Honda successfully launched and landed its own reusable rocket (global.honda)
from Pro@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 18:47
https://programming.dev/post/32454675

#technology

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Rin@lemm.ee on 18 Jun 19:07 next collapse

Based

ThePantser@sh.itjust.works on 18 Jun 19:11 next collapse

This is the first I have heard they were doing this. Makes spacex accomplishments less impressive. Fuck elon

turkalino@lemmy.yachts on 18 Jun 19:17 next collapse

I imagine they poached a lot of Spacex engineers by simply telling them “we won’t make you work ungodly hours, nor will we subject you to a narcissistic manchild with no engineering education dropping in on your meetings and trying to tell you how to do your job”

hddsx@lemmy.ca on 18 Jun 19:42 next collapse

You do realize it’s Japan right? China, Japan, Korea all have work life balance issues.i wouldn’t want to work 996 or 007 lol

crank0271@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 19:47 next collapse

It’s called “being hardcore”

takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 18 Jun 19:51 next collapse

They had the same at SpaceX

hddsx@lemmy.ca on 18 Jun 20:30 collapse

Not saying they don’t. Just saying the “ungodly hours” statement may not apply

webghost0101@sopuli.xyz on 18 Jun 21:47 next collapse

We would like to contact you for job offer in the same role as your current.

We cant pay you as much per hour but we can give you more hours to match it.

“Promise me i wont ever have to deal with Musk and i am in”

nasi_goreng@lemmy.zip on 19 Jun 00:44 collapse

As much as it’s true, not all company are doing this. There are plenty of good East Asian company with good work life balance, especially newer company that already recognize the issue.

jaybone@lemmy.zip on 19 Jun 00:03 next collapse

Tbf doesn’t he have a computer science degree? Which is a type of engineering degree?

turkalino@lemmy.yachts on 19 Jun 02:19 collapse

Computer science is more of a math degree than anything else

Maeve@kbin.earth on 19 Jun 01:26 next collapse

In Japan?

rottingleaf@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 08:34 collapse

“… it’ll be the same, but it’s be a huge honor to work on this project in our company.”

FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au on 19 Jun 10:09 collapse

And we reward you for this huge honour with the worst working conditions you can imagine. You’ll live at your desk.

Cocodapuf@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 10:37 collapse

I bet they poached 0-3 engineers.

You left out the “but you have to learn Japanese and move to Japan” part of the job pitch. That makes it a harder sell for most people.

entwine413@lemm.ee on 18 Jun 19:17 next collapse

Well, Honda is actually a competent company.

frezik@midwest.social on 18 Jun 19:21 next collapse

Eh, it’s just a start of development. It only goes 300 meters. Blue Origin goes higher, but even they aren’t in orbit.

Japan also has some odd limitations on their rockets as part of their self defense only constitution. They don’t build a rocket that could potentially be used to strike mainland Asia.

youtu.be/UZaIs6oSlOI

sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 18 Jun 19:39 next collapse

Something something the first 300 meters are the hardest…

ch00f@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 19:55 next collapse

The issue is not going up, it’s going over. If we only cared about the private sector getting people into space, that happened on a fully reusable vehicle twenty years ago.

The problem is getting things to stay in space. Not trying to Elon-stan here, but getting a rocket into orbit is many fold more difficult than just getting into space.

frezik@midwest.social on 18 Jun 21:51 collapse

The Estes Corporation makes rockets that will do 600 meters.

It’s great that Honda is doing this. We really need other companies in this area, because SpaceX is dominating it. Even if Elon weren’t a walking disaster, we don’t want one company so badly outclassing everyone else.

dariusj18@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 19:48 next collapse

Also, if you look at the pictures, it’s not a very big rocket.

tamal3@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 23:27 next collapse

Like kei cars … Kei rockets!!!

user224@lemmy.sdf.org on 18 Jun 23:26 next collapse

Hey, hey, it’s average.

ThePantser@sh.itjust.works on 18 Jun 23:51 collapse

It’s not a big American rocket.

fahfahfahfah@lemmy.billiam.net on 18 Jun 19:59 collapse

I know you’re likely referring to New Shepard but Blue Origin did make it to orbit with New Glenn

NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 23:38 collapse

And their 1st stage is designed to be reusable, so we might have another reusable provide in the near future.

