A Continuous Upward Climb

USLI -- Critical Design Review

2012-01-26T13:50:00.000-08:00

We just put the finishing touches on our Critical Design Review report and PowerPoint presentation! Hilarious fact: the documents finished uploading to our website just three minutes before they were due.

But we put a lot into it, and if you're interested you should go check it out on our website: ISU-USLI.com

Within a week we will be ordering supplies and start assembling our payload and launch vehicle!

I was up until 6:00 am the other night working on this:

My First Wikipedia Edit

2012-01-21T23:09:00.000-08:00

I never thought that the first time I would edit a Wikipedia page it would be on "Genocide." But I saw the most hopelessly out of place line I've ever seen on Wikipedia. So I deleted it. It was:

"[So and so] was here!"

I'm so proud of myself.

USLI -- Subscale Launch

2012-01-16T21:14:00.000-08:00

We are required to prove our design by building a small scale version of our rocket and launch it. It was a fun weekend putting this little thing together and launching it. This Monday was rather windy in Iowa, but as you can see in the video at the bottom of the post, it performed rather nicely, even in the poor weather conditions. I have no doubt that our full-scale rocket will fly beautifully.

Snazzy way to make a custom nose cone.

Gluing the fins.

Completed rocket.

All systems go.

Rocket Propulsion Elements

2012-01-13T18:28:00.000-08:00

I have had this book ever since junior year of high school, but have never been able to just sit down and read it through and through. (You see, in high school, there was a lot of math and science background that I was missing in order to even understand it!). Well, during Christmas break I decided very determinedly that I would read the whole thing.

Over break.

While that did not work out as planned (since I got sick and stopped reading), I have now picked up where I left off, at Chapter 4.

I've been learning SO much! I had already thought of myself as an expert in Rocket Science, but after reading this book I really will be.

Specifically what this book has taught me is about how liquid propellant engines work, and a lot about the thermodynamic relations that happen inside an engine. It also looks like it will tie in very nicely to my Dynamics course, and my Mechanics of Materials course, both of which I am currently taking.

When I am done reading I plan to continue my RocS 101 series, with a lot of information based on this book.

So awesome!

(By the way, there is now an eighth edition to this book. As far as I can tell, the only major difference is that they split chapter 10 into two chapters, and they have maybe 30 new figures/graphs. Also, it looks like there is more of an emphasis on electronic integration/monitoring of rocket propulsion systems. Largely the same book).

P.S. Look for a new post soon about a USLI update!

Tree House

2012-01-05T15:41:00.000-08:00

My sister and I have always wanted to build a tree house, ever since we knew what a tree house was. But we never had the time, money or know-how... until now.

A lot of kids will go out with a hammer and some nails and some 2x4's they found in the garage and try to build a tree platform... But we did some research and are doing it the right way. For instance: our big 2x10's are each fixed at one end by a single 6" lag screw (to avoid compartmentalization), and at the other end by a bracket so that the trees can sway without breaking the boards or shearing any lag screws.

Once we have these beams up in the trees, we will work on putting a deck platform on top of the foundation, but we won't get to that during break.

This has been a great final "hurrah" for the end of winter break!

Our initial scouting yielded this perfect location!

I can just see us having a picnic lunch up there next summer.

Initial concept sketches.

On the way home from Home Depot. The 14' one is on the roof.

Got up bright and early... for once.

I had to blaze a trail out there, because a bunch of brambles had gone rampant all over the place.

Hauling timbers.

This picture is just to show that goofy grins run in the family. (It's not just me.)

A view from above as we put in the first beam.

The first beam installed.

*Grin*

So what does all this have to do with aerospace? I dunno, maybe making friends with the rocket-eating trees is a good way to get them to leave you alone...

2011 Recapitulation

2011-12-31T13:37:00.000-08:00

Way back in the beginning of the year I came up with three "Big, Fun Scary Adventures," referred to herein as "BFS Adventures." The first of these was a concrete goal: to obtain my level-2 certification for high-power rocketry. The story of this adventure was a long and comical one:

My first attempt was in June, using my rocket called "Stinger." I used a Cesaroni J285, which is a very small J-motor. For some reason, the flight was just a flop:

Next month I managed to put together an entirely new rocket (can't remember the name of it). It was a big, galumphing rocket made from thick cardboard tubes. The idea was to build heavy so that the rocket didn't go very high so I didn't need dual-deployment. That idea came back to bite me:

So I figured that the third time is usually the charm, and I came out next month with this rocket, which is the sustainer stage of a multistage project.

I figured that I had failed, but we kinda had to rush off at the end of the launch, and didn't talk much with the certifying member afterward. But a few weeks later I got my card in the mail, which read "cert level 2." So that's the story of how I got my level 2 certification.

My second adventure was less than exciting. I set a specific goal to "earn at least $5000 by working and at least $5000 of non-ISU scholarships." This one was also a success. I failed to find an internship, so I worked hard on a sod farm all summer, some weeks working 60 hours! It was quite the arduous ordeal but I earned about $4500 for school. Previously during the spring semester I had earned about $800 from working at Target. So there's my $5000 by working. And I got a pretty nice engineering scholarship for $8000 which helped me stay in school!

My last BFS Adventure was rather vague. "Invent something cool," I said. I'm counting the payload we built for USLI for this adventure. While it was not entirely my invention, I learned a lot of great stuff from being on that team and helped develop pretty cool technology for it. All of the structural components were designed and built by me. A lot of the programming was me, too. One thing is irrefutable: It was cool.

So there's 2011 in a nutshell. Of course, that leaves out 99% of my life, but now you have the 1% worth talking about.

I sense 2012 has some adventures in store that will make 2011 look like a walk in the park. Bring it on!

December Rockets

2011-12-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

After a great semester, I now have three whole weeks of holiday to kill. I've already dived into a couple rocket projects, one that I've been working on for a while now, and one that I've been wanting to start for just as long.

The rocket that I got my level 2 certification on was actually designed to be the upper stage of a two-stage rocket. So I'm now continuing work on the booster stage. Where I left off was a messy plywood and expanding foam blob, and today I picked it up again and started working on a fiberglass layup. I figured that today might be my best chance, since it got up to 45 degrees today.

I also want to work on the 38mm minimum diameter rocket I've been planning. I might try doing the layups inside if I have to, but I don't want to fumigate the house with epoxy.

Lastly, if I have time, I might work on a scale rocket for USLI... but more on that later!

