$96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

Re:$96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air traje... by gorgoiler on Sunday March 15, 2026 @01:12PM (#47389435)

I believe there was a similar weapon being developed in the west, only recently, which involved a missile with contra rotating halves joined by a clutch. The fixed fins caused it to always steer one way. It flew straight by releasing the clutch to spin up the front half, negating the steering effect. Grabbing the clutch caused it to stop spinning and veer off in one direction.

Presto! Two axis continuous flight control with a 1-bit input.

Edit: my memory wasn’t far off. It’s Starstreak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starstreak

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Re:$96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air traje... by coredog64 on Sunday March 15, 2026 @01:34PM (#47389677)

35-ish years ago there was a pitch for cheap, high velocity, spin-stabilized rockets that were deployed in dense pods on the A-10. The rocket's seeker could divert some small amount of thrust at an angle for guidance, but otherwise that was it. I can't recall if it ever made it out of the pilot phase, but obviously nothing new under the sun.

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Re:$96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air traje... by m4rtink on Monday March 16, 2026 @08:52AM (#47398336)

I think the Ukrainian Stugna & other ATGMs (not only with soviet heritage) use the rotation trick - you get some stabilization for free, might need less control surfaces and maybe even simpler sensors.

IIRC in the Stugna case, they even use solid fuel micro motors - they have a couple dozen of them in a rignt near the nose and fire them as the missile rotates in flight providing a kick in the right direction to hit the target. Given the missile usually flies for <30 seconds, this is perfectly adequate versus a complex set of aerodynamic actuators.

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