2/17/11

Crunch Time!

Our University Student Launch Initiative entry has encountered a little bump in the road. We decided we had to abandon our old rocket due to some structural issues, so we're going to have to build an entirely new launch vehicle. The really challenging piece? Our first launch is going to be in the first week of March. So we need to build the rocket, put together a prototype for our electronics, purchase a motor (K1100), and FIND A LAUNCH somewhere in the Midwest. As soon as the parts for the rocket arrive we will be working on building it every night. Then there's another interesting bit. We might not have a level 2 certified member able to go along to the launch. We have three level 2 certified members in the Iowa State Space Society, and at least one of them can't go. So... if worse comes to worst and none of the level 2 members can go, I might be able to launch the rocket as a certification attempt, since I am already level 1 certified. That is, of course, a last resort.

So we have to do all that in about fifteen days. I believe we can do it.

2 comments:

High Power Rocketry said...

Why did you pick the K1100 instead of a CES motor?

DTH Rocket said...

I didn't have much to do with picking the motor, but I think that we just picked one we knew we could get, and pushed the rocket to a little over a mile solely based off RockSim files. The first motor we picked wouldn't work because it was a sparky motor, which isn't okay for this competition, so we settled on the K1100T. I'm not sure how this motor will perform. Do you have any cautions/suggestions?

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