[Build pictures]

Armadillo Aerospace Reaches 137,000 ft with "Stiga"

2011-12-07T16:15:00.000-08:00

I've been following this company for a while, and am very impressed with what they can do. It is a very small company with only a handful of employees. One of them, (Ben Brockert) is an alumnus of Iowa State, and I met him down in Boulder Colorado during the 2011 Space Vision conference.

Internship at XCOR!

2011-11-29T09:57:00.000-08:00

I had a very interesting Thanksgiving break. During the first couple of days I was contacted via email about a possible internship at XCOR Aerospace. I called the next day and learned about what it involves. It sounds...

AMAZING!

XCOR is based in Mojave, California. Mojave is a small town of maybe three or four thousand people, and whose industry is almost entirely based around aerospace. The life of the town is the Mojave Air and Space Port, the first inland spaceport in the United States. Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites once said, "Innovation is what we do here, because there's not much else to do in Mojave." Mojave is also the future home town of Captain Christopher Pike, for all you Star Trek geeks out there.

XCOR Aerospace was founded in 1999 by former members of the Rotary Rocket company. Their main focus is on building Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLV's). Current projects are:

Lynx is their big project. It's a HTHL suborbital rocket plane that's designed to take one pilot and one passenger and/or payload into the edge of space. I've actually posted about the Lynx before. It is still in the development stages, and looks to enter flight service in the beginning of 2014. In the future they plan to develop a more advanced version with an external dorsal pod for experimental payloads requiring exposure to space, or for launching mini satellites into orbit.

EZ-Rocket: This rocket plane is basically an R&D testbed for their rocket engines and other stuff.

X-Racer: This is a plane much like the EZ-Rocket, but designed specifically for the Rocket Racing League. The vehicle they have now is a prototype. It has flown for many demonstrations, including Oshkosh AirVenture 2008. It holds several records for rocket powered aircraft, such as the most flights of a single rocket power aircraft, the fastest turnaround time for a rocket powered aircraft, and some other stuff. They continually conduct new flight tests on the vehicle, often with new test engineers in the designated right seat. From my conversation with Aleta Jackson, it sounds like they like to send up their engineers, including interns (!), because they don't want people designing stuff they wouldn't fly themselves.

Possible Internship at XCOR Aerospace

2011-11-23T09:50:00.000-08:00

Last night I got an email from Aleta Jackson at XCOR Aerospace indicating that they are interested in taking me on as an intern. I'm all excited! But I have to call today and verify the details, and figure out what it would entail. I'll keep you all posted on the details as they become more evident.

I wrote a program in my mind of how the phone conversation might go.

PROGRAM XCOR_AEROSPACE_QUESTIONS

IMPLICIT NONE

CHARACTER :: response*400

CHARACTER, ALLOCATABLE :: question(:)

LOGICAL :: answering_machine

INTEGER :: i, numQuestions

CALL Aleta_Jackson()

IF(answering_machine==.TRUE.) THEN

WRITE(*,*)"Hello, this is Daniel Hastings. You had emailed me last night about a possible internship at XCOR, and I just wanted to call and talk to you about it. You can reach me at 763-XXX-XXXX. Otherwise I’ll probably try again later today. Thank you very much! Bye."

END PROGRAM

ELSE

"Hello, this is Daniel Hastings. You had emailed me last night about a possible internship at XCOR, and I just wanted to call and talk to you about it today."

END IF

READ(*,*) response

OPEN(unit=10, file="Daniels_memory.dat")

WRITE(10,*) response

IF(response == "Do you have any questions?") EXIT

END DO

READ(10,*) numQuestions

ALLOCATE(question(numQuestions))

DO i = 1, numQuestions

READ(10,*) question(i)

WRITE(*,*) question(i)

READ(*,*) response

WRITE(10,*) response

END DO

WRITE(*,*) "Thank you very much for your time, and for considering me. I look forward to talking to you again in the future. Yup, m-hm, bye."

END PROGRAM

"…\Daniels_memory.dat"

"Is this internship intended to be for the summer, or for next semester?"

"What sort of work could I expect to be doing?"

"What would a typical day look like?"

"What sort of pay/compensation would I get?"

"Does XCOR help make living arrangements?"

"Do I have to have any specific knowledge or would this be mostly on-the-job training?"

"For how long would the internship last?"

Rocket Science 101 -- Quiz 1

2011-11-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

SpaceVision 2011

2011-11-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

This update is late in the coming, mainly because of brief and puzzling start-up problem with my computer, but I'm back up and running now and ready to post.

The Iowa State Space Society is a chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space organization, which has a national conference once a year at various universities across the country. This year it was in Boulder, Colorado, and about ten students from Iowa State (myself included) made the trip this past weekend. It was a great experience traveling, networking and meeting new people.

Why didn't I go to school here??

Oh yeah. $45k out-of-state tuition.

Anyway, I am reinvigorated to pursue a great career in space industry. Specifically, I was surprised by how far the private space industry has advanced. We've got companies building capsules for CCDev, we've got an explosion of suborbital launch vehicles, companies like SpaceX and ATK are building their own launch vehicles, and myriads of other private ventures, such as teams competing in the Google Lunar X Prize.

I am a busy college student, and I don't have the time to write down all my cool stories from this adventure unfortunately. I will at least share a few pictures:

This is a VTVL monopropellant rocket built by Frontier Aerospace. I talked to a guy named Jack, who I believe build this rocket, for upwards of half an hour. He was very interesting.

This a snap of me behind the wheel of a full-size mockup of the new Dream Chaser commercial crew vehicle being developed by Sierra Nevada.

This is a 1/16th scale model of the Dream Chaser with the hood open. This was actually primarily constructed by undergraduates at CU Boulder, and was drop tested from a helicopter at 15,000 feet.

I really should have taken more pictures, but I kept forgetting. Some blogger I am, ay?

University Student Launch Initiative -- We Made It Again!

2011-10-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

Our proposal was accepted, so Iowa State is now one of 42 universities competing in USLI.

The University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) is a NASA competition for universities across the country to design, build and launch a high-power rocket to an altitude of 5280 feet (1 mile). The rocket is designed to carry a scientific or engineering payload of the team's own creation. The launch is down in Huntsville Alabama near the Marshall Space Flight Center every April. Throughout the school year each team must submit four reports; the initial proposal, the preliminary design review (PDR), the critical design review (CDR), the flight readiness review (FRR) and finally the post-launch assessment review (PLAR). Other requirements are to create and up-keep a team website, and to conduct educational outreach activities on space and rocketry, or other scientific or engineering related disciplines.

