Top Gear Space Shuttle

[henryrasia]

Just thought I'd share. How hard can rocket science be anyway?

I just love the engineers in this. So Kerbal.

[zekes]

haha - they got pretty far for the first try.

[Bacterius]

Should've added a large SAS on the booster stage. *reverts to vehicle assembly*

[Mazon Del]

Really their problem was that for a critical separation system, they relied on a single explosive bolt. If possible, having two explosive bolts is the best bet. One that connects the rod to the 'shuttle' and the other that connects the rod to the 'fuel tank'. If only one fails, the other still causes separation.

Of course, not every application of explosive bolts will allow for this.

[lajoswinkler]

I'm pretty sure the explosion at the end was faked by charges. If that fuel tank was loaded with LH2 and LOX, it would not look like a detonation charge. There'd be light. Lots of it, and it would be a violent deflagration.

While they really could launch a small car (with its heavy parts removed and all) at such low height, I don't understand the need to fake an explosion.

[How2FoldSoup]

I'm right there with you lajos on faking the crash explosion, but either way I found the clip hilarious and I'm sure it's intended audience will too.

That was great! Thanks for sharing henryrasia

[softweir]

I agree - fake explosion. The wreckage they showed at the end hadn't been through an explosion, it had just hit the ground very, very fast!

I also wonder if that was a real Reliant. It could easily have been a thin mockup under all the paint and extraneous fairings - MUCH easier to launch.

Still - the launch was terrific!

[astropapi1]

I remember watching that for the first time. In fact, my avatar is a still from the launch.

In fact, they made a game based on it, here it is: http://www.topgear.com/uk/games/rocket-robin

Wanna get a bit of KSP history? Well, here's a picture from the game I linked above:

And here's one from one of the first versions of KSP:

Do you notice some similarity?

[Albert VDS]

@lajoswinkler: It's Top Gear, they like to fake stuff to make it more spectacular for the viewer.

Like you said the explosion at the end is fake. As how far it's really a Robin attached to those rockets, I don't know but I heard it was just a shell with everything removed.

They do stuff like this just for the entertainment value but don't put a notice anywhere that it's (partly) fake.

It's alright for entertainment purposes, but if they have "test results" which are faked/made more entertaining just to get more viewers then whats the point.

I'm pointing at the whole Tesla testing debacle, where they had already written a script in which it fails but there where no logs in the car (when Tesla checked it) that there were any failures.

And they don't stop at Top Gear, Richard Hammond's program Brainiac has been accused of faking it when their experiment don't work as intended. Some might remember the Mythbusters episode where they challenge one of the Brainiacs experiments.

Or the Lego House in James May's Toy Stories, which is mostly wood instead of them claiming it was completely made out of Lego bricks.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Albert VDS

[lajoswinkler]

Exactly, Hammond's Brainiac was notorious for faking stuff! Most notably the alkali metal reactions. I knew it was faked the moment I've seen it.