It might take a handful of launches to get there, but they are on that path.

Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 19:26 next collapse

Hell yes. Any competition to musk is very much needed.

Go Honda.

pastermil@sh.itjust.works on 18 Jun 21:15 next collapse

To be fair, they must’ve learned from the recent spacex accomplishments.

untakenusername@sh.itjust.works on 19 Jun 00:54 collapse

probably

no one in the private sector was gonna take that kind of risk for a while and then SpaceX took the gamble, won and now tons of players see vertical landing of rockets works so their all looking into it.

NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 23:28 next collapse

Up and down isn’t a hard problem in the grand scheme of things. It’s expensive and doesn’t offer much benefit which is why people generally haven’t bothered.

Going up and over at orbital velocities and coming back is the hard part, and none of these new spaces companies have done that successfully yet, and SpaceX has now done it with 2 vehicles and reused them both.

New Glenn from Blue Orgin might be the first after SpaceX but it blew up coming back on their first attempt, but it’s been designed to be orbital and reusable

untakenusername@sh.itjust.works on 19 Jun 00:52 next collapse

well Honda did this a decade later so there still is some achievement spacex has done 🤷

Cocodapuf@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 02:11 next collapse

Um, no it doesn’t… At all…

This is a first step landing test, not even suborbital, it flew to a height of 300 meters. This is the point that SpaceX was at in 2011 with their grasshopper rocket.

SpaceX is regularly landing orbital hardware and working on a fully reusable rocket with a greater lifting capacity than anything else ever. It’s not really the same…

But fuck Elon, no argument there.

FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au on 19 Jun 10:08 collapse

How does it make spaceX’s accomplishments less impressive? SpaceX pioneered it. Space X did it first, with a significantly bigger rocket and at a significantly higher altitude. Honda no doubt achieved this by looking at what spacex did and how they did it and copying it.

This actually makes spaceX’s accomplishments look even more impressive.

NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 19:19 next collapse

Since when is Honda a rocket company? This is literally the first im hearing about this. They kept this quiet for a while, and im not sure why.

ThePantser@sh.itjust.works on 18 Jun 19:22 next collapse

Well they have been making crotch rockets for a long time.

minkymunkey_7_7@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 19:31 collapse

It’s new. Honda Space Development Division.

Honda R&D to Conduct Testing with Sierra Space and Tec-Masters on the International Space Station | Honda Global Corporate Website share.google/3CwIsYUh8eWsohht4

A lot of the global conglomerate Asian based companies do R&D across many fields, rather than just the product they’re most know for. Toshiba makes nuclear reactors! Samsung has phones and sewing machines and microchips… and nuclear reactors research.

NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 21:07 collapse

Good for them, Asia is getting their rocket programs in order while the U.S. tries their best to destroy ours. Man i wish I could move.

Windex007@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 20:24 next collapse

Guess we doin rockets now

xavier666@lemm.ee on 19 Jun 06:47 collapse

We got Honda launching rockets before GTA 6

Cocodapuf@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 10:51 collapse

I thought Rockstar was going to launch GTA 6

xavier666@lemm.ee on 19 Jun 10:59 collapse

“Listen here you little shit…”

CaptDust@sh.itjust.works on 18 Jun 20:32 next collapse

I wonder how it feels when VTEC kicks in on a literal rocket

rmuk@feddit.uk on 18 Jun 21:20 next collapse

It seems crazy that a company that’s only really known for cars, motorbikes, tuning forks, heat pumps, brake pads, pens, tractors, fertilizer, display panels, outboard motors, pneumatic systems, oil tankers, furniture, locomotives, bricks, solar panels, ATVs, generators, hot air balloons, dinghies, hydrogen fuel cells, submarines, crop dusters, jet engines, cultivators, hedge trimmers, lawnmowers, precision optics and robots would suddenly pivot to rockets.