Last year I signed on to the project as an exciting activity for my freshman year at Iowa State. It was such a good experience that this year I am co-leading the project.

We began meeting in early September to discuss what the project was going to be about this year. The payload concept had to be decided first, because it would dictate what sort of launch vehicle would be able to take it to a mile. There were many concepts proposed, including the following:

Self-retrieving rocket (almost a joke, really)
Load cells on fins/other protrusions to measure drag
Deploy a rover on landing (similar to Arizona last year)
Reconnaissance controlled descent vehicle

It was clear that we wanted to expand on last year's project and do a controlled descent vehicle, but with a twist, using the payload as a video surveillance platform to observe the ground. Our main concern was that a parachute recovery system was going to rock/sway/spin too much, so we began to explore other options such as helicopter recovery.

Somewhere along the line, somebody suggested powering the helicopter and going for a full-fledged UAV. This suggestion was initially met with some skepticism, since it would greatly magnify the complexity of the system.

Our current plan is to go for a quadcopter system, with hinges on the four deployment arms so that the payload can fit snugly into the rocket body. The nose cone will be part of the payload; a clear plastic hemispherical dome. The camera will be on a pan and tilt system using a motor and servo, and will transmit live HD video to a ground tracking station.

One of the benefits of this option is that the user can keep an eye in the sky for as long as the battery will last, which would be much longer than the time it would take for the payload to fall, retarded only by the free-spinning helicopter blades. This extra time-aloft increases the return on the significant cost of rocket-assisted deployment.

The launch vehicle concept is currently to construct it from fiberglass with a 7.7 inch outer diameter. The motor we currently plan to use is a Cesaroni L1115, which would take a 10-lb payload approximately 5500 feet. It's always good to design the rocket to fly higher than it's supposed to, because the rocket tends to be heavier than RockSim predicts and have a higher drag coefficient than RockSim predicts. Also, after the test launch in mid-February, if it is determined that the rocket will fly too high, additional mass can be added to bring the altitude down to the desired level.

One concept for the launch vehicle is to use air-brakes to keep the rocket from going over a mile. Judging from success rates of attempts in the past, this would be a very challenging design feature to implement. We're currently exploring the feasibility of this option.

We are all very excited about this project. I think we have a good plan, and a lot of good, fresh ideas. The team of roughly 12-15 students has a nice variety of skills, majors, experience, etc.

More updates will follow regularly. When the team website is up and running I will post a link. When we begin work on the project I will also post YouTube videos.

The Most Amazing Video I Have Ever Seen

2011-10-12T18:16:00.000-07:00

Go full screen at 1080p!

Rocket Science 101: Basic Physics of Rocketry

2011-10-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

Iowa State University Professor Wins Nobel!

2011-10-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

In my Classical Physics II class, we took a day to talk about superconductors. Fascinating stuff. But on this one slide in the presentation we see this pretty picture:

So apparently this guy named Dan Shechtman won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry today. This is kind of a big deal, because how many people do you know from Iowa State who has won a Nobel Prize? He apparently won it for discovering quasicrystals. I have absolutely no idea what quasicrystals are, and reading a Wikipedia article on the topic did not help in the least. I'm pretty sure you could win a Nobel for just coming up with the word.

Here's a more informed article if you're interested: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/science/06nobel.html.

Or if you're really brave, here's Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasicrystal.

Rocket Science 101: Basic Math

2011-10-02T21:59:00.001-07:00

I Smell a Project

2011-10-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

100 Subscribers!

2011-09-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

My YouTube channel has just crossed 100 subscribers. I post all kinds of videos from rockets to programming. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/user/DTHRocket

Rocket Science 101: Definitions/Parts of a Rocket

2011-09-18T07:32:00.000-07:00

Rocket Science 101 Course Syllabus

2011-09-17T11:32:00.000-07:00

Rocket Science 101

Course Syllabus

Professor:

Daniel Taylor Hastings

Aerospace Engineering

Iowa State University

DTHRocket[at]gmail[dot]com

Prerequisites:

Trigonometry, minimum knowledge of calculus, basic physics

Textbooks:

Rocket Propulsion Elements (7^th edition) Sutton and Biblarz
Handbook of Model Rocketry (7^th edition) Stine and Stine

Grading:

Students grade themselves. There will be several quizzes and one exam, weighted by:
Quizzes: 25%
Semester project 25%
Final Exam 50%

Schedule:

1.       Definition of a rocket
2.       Math background
3.       Physics background
4.       Chemistry/thermodynamics background
5.       Basic nozzle theory
6.       Forces on a rocket
7.       Aerodynamic drag
8.       Flight stability
9.       Thrust and weight
10.   Analysis of flight
11. Model rocketry
12.   Semester project

Remember: There is nothing magical about rocket science. It is just a sampling of subjects such as physics, chemistry and math, all applied to the goal of flying through space. You don’t have to be a G-whiz to become a rocket scientist, despite the popular phrase “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to .” It really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to study math, science and engineering and love space travel.

Level-2 Certified After All?

2011-09-17T07:29:00.000-07:00

I got my new Tripoli Rocketry member card in the mail yesterday, and lo and behold, it says "cert level 2." I tried for level 2 three times last summer, and *supposedly* failed each time. Evidently one of those flights (probably the last one) was not such a failure after all.

Rocket Science 101

2011-09-12T07:29:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start a video series on YouTube on basic rocket science. Nothing too complex or too basic; I will be starting with concepts like Newton's laws and gradually get more complicated to describe the motion of a rocket. At the end, I will give an introduction to the actual engineering of a rocket (model rocket).

My aim is to get more people interested in the field of aerospace engineering, specifically rocketry and spacecraft. Even if only a handful of people watches these videos and only one of them is inspired to dig deeper, these videos will have been a success.

I will post a short "syllabus" soon.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Sound in 12 Minutes

2011-09-09T18:17:00.000-07:00

I like it when people are smart and creative and humorous and competent and comprehensive.

NASA is Lame

2011-08-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

NASA has so much potential, but for whatever reasons, they dink around in LEO. For the price of the Space Station (~$100B) I have to imagine we could have made at least 5 manned missions to Mars by now.

It's all a matter of will and priority. At our current technological and economical level, there is nothing stopping us from sending a manned mission to Mars by next year. But nope. We've got this extremely long and vague calender that alludes to somethin' or other starting around 2020... And no, NASA, don't go to an asteroid. Go to Mars. Seriously.

