That's wicked... though I must admit I was kind of expecting a "fart" noise at the very end...

Wow, they tested a engine and it didn't blow up and like kill people! Must be that experience stuff.

Those leaf blowers just keep on getting noisier!

Cool vid! Can anyone explain why the jet flame looks the way it does, with the overlapping cones and white spots? Is that some weird kind of refraction in the lens of the recording device?

Does anyone know why the jet flame looks the way it does, with the overlapping cones and white spots? Is that the way it looks to the naked eye or some weird refraction in the lens of the recording device? I'd love to know.

PS. Sorry for the duplicate comments...didn't look like they were being submitted.

Wow... that looks fake it looks so cool.

Hey was that thing connected to a semi? Another jet powered drag car. Awesome they should take it to the track!

Woohoo! Now there's a new acronym for FPS - Flatulence Powered Spacecraft

@Mfumbi:

Those overlapping cones in the exhuast are called "shock diamonds" or "Mach Disks"

see: [aerospaceweb.org]

@Mfumbi:

FTA:
Those glowing figure eights in the blast stream are called Mach disks, after the guy who lent his name to the speed of sound. They're shock waves, created as the expanding fuel hits the higher atmospheric pressure outside the nozzle. If part of this blast weren't obscured, you could take the number of Mach disks (we count seven) and multiply by the speed of sound - about 758 mph at the 1,300-foot altitude of this test - to estimate the speed of fuel exiting the engine.

what about FASTER!?!

yeah, bbfreak -- NASA hasn't had any accidents whatsoever in the last few years, thanks to their experience. They're also so efficient and organized with how they spend money and plan missions, and their budget isn't at all at the whim of a stupid president who can make one statement about returning to the moon and cut off tons of NASA funds that would have gone toward basic research and science for actually advancing our space capabilities beyond what they were in 1969.

NASA has its purpose...but we ought not worship them over private space endeavors.

Anybody here realize how inefficient the Space Shuttle program really is? I mean, basically, we're now using the Space Shuttle (which is a space-station on its own) to bring bits and pieces of the space station up one at a time, then bring the whole Space Shuttle back to earth. That's an incredible waste -- we ought to find a way to launch the shuttle carrying supplies and a return vehicle...leave the shuttle in orbit as part of the space station structure, and return to earth in a small return vehicle. Much less waste that way. Of course, then we couldn't prance around singing the praises of the reusable launch vehicle. So sad.

The flame reminds me of the flame seen in a video on the net of the top secret Aurora craft...

It supposedly uses a ramjet engine with methane as fuel... I wonder if this is a precursor to the public release of that jet???

@MFUMBI: The "cones and white spots" are called shock diamonds. Basically they are due to the pressure waves inside the exhaust plume synchronizing in certain areas. You can see them in almost any high velocity exhaust stream under the right circumstances.

I thought they tested rocket motors in big concrete bunkers- that thing's just sitting on a trailer out in the desert. I'm sure everyone was well clear, but still. Must have scared the shit out of the jackrabbits.

but will it blend!

*na na na na naaaaaaa, na na, na na na*

BY EQC

Wow, you really know me, from two little sentences you really pegged me. *laughs* No, I'm not a NASA worship nut to fails to see the bad side of a government run agency. Mostly the best and brightest getting superseded by politicians and bureaucracy. Still it when its all said and done, NASA is still the most experienced when it comes to space flight and that being said they shouldn't be written off because some wonderboy builds Spaceshipone. Now, spaceshipone was great but if you look back in history you'll see the X-15 and you'll see a tested method only improved upon.

So anyway, in case your not getting the point, I just want to make sure credit is due where credit is due. So basically I'm on your side, I don't want people prancing about worshiping the private space industry or NASA blindly.

I have some photos of a shuttle booster rocket being tested at the Thiokol plant if the editors would like to take a peek. It is attached to a giant concrete block and fired at the side of a hill. They have school kids come out a watch and do a countdown and such for them over loud speakers. The hill has turned into a black glass from all the test fires. It was awesome to see and feel.

very cool. thank you gizmodo

@EQC

Good point about the inefficency of shuttle launches. I remember the illustrations that used to float around of fuel tanks and SRBs with no attached shuttle. Instead it literally had a second fuel tanks' worth of cargo perched on top of it. Others had a cargo package where the shuttle would be, with disposable shuttle engines mounted on the bottom.

Lets hope NASA starts a trend with the Orion project and starst building simple heavy lifters again.

methane...how appropriate:
for the pas 20 years all NASA has been bdoing is farting taxpayer money.

fucking millions of dollars and it dint even go nowhere.

that was amazing...

Thanks s@skyshard: Cheers Skyshard, Volcaex and McDuff for the info. Very interesting!

What's with the Low-Freq sound that seems to coincide with the firing of the rocket, and continues on after it stops? Sounds cool, but do you think this clip has been "fiddled" with to make the audio sound cooler? Though, it could just be a pump or something perfectly reasonable.