Pilferjinx@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 21:46 next collapse

Isn’t that Yamaha? Or is Honda the same?

usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca on 18 Jun 22:05 next collapse

Mitsubishi too

[deleted] on 18 Jun 22:12 next collapse

.

MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca on 19 Jun 02:36 collapse

None of these answers are wrong.

Pretty sure we had CRTs in highschool, back when I was a teen many years ago that were Kia brand… IIRC.

rigatti@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 22:19 next collapse

No, that’s Nintendo

Cocodapuf@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 10:48 collapse

No, they’re the playing card company.

lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 19 Jun 00:57 next collapse

It says Honda right on the side of the engine.

burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de on 19 Jun 04:03 collapse

Yamaha is definitely in tune with the music. I never remember which is which, but their logo is tuning forks and depending on the product the tuning forks can extend past the circle. I think their motorcycles have it extending past.

barneypiccolo@lemm.ee on 19 Jun 11:22 collapse

I’m a huge fan of Yamaha guitars. Great workmanship at a very affordable price, and if you buy used you can get them super cheap. My best guitar, an FG730S, which plays and sounds as good as any expensive gourmet brands, was only $102 at auction. I even bought another one as a backup. Used Yamaha guitars are the best deal only the market.

roofuskit@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 22:16 next collapse

It’s almost like they’re an engineering company.

MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca on 19 Jun 02:35 collapse

Crazy, right?

bytesonbike@discuss.online on 18 Jun 22:40 next collapse

Incredible. What a great comment.

01189998819991197253@infosec.pub on 18 Jun 23:29 next collapse

Don’t forget, one the sleekest airplanes to ever exist.

<img alt="" src="https://infosec.pub/pictrs/image/94517aac-ffed-480a-9ec6-d4caa1ba1b61.jpeg">

MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca on 19 Jun 02:35 next collapse

Oh damn.

drsilverworm@midwest.social on 19 Jun 08:03 collapse

N420HA. Not sure if that’s the model or the plane’s license plate but either way hell yeah

Cocodapuf@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 10:46 collapse

Yeah, tail numbers are a lot like license plates.

ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 04:24 next collapse

The impressive part is that they are also known for being reliable, there are the occasional issues, but overall very trustworthy products.

TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 04:36 next collapse

To be fair to Honda, they are doing what is expected of any companies in a capitalist system, actually innovate and diversify in order to remain competitive. Most other companies would rather stick to their traditional products and services, even if those products and services are written on the wall that they are becoming obsolete.

Cocodapuf@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 10:43 collapse

It’s actually interesting how similar rockets and jet engines are. You could think of a rocket as a jet (or sometimes two jet engines) where the afterburner is always on and the air intake is replaced by an O2 tank…

Bieren@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 21:45 next collapse

“But look what I can do, I’m Elon musk” …. Throws out a nazi salute.

Masamune@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 22:45 next collapse

Flying Honda Accord confirmed.

KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca on 18 Jun 23:08 next collapse

And Hyundai is making hydrogen powered tanks, what a world. I wonder if hydrogen fuels poses any unique risks as compared to petrol.

JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml on 18 Jun 23:17 next collapse

I wonder if hydrogen fuels poses any unique risks as compared to petrol.

It’s highly explosive.

sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works on 19 Jun 00:03 next collapse

Something something hindenberg…

Cocodapuf@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 11:01 collapse

Well, different. You’d have highly compressed hydrogen in a cylindrical pressure vessel.

The Hindenburg just burned, actually it was mostly its highly flammable paint that caught fire. When a pressure vessel is ruptured, it explodes in a big way, or it quickly removes itself from the vehicle like a mini rocket.

TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today on 19 Jun 00:42 next collapse

I mean so are the shells tank fire. If you are hit hard enough to hit the fuel cell in a tank…you have other problems.

muusemuuse@lemm.ee on 19 Jun 01:45 next collapse

This is a feature, not a bug.

stephen01king@lemmy.zip on 19 Jun 06:20 next collapse

Is petrol not?

Jrockwar@feddit.uk on 19 Jun 06:44 collapse

In different ways. For example, it’s very rare for a car to explode in a collision, other than in movies.