What we need is another space race. With nothing driving us forward we'll never go anywhere. Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites has mentioned the coming Private Space Race, a race driven by capitalism and competition in the private sector. But the private space industry is only going to take over the maintenance of LEO, leaving deep space exploration to NASA.

NASA: Do your job. Seriously.

A Saturday Afternoon Well Spent

2011-08-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

Science vs. Religion

2011-08-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

I think I found a good quote that sums up the incessant conflict between science and religion:

"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

~Albert Einstein

EDIT: Come to think of it, what's more blind is science without the insight of God. God is the only lasting truth, and all scientific research (and every other pursuit for that matter) is for the sake of knowing God, loving God, and showing God. I realize that that would be considered "scientific blasphemy" in the secular scientific community, but hey, it's true.

Besides, I would never try to force this mindset on anyone. It's just the way I approach life. But it would be great if you would join me.

Back to School

2011-08-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

Classes I am taking this semester:

AerE 261 Introduction to Performance and Design
Astro 150 Stars, Galaxies and Cosmology
Phys 222 Classical Physics II
EM 274 Statics of Engineering

I will also be involved in USLI again which will give me a credit in AerE 290.

I am also looking for an on-campus job. Some potential opportunities include tutoring or being a research assistant.

It's looking to be a great semester.

Interesting Onboard Video from Last Launch

2011-08-19T19:08:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine had this interesting flight of a cluster-ignition Patriot with several onboard cameras. Some sort of weird motor failure caused the flight to go terribly wrong. The only plus is that it made for some very entertaining video...

Fail #3

2011-08-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

The failures this summer are beginning to get comical. Sort of like a running gag. I have no explanation for this failure, but it is obviously some sort of altimeter error, or user error pertaining to the altimeter.

As you can see in the video, the drogue charge did not fire at apogee, and then the backup motor-based ejection charge did not have enough power to separate the rocket. Finally the main charge went at 500 feet and saved the rocket. There was no damage, but I still failed to get my certification because not everything went according to plan.

One note about how the rocket fell back to earth. It's interesting how, despite my nearly 4 caliber stability, the rocket flat-spun and at times appeared to be falling backwards. What's with that? I admittedly don't understand how that happens.

Video!

Hopefully the 3rd Time's the Charm

2011-08-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

Today was supposed to be Tripoli MN's August launch, but due to bad weather it got postponed until Sunday. Tomorrow I plan to launch the upper stage of my new Complex-L2 project for a level-2 certification attempt. I'll be flying it on a CTI J381SK, and it should reach 3000 feet.

This will be my third certification attempt for level-2 and the last attempt I can get in before moving down to Iowa for college, so I hope it works this time.

I'll keep you posted on the results.

OpenRocket

2011-08-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

I just downloaded OpenRocket, which is an open source rocket design and simulation software. So far I love it much better than RockSim, and it is absolutely free. RockSim has some quirks that are very annoying. While OpenRocket is somewhat less glossy and perty than RockSim, it does the job well and I believe it is more user-friendly and powerful.

Get it here!

Build Pictures for the 2-Stager!

2011-08-02T14:28:00.000-07:00

I have made TONS of progress on my recent project since my last post. The exterior of the sustainer stage is finished, and the inside of the booster stage is finished. I have yet to put in the altimeter bay, recovery system and staging electronics housing on the sustainer, and still need to glass the booster airframe and paint it.

My work on the booster is rather unconventional. I cut out some strips of 1/4 inch plywood and glued them between the fore and aft centering rings. I then wrapped around the entire booster with plastic wrap and filled 'er up with expanding A-B foam epoxy.

I took this rocket to the county fair (it's my last year in 4H), and it got a purple ribbon. So I will be taking it to the MN State Fair this September, which means I will have to come up from college that weekend. I have a good reason to do so, however: If I participate in the State Fair this year, I am eligible to apply for a scholarship, so it is worth it.

Complex L2

2011-07-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

You better believe it. It's time to bring out the big guns. I ordered some supplies from Public Missiles last week, and today a big box was waiting for me on the dinner table when I got home from work. Inside were two 4" body tubes, three coupler tubes, and a nose cone.

I am planning to build a two stage level-2 high-power rocket. This will be the biggest project I have ever undertaken.

I also plan to use the sustainer stage to certify L2 this August.

New Workshop Build Pictures

2011-07-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

Oo looky here! Is Daniel about to build something? It sure looks like it. But what?

Hm. What is this?

Aha, it's starting to look like...

A workbench!

And a stool from the scrap wood:

My new, cozy little workshop:

A New Workshop!!

2011-07-15T10:24:00.000-07:00

My dad has given me permission to use a corner of the former horse shed as a rocket workshop! This could be a great investment of my spare time for future projects. It is also a great place to store my rockets, especially as they grow in size.

So far all I have managed to do is clean out a spot and put in an extension cord and power strip. But I have plans to build a workbench, a stool, and a fancy rocket stand!

Stay tuned for more details as my ideas take shape.

Also, I have a new project in the works... it involves level-2 motors. Emphasis on the S in "motors."

Fail. Again.

2011-07-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

I was able to get off work for this Saturday for this month's Tripoli MN high-power rocket launch. The plan was to try and certify level 2 again, since I failed my first attempt last month.

I'll cut right to the chase and tell you I failed once again.

I swore that my system was fool-proof. It was super simple: a large 10-lb rocket on a large sparky J-motor that would go to 2000' in altitude and land gently on the field under a 72-inch parachute. No dual deploy, no electronics, no rocket hunters, nothing fancy. Just the basics. What could possibly go wrong?

The parachute got stuck inside the rocket, that's what. It came out just fifty feet above the ground, giving us false hopes that the rocket would survive, and we thought it did. But a tent in front of my view blocked the fact that the rocket separated, and the rocket was rather damaged.

I'm not as disappointed as I could be, however. Because I can still continue to fly level-2, and with a 15% discount for certification attempts!

Here's the video:

Working

2011-07-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

This summer is much less "fun" than other summers, because I have a more-than-full-time job working on a sod farm. I worked almost 60 hours last week! In the HEAT!

I have survived so far, but unfortunately my rocketry work hasn't. I have just one week before the next HPR launch to prepare my newest creation, which I hope to certify level 2 on. Photos will be posted soon.

This is rather important, however. I need to pay for school!

Happy Independence Day!

Arduino

2011-06-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

Got an Arduino for my birthday, and I'm sooooo excited!