Looks like the same old rockets to me, i heard NASA was working on plasma rockets, show a video of that.

@skyshard: If part of this blast weren't obscured, you could take the number of Mach disks (we count seven) and multiply by the speed of sound - about 758 mph at the 1,300-foot altitude of this test - to estimate the speed of fuel exiting the engine.

Is it just me or does that not make any damn sense?

Price / availability plz.

As cool as that video is there is no way chemical rockets are getting us to Mars. They're good for trips to the moon and thats about it.

Wow...Had to watch that (er...hear that) a few times. Makes hair stand up.

Although, I wonder what happened to the Nuclear Thermal Hydrogen engine NASA and the Russians were working on in the 50's 60's.
[en.wikipedia.org]
It's only weakness at the time was a lack of materials science to handle the intense heat inside the combustion chamber.

@Destian:

7 * 758 = 5306?

Also, who the hell is playing a didgeridoo in the background?

A newer quicker way of roasting marshmellows...mmmmmm... smores.... *mouth drools*

@Mfumbi: those are called mach diamonds. At least that's what we called them in the high power rocketry world. It's when the exhaust... exhausts at a high enough velocity that it crushes the atmosphere near the nozzle, forming those beautiful shapes...

stolen from wikipedia:
"Shock diamonds or mach diamonds are a formation of shock waves in the exhaust plume of an aerospace propulsion system, such as a supersonic jet engine, rocket, ramjet, or scramjet. It is formed when the supersonic exhaust from a nozzle is slightly over or under-expanded, meaning that the pressure of the gases exiting the nozzle is different from the ambient pressure. A complex flow field results as the shock wave is reflected at the free jet boundary, and the visible diamond-shaped pattern that gives the shock diamond its name is formed."

This somehow reminds me of the ship from star trek.

Very cool though.

I rarely comment. But I have arrived to say one thing:

DAMN that was sexy.

Everything about that was subtly climactic. I wish more NASA vehicles took off horizonal like that so you could see the rockets pull a messy cloud of gas into a tight stream of flame.

hawt

@Geisrud: Yeah, I can't sem to find this thing on froogle.

@Spaceboy: Hey, at least they're not using urea-- then they'd be pissing taxpayer money away!

I wanted to write "will it blend?" but that's....purr - darn near sexy so alas I cannot.
I wonder if the ambient sound is connected to post-vibrations or the fuel pump? It sure sounds like ambient fill-in for a sci-fi effect.

Now thats a Blowtorch!
Ueeeeeeeeeeee!

Amazing methane engine.

We are still so far from warp speed...

sniff....

I don't care who built it, that was fuckin' awesome. I want one. Then, when my doucehbag neighbor with the Harley feels like revving his lame ass midlife crisis bike at 2am I can respond with overwhelming force.

@BBFREAK

"NASA is still the most experienced when it comes to space flight"

Are we forgetting the Russian space agency, which is the only lone space agency to have launched a modular space station and maintained it for 15 years (skylab doesn't count, they sent it all up in one go).

I know we've already established the fact that we're not blindly worshipping NASA/private space industry/Russian space agency, but I just feel the need to give them credit because they already have a viable plan and design for a trip to mars and can use off-the-shelf technology to send people to the moon within a few years.

Also, I'm Russian, so I'll admit that gives me some bias :D, but I still give credit where it's due.

And it's definitely not due to the space shuttle.

@ DAVID FLORES

"@Geisrud: Yeah, I can't sem to find this thing on froogle. "

...you are my hero <3

BBFreak:

This test was being done by XCOR, another private rocket and space company, not directly by NASA.

Which, frankly, makes your mock the recent tragedy at Scaled Composites seem kind of foolish.

It is a rocket, not a jet!

oh man oh man oh man!

COOL!

Bitchin!Can I get one for my car.I would love that 3g slam into my seat.

Add an oscillation overthruster and we will able to travel across the 8th dimension.

NTRGC89, After our mishaps with two of our shuttles Russia maintained the ISS, and they did with unmanned space craft.

@DeadWriter: Electro-Nuclear carburetion DID seem fine.

@bulletmagnet: LMAO
@ethanthom: you mean something like this guy? [www.techeblog.com]

Fire! yes! Fire is cool!

Call me when you have the youtube of Chuck Yeager* bending over and lighting a cigarette on this thing while in their mouth.

*Substitute Chuck Norris if Mr. Yeager isn't available.

Yeah and when they get bored on the trip they can just drink some fuel and it's suddenly all better again :D

How about releasing the brakes on that thing?

Hey...wait a minute...isn't that a scene from Buckaroo Bonzai???

Methane will be perfect for just dropping by other planets and scooping up more fuel from their atmosphere. The burn looked cool but did the test go the way they wanted it to? is it a success?