One of the reasons that make hydrogen difficult to work with in this sense is that hydrogen (H₂) molecules are so small that they can permeate most materials, such as steel. Then it can get somewhat easily to wherever there is a spark, and chaos ensues. Annoyingly you don’t even need 100% Hydrogen for that to happen, as it can ignite with a concentration of just 4%.

After we stopped using Hydrogen mostly as a consequence of Hindenburg’s accident, it’s taken years to perfect hydrogen fuel cells to a safety standard that can be used in cars. As far as I know, its use has been limited to rockets/space propulsion otherwise (where you can just throw millions at the problem to make it safer).

xavier666@lemm.ee on 19 Jun 06:51 collapse

(H₂) molecules are so small that they can permeate most materials, such as steel

Okay, I knew from texts books that H2 is small but I never thought of the real-life consequences of it being so small. Then theoretically, Helium should also be “leaky”, right?

MysteriousSophon21@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 07:17 collapse

Yep, helium is even worse for leaking! It’s actually the smallest noble gas and can escape through tiny pores that even hydrogen can’t fit through. Thats why helium balloons deflate faster than air balloons - the atoms literally seep through the balloon material.

stephen01king@lemmy.zip on 19 Jun 08:05 collapse

How does Helium fit through places that Hydrogen can’t even though its bigger? Is it because Hydrogen would react with things along the way while Helium won’t?

Cocodapuf@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 11:05 collapse

I’m also curious, I thought hydrogen was the worst in this regard.

I like your theory on hydrogen reacting as it moves through materials.

xavier666@lemm.ee on 19 Jun 06:49 collapse

It’s highly explosive

That’s … why i’m here

SupraMario@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 23:25 collapse

Explosion wise or climate wise?

KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca on 18 Jun 23:26 collapse

I guess both? I know climate wise the manufacture of those things cannot be climate friendly.

merde@sh.itjust.works on 18 Jun 23:46 next collapse

any sources?

KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca on 18 Jun 23:59 collapse

For the production of the tank itself or the likelihood of environmental impact?

Here is an article about the tank, it appears to still be in the proof of concept stage. As for my conjecture that it would likely have a high carbon impact during production that was based mostly on similar studies ~2~ done on the production of cars.

merde@sh.itjust.works on 19 Jun 00:01 collapse

i guess both?

KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca on 19 Jun 00:28 collapse

added to original comment

SupraMario@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 01:47 collapse

At the end of the day, making EV cars isn’t either unfortunately…but in the grand scheme of things. Both hydrogen and EV cars are more environmentally friendly than gas powered cars.

MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca on 19 Jun 02:34 collapse

Manufacturing of any kind always causes an environmental impact. This is the way of things.

The one thing we can’t get that would mitigate the environmental costs of making stuff, is if stuff was built to last…

throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works on 18 Jun 23:19 next collapse

An alternative to starlink would be great.

moody@lemmings.world on 19 Jun 00:30 next collapse

An alternative to.space junk clogging up the sky would indeed be nice.

stephen01king@lemmy.zip on 19 Jun 06:20 collapse

It sounds like he’s asking for more space junk.

EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com on 19 Jun 07:54 next collapse

An alternative to anything related to Elon would be great.

Cocodapuf@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 10:52 collapse

Yeah, they could have a product ready by 2045! (If they hurry and make it a priority)

BoycottPro@lemm.ee on 18 Jun 23:41 next collapse

I hope they crush SpaceX one day.

Valmond@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 07:10 collapse

By landing on them.

curiousPJ@lemmy.world on 18 Jun 23:57 next collapse

How many went kaboom before this?

lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 19 Jun 00:56 next collapse

Of all the manufacturing companies, I would expect nothing less from Honda.

altphoto@lemmy.today on 19 Jun 01:04 next collapse

The all new Honda space Odyssey! It has a great V6 rocket engine with a 6000 million mile timing belt. After that you can buy one at amazon but it lasts 4 miles or 6 minutes.

MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca on 19 Jun 02:31 next collapse

Honda built a rocket

Me: of course they did.

They launched the rocket

Me: naturally.

They landed the rocket.

