The vehicles narrowly failed to win the Level 1 prize, after making three dramatic attempts totalling over 5 minutes in the air,finally crashing out on the final attempt. Persistent landing problems were the main cause of failure, with the undercarriage breaking several times, and landing slightly off the pad on one occasion due to guidance issues. These flights were a highlight of the Wirefly X-prize cup.