Okay, so you're probably thinking "What the heck is an... arr.. arr... thing?" Well, I'll tell you: It's an open source electronics prototyping platform, so I can make my own rocket payloads and robots and whatever else strikes my fancy.

We used an Arduino last semester for our USLI payload at Iowa State University. We started out using a PIC, which is similar but way more complicated. So we switched over to Arduino and the project moved along five times faster.

I'm looking forward to all of the different projects that will come of this. My first project will probably be a very simple robot, so stay tuned for that!

Pictures and Video!

2011-06-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

I love Skidmarks.

Hybrid M-motor that never went :(

He's probably thinking "Not my day..."

From this --^

To this --^

Stinger on the pad.

June Launch Report <-- Boring Title But VERY Interesting Article

2011-06-13T18:43:00.000-07:00

No matter what safety precautions you take, at the end of the day getting beaned on the noggin with an Aerotech Sumo coming in ballistic at a couple hundred feet per second is bad for your health. Just saying.

Despite that little incident (the victim is doing well now, but everyone was freaked out of their breeches at the time), the launch was a smashing success! (No pun intended).

First off, there was an M motor with three outboard J's that were going to airstart. The M cato'd.

Then there was a big Hypertek M motor that would fill with nitrous oxide but was having issues with the ignition system. No joy there.

Then there was my L2 certification attempt. We won't even talk about that.

Just kidding, we will. So I passed the test, no sweat. I had studied for it several times before but never got around to taking it for one reason or another. Then I got my rocket ready to fly: Stinger on a J285. I'm so brilliant. I certify L1 on an I285 which is a huge I, and certify L2 on a J285 which is a baby J. That way I can use the same rocket, same casing, same average thrust... It's amazing they even let you do it that way.

But then it came down to launch time. Despite my 4-caliber stability margin, the rocket had issues on the ascent. I'm still analyzing the video to figure out what went wrong, and I'll post it on YouTube later for you all to analyze as well. But something fishy happened. It corkscrewed a little and increased drag so much that what should have been a 5000' flight turned out to be a 1500' flight. Therefore, a 15 second delay for the motor eject was waaaay too long. The main was set to deploy at 500, but I'm not sure which deployed first, the drogue or the main. I guess I will have to look at the video and figure all these things out. But the point is that it was going way too fast when it finally ejected, and the rocket separated and I failed my certification.

Oh well.

There were some other cool things about the launch, like an L1500, and a minimum diameter H399. Mach 1.25 on the H399! But I'm too lazy to cover every launch in great detail, and besides, reading about it just isn't the same thing as actually being there.

I'm going to build a new rocket for July, so stay tuned for some build pics.

Virgin Galacitc's SpaceShipTwo First Flight Tests

2011-05-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

SpaceShipTwo underwent a "drop-test" earlier this month from the White Knight aircraft. The goal of the test flights were to test the "feathering" reentry technique in which the ship effectively folds in half, providing vast amounts of drag while being dynamically stable.

New Launch Vehicle?

2011-05-23T18:18:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow at 3:30 pm Eastern Time, NASA will have a press conference in which it will discuss a new decision that will affect the future of deep space manned exploration.

THIS SHOULD BE GOOD NEWS.

~~So you should watch it live tomorrow on NASA TV~~.

EDIT: It won't be on NASA TV. It is a teleconference, so it will be audio only: NASA News Audio

Space Junk

2011-05-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

Orbital debris is a topic of much concern. At several thousand miles per hour, even a small object like a pebble could do serious damage to a spacecraft or a spacesuit.

That's why NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office tries to catalog, predict and control the activity of space junk in LEO.

There can also be another potentially deadly problem, known as the Kessler effect, or collisional cascading, in which one piece of wondering orbital debris collides with a satellite, and that satellite in turn sends out more pieces of shrapnel that will eventually collide with other satellites--a domino effect.

This problem can be combated by deorbiting old satellites or boosting them into a graveyard orbit.

In 2009 there was a collision between two satellites that added a good deal of orbital debris into LEO. It was the first time there was such a drastic collision in space between two man-made satellites. Here is a video plotting the statistical trajectories of the resulting debris:

I did not know this until just recently, but they have actually had to move the International Space Station on several occasions because of overlapping trajectories with cataloged space debris

Just a tidbit I picked up surfing the net yesterday.

All Fixed

2011-05-18T20:16:00.000-07:00

My blog is better now. Thank you Blogger for your eventual fix.

FVU9662RZK8S

I Found a Way to Post!

2011-05-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

In case you hadn't heard, Blogger had a little "oopsidaisy" on the 11th, and I have not been able to log in to it ever since. I just found a way to get around this:

Even though I still can't log-in to Blogger Dashboard, I can still go to my blog, click on the edit icon of one of my posts, and then click on New Post.

Loopholes, for the win!

School's Out for the Summer -- Time for Summer Goals!

2011-05-10T12:29:00.000-07:00

Get certified for level 2 high-power rocketry!
Create a video game (that's another post)
Make a short film (we're thinking Steampunk :)
Earn lots of money by getting a good job.
Apply for lots of scholarships.

The last two are the most boring but are also probably the most important.

Got any good plans for the summer?

Boredom in Math Class Has Some Interesting Results

2011-04-28T11:02:00.000-07:00

I got bored in Diffy Q's today, so I made up a new function. It is a sort of step function, but it increases so fast that it blows your mind. I had to make up some new notation for it. Here it is:

f(x) = x!_x

What it does is it takes the number x and puts it through x number of factorials. Thus,

If x = 1, f(x) = 1! = 1
If x = 2, f(x) = 2!! = 2
If x = 3, f(x) = 3!!! = 720!
If x = 4, f(x) = 4!!!! = (6.2 x 10²³)!!

Obviously this is an impressive function. Just imagine how big a number you'd get if you have x = Googolplex^{Googolplex^{Googolplex^Googolplex}}. YIPERS!!

I Just Stopped Grinning

2011-04-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

... because it is the week before finals, a week appropriately termed "Dead Week." It is rainy and gloomy, and studies hang over students' heads like dark, ominous clouds. But with gritted teeth I forge onward, with the knowledge that the light at the end of the tunnel of my freshman year is just a week and two days hike from where I stand. This darkness of small hard things is a necessary disgruntlement before the pleasantries of the summer. Keep smiling, students!

