back to article LOHAN'S PRATCHETT mission set to soar Saturday

Barring a last-minute change in the predicted weather, our US allies at Edge Research Laboratory will on Saturday dispatch the last Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) test payload into the stratosphere over Colorado. The mission – codenamed PRATCHETT in honour of the late Discworld author Sir Terry – is a final test …

  1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    make it good

    I'm preparing my very best "Woooo!"

  2. Sporkinum

    I probably missed it..but..

    Why are you using 4 servos, when 2 or 3 would do? I don't see anything for ailerons, so you wouldn't need a servo for those. Could you go into more detail on the mechanical linkages for the flying surfaces?

    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      Re: I probably missed it..but..

      Each canard has to have an individual servo, which is connected via pushrod: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/20/vulture_canard_woes/?page=2

      The wingtip rudders could conceivably operate off of single servo, but the connections would be a nightmare. There's a single servo mounted in each wing, connected to its respective rudder by a Gold-N-Rod system.

      1. Sporkinum

        Re: I probably missed it..but..

        Thanks for posting the link. I had missed that article. So the canards are used for pitch and roll, with software doing the mixing?

        1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

          Re: Re: I probably missed it..but..

          Correct. The Pixhawk takes care of the pitch/roll attitude, using the two canards independently.

  3. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    It's got to be a million-to-one chance

    because million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.

    Sorry, couldn't resist. Fingers crossed for a perfect Pratchett project performance!

  4. Anonymous Custard
    Thumb Up

    God(s) Speed...

    And may you have a potent voyage!

  5. Neil Hawkins

    Remove Before Flight

    That Remove Before Flight ribbon is missing something.... the Reg logo. There's a Cash'n'Carrion idea for a key fob :-)

    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      Re: Remove Before Flight

      I like that.

  6. Elmer Phud

    Presumably there will be a Playmobil character dressed as Rincewind.

    1. Anonymous Custard
      Joke

      There was, but he heard about the mission and ran away...

  7. imanidiot Silver badge

    Still think the layout is flawed

    In the real LOHAN the servoes will be much more exposed, with only a thin bit of nylon separating them from the cold (and possibly some seems to let cold air blow in). In the PRATCHETT payload the servos and batteries are mounted inside a nice insulated box, so will stay warmer because of that.

    Ofcourse I hope I'm wrong, and in any case it'll provide valuable data.

    1. imanidiot Silver badge

      Re: Still think the layout is flawed

      Arghhh, for seems, read seams.

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