Radio-Controlled Starhopper Is Set to Soar!

In anticipation of SpaceX’s upcoming 15km Starship test hop, Nicholas Rehm decided to create his own miniature Starship. His eventual goal is to build a full model that can take off vertically and soar high into the sky, skydive back down to the Earth, and finally land vertically. It’s an ambitious task, so he took it one step at a time and make a remote-controlled Starhopper model first.

His device, which is a sort of stubby silo like the larger SpaceX model, uses a pair of motors and propellers inside to produce thrust. Each speed can be varied differentially to take care of yaw (the body’s overall rotation), and vanes at the bottom enable it to pitch and roll to slide horizontally. The body is constructed out of foam board and hot glue, with 3D-printed motor mounts. Control surfaces are cut at 45 degrees to allow them to pivot, actuated by a pair of micro servo motors.

The DIY Starhopper is based on a Teensy 4.0 board, running Rehm’s own dRehmFlight (pronounced “dream flight”) VTOL flight control code. It integrates an MPU-6050 IMU for sensing, a pair of ESCs to interface with the top tractor/puller prop on the top, and the bottom pusher. While testing at 4:50 shows it just falling over, after some “quick” PID tuning (during which the sun goes down), it floats around the house nicely. A few mods later, you can see it flying around outside, and he’s even tested it with some pyrotechnics and a streamer for more rocket-like operation!

For a similar take on vertical flight, you might also check out the Ball-Drone V2!