My head is currently swarming with thoughts of first and second order linear differential equations, homogeneous and nonhomogeneous thereof, theorems of existence and uniqueness, of complex roots and multiple eigenvalues, of laPlace transforms and principles of linear superposition and linear operators, of Gaussian elimination and polynomial least squares regression... *Shudder.* Coincidentally, my brain is also trying to process the three laws of thermodynamics, isobaric and isochoric processes, internal energy and whether work is positive or negative, and a whole slew of other stuff pertaining to physics. I just mentioned .02% of what I dream about at night.

Final Examination... that phrase sends shudders up my spine.

USLI Recap

2011-04-18T22:01:00.000-07:00

I must say, that was probably the most fun and exciting launch I have ever been to! All the rockets were so unique and high-powered. It's rather unfortunate we didn't get to stay for the entire thing, but what we were able to see was amazing.

Our own launch was not too bad. Everything recovered safely. Just having the rocket function properly was success enough. It tore off the pad and canted at a slight angle, thus only reaching an altitude of 3200 feet. The drogue and only the drogue came out at apogee. We then tracked the descent, and shouted for the payload to deploy. It was supposed to deploy at 2500 feet, but it did not. Finally, at 700 feet the main charge went off, and it popped out along with the main parachute. In 700 feet it was hard to tell if the CDV was doing its job, but it did land in the SE direction as programmed. The only catch is that it was 300m too far to the SE. However, it was closer to the mark than the rest of the rocket, which descended more rapidly than the payload. This suggests that the payload was at least trying to get back to the landing zone.

I can't stop grinning.

By the time we got home, we pretty much had our entire project for next year planned out.

Live Streaming Tomorrow

2011-04-16T20:07:00.000-07:00

The launch tomorrow will be streamed live, so anyone that's interested can see it live:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc

There will also be a Twitter page:

http://twitter.com/#!/SLI_1MILEHIGH

Stay tuned! We hope to launch as EARLY as we can tomorrow, possibly as early as 8am.

Day Two: Rocket Fair, Rain, and Post-poned Launch

2011-04-16T15:21:00.000-07:00

This post is about yesterday.

The rocket fair was half the fun. I enjoyed seeing all the projects other teams came up with.

This team was able to power there electronics with the exhaust of the motor.

MIT came up with a UAV. It was originally going to be autonomous, but not anymore.

Arizona State has a rover. Pretty legit.

Here's the team. Back: Chris. Middle: Krystina. Fore left: Thomas. Fore right: Mikaela.

So that was cool and all, the only catch was that Saturday was turning out to be terrible weather on the forecast. So we are now launching on Sunday.

This is good and bad. The good part is that there will be almost no wind, and our payload doesn't function well in the presence of even the slightest wind. The downside is that we have to be back for classes on Monday, and there is a 14 hour drive between us. We'll have to launch as early as we can and then leave, so we'll probably miss many of the launches. :(

Oh well. I'll fill you in on the happenings of today a little later.

Day One: NASA, Rocket Prep and Inspection

2011-04-15T06:04:00.000-07:00

The first day was the "fun" day, and we got to go behind the scenes of many of the NASA facilities there at Marshall Space Flight Center. Of the more interesting that we did was the friction stir welding, the life support systems facility, and the ISS Payload Operations Center.

We then headed back to the hotel to get our rocket inspected, where it was scrutinized thoroughly by very experienced rocketeers.

This shot is of the meeting at the beginning of the day, and shows just how many people are here for this event. We got to meet a few other teams here, including one guy that was on a team by himself.

This is one of the pieces they are fabricating using the method of friction stir welding. It is such a good method that it makes to pieces and turns them into one piece. They've never had to redo a welding job ever. Basically, how it works is that it has a spinny thing that rubs the metal so hard that it melts under the heat of friction, and then they stir it around and mix it up, and there you have it.

This here was originally going to be part of the Space Station, but it never got fully funded, so this place got it, and they use it to exercise in an our a day to collect sweat that they use for experimentation.

This building had giant doors:

The Payload Operations Center was very interesting. It receives data from every US experiment on the station and controls the operation of said experiments.

The minimum amount of monitors per computer I saw was maybe five. One computer workstation had ten monitors surrounding it in a perimeter.

The Payload Operations Center also has Shuttle Observation room which could serve as a mini control room in the event that there was a really bad storm or hurricane in Houston. While the guy was talking I opened up Minesweeper and got the high score. So now any engineers that play minesweeper on that computer are going to see my name.

Saturn V mock-up.

Getting ready for inspection: How many aerospace engineers does it take to screw in an eye-bolt?

Inspection went well. We only got four fixes on our fix-it sheet, all of which were doable.

Inspecting the altimeters.

I do enjoy converting hotel rooms into rocket workshops.

Going on a Cool Adventure

2011-04-13T04:49:00.000-07:00

This morning we are embarking on an exciting trip down to Huntsville Alabama where all our hard work over the past year will come to fruition.

Did I mention that NASA is ridiculous sometimes? Like, for getting a waiver for 5600 feet when the altitude goal is 5280 feet, and then restricting teams from using the motors they need that will get them close but a little over the altitude goal which is nearing the waiver limit but which is really not a big deal because you can always add mass to the rocket to bring it down to the right altitude and you can't always reduce mass to increase the mass and I'm sorry for the run-on sentence. And hopefully they do not read my blog, because I wouldn't want to insult the agency that went to the moon and is doing our judging and all that... But seriously, come on, NASA. Get your head in the game. Get out and actually go to a few high-power rocket launches once in a while.

I'll get off my soapbox.

Anyhoo, wish us well. Things could either go really well, or really bad.

The payload is 99% complete. We'll probably be putting all the finishing touches on it in our hotel or something. That would be funny.

Structure of the Payload Complete, Programming Complete, Leaving Tomorrow

2011-04-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

The payload is finished. The electronics are all soldered down. The program that runs it all has been completed in its first revision. The rocket has been painted snazzily. The only downside to this progress is that we worked until one in the morning, and I had a diff eq quiz at eight in the morning. SO... I took a three hour nap between 1:30 and 4:30, woke up and studied solid until now.

I brought some radio control equipment to try doing some drop tests in the Howe Hall atrium, but the only thing we learned from our one drop test is that we need a bigger parachute. It came down hard and fast, and broke off one of the freshly epoxied pieces. Easily mended though.

I'm not sure we'll be able to get much done today, however, because tonight the ISSS club is hosting a "Yuri's Night" party, a celebration of 50 years of human space travel, and everyone is going to be involved in hosting this. I might sneak in a few moments to put on the finishing touches though.

There will hopefully be live streaming of the USLI event on NASA TV this Saturday, so stay tuned for that. I'll post a link.