Me: on the first try?

fubarx@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 02:34 next collapse

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/87cefa0b-f37e-4e70-825c-9e25c981ef34.jpeg">

Lawnman23@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 02:57 next collapse

What the F is every corporation’s boner with rockets? 🚀

Cocopanda@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 04:39 collapse

Because the last stage of existence on this planet. Will be febel plans to try and colonize other planets. Because our planet will start to poison us as a defensive mechanism. All of these Corporations need a plan to get off planet.

too_high_for_this@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 05:54 next collapse

Feeble? But I think you meant futile? Idk.

echodot@feddit.uk on 19 Jun 06:58 next collapse

It would take a lot to make Mars more habitable than Earth. This isn’t about colonisation this is simply that it’s cool to build rockets.

Valmond@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 07:09 collapse

Yeah, it’s easier to terraform … Planet Earth!

Buffalox@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 08:20 collapse

It’s the only planet we can terraform (As in repairing some of the damage we’ve done), we are nowhere near able to terraform Mars, not even theoretically and disregarding cost.
Maybe in a century we can. But only maybe.

coolmojo@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 07:54 next collapse

Yes, let spend money to fuck up other planets as well instead of saving this one. /s

Cocopanda@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 08:25 collapse

That’s exactly what they will say.

gerryflap@feddit.nl on 19 Jun 08:38 next collapse

Imo it’s a good thing tho. Spreading our civilization across multiple planets is the only way to guarantee long long term success. Obviously we should also fix the climate change issue (and many others). But still, being spread across the solar system would give our species redundancy. An extinction event on earth like a large meteor strike would no longer be the end.

Tja@programming.dev on 19 Jun 09:27 collapse

The planet isn’t doing anything, we are poisoning ourselves. Or as lemmy puts it “big evil corporations (which we support everyday because it’s cheaper than buying local/sustainable) are poisoning us”.

harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 19 Jun 04:17 next collapse

I wanna buy one and see what it can do with an old 4 cylinder VTEC out of a Civic Si.

robogeek@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 06:31 next collapse

Idk, looks more like Hitachi

EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com on 19 Jun 07:53 collapse

Hitachi - Get perpendicular

Not just for hard drives anymore.

biofaust@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 08:01 next collapse

Genuinely curious: how many explosions before the successful test?

torrentialgrain@lemm.ee on 19 Jun 10:06 collapse

Apparently they got it right on the first try.

Buffalox@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 08:27 next collapse

This wasn’t much more than a toy rocket:

6.3 m in length, 85 cm in diameter,
The test was completed successfully, the first time Honda landed a rocket after reaching an altitude of nearly 300 meters.

But still they were successful on their first try, so we will have to see where they take it from here. 🚀

Sturgist@lemmy.ca on 19 Jun 10:45 collapse

It’s proof of tech. It’d be stupid and wasteful to do all the tests on a full size rocket.

moseschrute@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 11:08 next collapse

There’s a YouTube channel called BPS Space where this guy spent 7 years learning how to land a model rocket space x style. He talked about how much you can learn about real rocket science even from a small model.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=SH3lR2GLgT0

Buffalox@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 11:37 collapse

Whatever they tested it’s probably proof of that, but such a small rocket and only 300 meters means that a lot of things were not really proven, because scale is a HUGE issue.
Just ask Elon Musk / SpaceX, the Falcon rocket is fine, but Starship is horrible. And the difference is scale.

RadioFreeArabia@lemmy.cafe on 19 Jun 08:49 next collapse

Anything that erodes SpaceX’s monopoly is good for me

Cocodapuf@lemmy.world on 19 Jun 10:56 collapse

Unfortunately, the next competitor will be Amazon…

And then we’ll see what happens next, getting a whole constellation up is no small feat, I can’t see a third company getting a system working before 2050.

defaultsamson@lemmy.ml on 19 Jun 11:34 collapse

I know Blue Horizon or whatever it’s called has had minor success with rockets. What’s stopping Honda from out-competing them? Could it be a funding problem? (I know Blue Horizon has a lot of Amazon funding)

FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au on 19 Jun 10:14 collapse

If it had vtech and a fart cannon it would have hit 600m.