Lander Update: Q1 2025

oops I'm bad at posting, here are some pix

I did a lot of stuff, made a lot of progress, more work to come. I'll be static firing this year. This is the last year I'll be working on the lander, I'd like to tend to my other technical interests.

I remade the press system plumbing in all stainless hardware. NEVER use aluminum flared tubing, it's just not worth it.

Stainless printed engine parts came in...

Pintle annulus with film cooling. The top plate of the injector was lathe machined rather than printed. The printed annulus section was post machined to tolerance. The pintle tip was also 3d printed. It includes orifices that are lower than the resolvable feature requirements from the manufacturer, but if you keep tweaking sizing, you can get there with a knock down factor. Cheapo mode.

Oh, I redesigned the TVC actuators.

I also wired up everything. 

Oh and Masten let me come watch one of their test flights behind the scenes. What a spectacular vehicle and group of engineers. If a younger me knew I'd be seeing one of these flights in person...

The sunset was beautiful. The flight was dramatic...

Back to my own crap here..

I also redesigned like half the avionics, got it manufactured, and rewrote all the firmware. But this is the only single photo I have to prove this lol. I got rid of all the messy wiring, valve/relay power distribution, and the entire relay board itself. They're replaced with MOSFETs and drivers. I reduced my footprint to 10 channels, and 10 ADC input channels.

Also i made a static fire engine structure. I dont have pictures of the load cell and all the accoutrements, but those are figured out now.

See ya next time.

12 Exposures with the Minolta Autocord

 The Minolta Autocord is a twin lens reflex medium format camera from the 50s and 60s. It was made by Chiyoda Kogaku Seiko company of Japan. As with all TLRs, there are two lenses through which you compose and expose your photograph. The 'taking' lens in this case is a 75mm focal length, 4-element Rokkor lens with a minimum aperture of f/3.5. These lenses are extremely sharp, you'll see in photos later.

I have a couple of these, and have sold some as well. They often can be good fixer upper deals on eBay, and I find the apertures to be particularly robust to aging. The exposure timing is typically in excellent condition after a naptha cleanse. The one below had quite rought leatherette, so I replaced it with a blue leather for some character. 

I've been shooting these for a couple years now, and really love the lens. I find it performs well for both B/W and color. Here are 12 exposures, from different rolls.

12 Exposures on the Rolleiflex 2.8E

 The Rolleiflex 2.8E is a medium form at Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) camera produced in Germany in the 1950s. I picked this one up on eBay from a seller who had it in their family, and was unsure if it worked. I gave it a clean and lubricated some of the primary shutter components. Other than that, it was fully functional. 

Here are 12 exposures I took. 6 to show color rendering, and 6 in black and white for the vibes. I'm also not good enough yet with composing on a TLR to get a full contact sheet of bangers, but we'll get there. I've had a couple Minolta Autocords and YashicaMat 124Gs in the past, as I'd work on them and sell them. So I had been fairly familiar with TLR medium format. But I must be honest and say the work of Vivian Maier made me jump for the Rollei. And my, what a beaut this camera is. It's certainly heavier than the Minolta, but it feels right for the job. Can't explain it better than that.