Payload Taking Shape

2011-04-11T10:57:00.000-07:00

The CDV is starting to come together. I've been working on some of the functionality of the design, and composed this drawing:

The idea is to guide the payload in the style of a skydiver, pulling on the parachute shroud lines to cause it to drift in that direction. This is accomplished with a model sailboat servo mounted on the base of the nosecone. All of the shroud lines are anchored to the eye-bolt in the tip of the nose, but additional lines are added to the right and left shroud lines for control. That way the servo doesn't bare any of the shock.

Here's a photo of the nosecone with the servo resting on top:

In addition to working on the structure of the payload, we continued to work on the programming of the microcontroller unit. We also started soldering the board together more permanently.

Sadly, we lost a chip. It was a gyro, that measured the angular speed. It must have gotten dropped in the lab somewhere. At least it wasn't the most vital chip, like the GPS unit. We could probably get by without it, because we didn't even write it into the code.

We have only today and tomorrow to get this thing finished.

We Have GPS!

2011-04-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we got a lock on satellites with our GPS unit, wired together most of our electronic components on a breadboard, and outlined our entire code in C++, all in one day. It was a very productive day. Today, hopefully we will finalize the rough draft of our code, and hard-wire our board together. We might even get to mounting stuff in the nosecone, which will be our controlled descent vehicle (which from hence forth I will refer to as the CDV, a la NASA).

I'm going to bring my camera in today so you can see some pictures of what we're up to.

Electronics for Our Payload

2011-04-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

Shockingly, the USLI launch is in just one week. We have very little time to complete the electronics for the payload, and with many, many roadblocks, we just might be pulling some long hours in the coming days. So here's the rundown:

We were using a program called MPLab to program the MCU, but day after day, we would spend ALL our time getting back up to the point we had left off the day before, and thus could make no forward progress.

The functionality of these electronics are so advanced that even the seniors on the team are confused (so of course, I am almost no help, but I've learned the most of everybody). These electronics have a very steep learning curve.

But basically, the goal is to have a controlled descent vehicle deploy at 2500 feet on the way down, and get data from GPS, calculate a landing zone destination, and use servos connected to the parachute shroud lines to guide it in that direction. Yah. We were pretty ambitious. But we could pull it off. Actually, our decision to make the entire thing completely autonomous stems from a laziness on our part. We didn't want to have to hassle with a ground tracking station, which is actually more work than it sounds. A computer could actually (probably) control the descent vehicle better than a human could.

But since MPLab was giving us fits, we are now using an open source system called Arduino, and is working MUCH better. Now are only serious problem (besides the fact that we're behind schedule) is that we can't get a lock on any GPS satellites.

We leave on Wednesday. The launch will be on Saturday.

I'm not really pinning any hopes on winning this competition. I don't care if we're third to last. I just want to beat the other schools I applied to: Embry-Riddle and MIT.

Well, that's all for now. I'll be sure to try and update the blog daily, so you can follow our progress.

I Won a Competition!!

2011-04-02T16:06:00.000-07:00

Of four people that entered the Iowa State Space Society's model rocket beauty contest, I came out on top, shockingly. Especially considering the fact that I decided to enter and started building only yesterday.

It was modeled after a rocket propelled grenade, and it flew like one, too. I packed the fuselage full of orange chalk-line powder for added effect. It was epic. I'm kind of disappointed that I forgot to bring my camera.

The first prize was a signed copy of "Rocket Boys" by Homer Hickam.

I'll post a picture of the rocket once I get it fixed. It had a rather rough landing...

Wind = Disappointment

2011-03-12T07:59:00.000-08:00

Down in Princeton, Illinois there is a wind speed of 20 mph with gusts of up to 40 mph. Needless to say, the launch was canceled. I got my rockets all ready to go, and now they must remain grounded. What a pity.

Launch, Anybody?

2011-03-08T11:25:00.000-08:00

As you may or may not know, recently our USLI team decided to scrap our old design for the vehicle and start from the ground up. We are modifying a Wildman kit to accommodate our three parachutes (one drogue, one main, and the parachute for the controlled descent pod). The rocket is completely made out of fiberglass, and is quite heavy. The fins alone weigh over 300 grams! However, a large K motor should *cough* carry it to 5280 feet. I have my doubts, but if worse came to worst, we can just stick an L motor in it and call it good. The rocket supports a 75mm diameter motor, and I believe we have a couple casings lying around in the I. Triple S. office.

So we are scrambling to put this rocket together, because the deadline for our test flight is fast approaching. As in, this Saturday. While I have no doubts about whether or not it will be able to fly by then, I am questioning its ability to perform. But hey, that's what this practice flight is for! To see what needs work.

Thankfully the engineering payload does not need to be completed for the practice flight, because we are still playing around with programming the micro-controller unit to make LED's flash on and off. We're a long way from GPS and altitude telemetry, radio control, servo connections, etc.

Here are some pictures of our progress:

All the parts for the Wildman launch vehicle laid out.

Centering rings being epoxied to the motor mount.

All the external body tubes laid end to end.

The workstation for programming the MCU.

The MCU plugged into the PIC programmer.


Yay! All that programming for blink...blink...blink...

One of our members has a chameleon. Surprisingly docile. Doesn't mind being perched on someone's shoulder whilst person is grinding away at a piece of body tube with a Dremel.

Back to Baby Math

2011-02-24T07:14:00.000-08:00

It's rather funny: the higher up in mathematics you go, you often revisit "duh" topics, usually to illustrate a point. Today, in my diffy q's class, copied from the blackboard verbatim, was written this:

a + x = b
-a + (a + x) = -a + b
(-a + a) + x = -a + b
0 + x = -a + b
x = b - a

ax = b
a^-1(ax) = a^-1b
(a^-1a)x = a^-1b
1x = a^-1b
x = b/a

I was chuckling inside as my professor explained about opposites and inverses and associative properties, etc.

Despite this seemingly easy revisitation to 7th grade math, this course is very difficult. Right now we're learning how to solve systems of nonhomogeneous higher order differential equations. My head is swimming with linear operators, matrix multipliers, LaPlace transforms, and superposition.

Come March 10th, I will fall into a deep sleep for 10 days.

Crunch Time!

2011-02-17T11:30:00.000-08:00

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.

FORTRAN Game -- It Actually Works!

2011-02-16T09:28:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the FORTRAN game for my aerospace engineering 161 class... the test was last Thursday. Apparently I did pretty well on it, because I scored 120%.

FORTRAN is a beast to work with if you're trying to make even the crudest of graphics, but with patience and creativity, you can get it to do most of what you want it to.

This is my 200th post. I have been in the blogging business for nearly three years now, and hope to continue to blog about awesome adventures in aerospace for years to come.

Sometimes I Wonder...

2011-02-03T11:26:00.000-08:00

Off To Do Battle With Homework

2011-01-30T10:50:00.000-08:00

USLI Testing Proceeding Interestingly

2011-01-19T09:26:00.000-08:00

Our USLI project is progressing on schedule. We completed the building and launch of a scale model of our launch vehicle, which went very well. Even in a light breeze it was very stable and flew straight and true. Both flights were very consistent, and had almost identical trajectories. I tried to take pictures, but even on a B6 motor the rocket accelerated out of the picture within at least 0.33 seconds (sports mode on my camera snaps three shots per second).

We've also been testing different sizes and shapes of parachutes by dropping the the payload off the top-floor of the atrium in Howe Hall. So far our tests have been inconclusive, but we now know what we need in order to do more thorough testing. But the results we did get look promising. By shortening the lines on one side of the parachute by about an inch, the parachute definitely appears to glide in that direction. I'll post more information when we do more thorough testing.

One of my favorite things about flying in the winter is how rockets tend to "stick" the landing.

WHAT????

2011-01-13T10:42:00.000-08:00

One of the first things we're going to be doing in my AerE 161 class is to make a simple computer game. This sounded kinda cool, until I heard that we would be doing it...

... in FORTRAN???

UnFORTRANately, FORTRAN doesn't do anything with graphics, sprites, or anything. We have to be a little creative, and do some research on our own.

It will be a simple tanks game, where you try to shoot a target by adjusting the angle of elevation of the cannon. Much like this game.

Nevertheless, this class is going to be very fun. Later on in the semester we will be building RC airplanes, completely from scratch, all of our own designs. But in the meantime, I will have to be satisfied with scratching my head for long hours.

Making Programming Tutorials

2011-01-11T12:50:00.000-08:00

I believe that many of my readers wouldn't be interested in this, because I have an inkling that half of my readers already know how to program, and the other half probably isn't interested in learning the skill, but anyhow, I just thought I'd share a link to my YouTube playlist of tutorials on beginning programming with Just BASIC. If you stumbled across this web-page and are thinking "Hm. Programming. I could learn how to program. Do I want to?" I say the answer should be YES! So click the following link:

Beginning Programming with Just BASIC

Perfectly Centered Yolk

2011-01-09T18:14:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I've ever seen an egg like this. It's like it was boiled in outer space or something.

Yeah, that's what kind of lunch I have. Hot cocoa, boiled egg, and chocolate Santa.

Big, Fun, Scary Adventures for 2011

2011-01-06T13:45:00.000-08:00

Unlike New Year's resolutions, BFS Adventures are something that last all year. They are akin to resolutions, but are more... adventurous. So here are mine:

Get level-2 certified for high-power rocketry
Earn at least $5000 dollars by working, and at least $5000 dollars in (non-ISU) scholarships
Invent something cool.

What are your adventurous goals for the year?

Speech Recognition Troubles

2010-12-29T19:25:00.000-08:00

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Home for the Holidays!

2010-12-17T15:11:00.000-08:00

I have successfully finished out one full semester of college. Now it is time to go home for three whole weeks! What a satisfying feeling.

I have learned a lot. Here is a non-exhaustive list:

FORTRAN is a ridiculous programming language (unless you need to process massive amounts of data).
I have the ability to keep peace on a team.
Never leave detergent unattended in the laundry room.
Sometimes it's a good idea to correct a professor's error, sometimes it is best left alone.
Polar coordinates are actually easier to work with in many cases.
Meals are grossly overpriced at ISU.
Teach a parrot to say "supply and demand" and you've created an economist.
Though it sounds elementary: if you're stuck, get help.
I have a surprising tolerance for noise and rowdiness (that's new).
Sometimes you need g_c in your calculations, sometimes you don't.
If you open the door and face a wall of wrapping paper, don't just charge through.
The best time for quiet thinking is 6:30-7:00 in the morning.
To stay on top of things in a hard class, read ahead.
All about partial derivatives, multiple integrals and vector calculus.
All about ... chemistry.
A lot about the love of God.

Falcon 9 Demonstration Flight

2010-12-08T13:57:00.000-08:00

Today SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 vehicle, to demonstrate its reliability as a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services vehicle (COTS) for NASA. The launch was successful.

Concrete

2010-12-01T11:42:00.000-08:00

Recently, in my "Chemistry for Engineers" class, the instructor was talking about concrete, and how it is ubiquitous in engineering applications. My roommate, who is in electrical engineering, and I, an aerospace engineer, exchanged glances. We were both imagining the use of concrete in our future work.
Ha.

Back to Work

2010-11-30T08:04:00.000-08:00

Okay... So I just have to pull through three weeks of studying and taking final exams. Then it's home again for another three weeks.

I have to work hard now. I've got so much going on at once: Chemistry test; long, drawn out calculus homework; coming up with money to stay in school; very difficult FORTRAN program that does what RockSim does but not half as glamorously... you get the picture.

Concerning NaNoWriMo: I reached the 50,000 word mark the day before Thanksgiving, but my story is far from complete... Maybe I'll pick it up again over Christmas break.

My next USLI meeting will be this Thursday. Things are starting to pick up, so stay tuned for a post on our progress. We submitted our preliminary design review to NASA the day before break, so we should expect some feedback soon. ISU-USLI's website can be found at this address: http://www.isu-usli.com/

Very fun.

Q&A with Vance Coffman

2010-11-20T12:09:00.000-08:00

I got to have a conversation with the former CEO of Lockheed Martin! It was cool. About eight of us freshmen in aerospace engineering were in attendance, and we asked him questions about his life, his career, his education (he started at Iowa State), and he gave us advice on doing well in the aerospace industry. Just another cool little thing I got to do.

Light at the End of the Tunnel! ...Or is That a Locomotive??

2010-11-17T20:01:00.000-08:00

Okay, just kidding. But I can see the end. Only a couple days until Thanksgiving break, and then there are only about three more school weeks until the semester is all over. It's been a long semester, or a quick one, depending on how you look at it. Long, considering all the stuff I've learned and how much life has changed since August. But actually, strictly temporally, it felt faster than a typical high-school semester, probably because the classes go at a much faster pace.

But it's not over yet. Now we have to study for finals.

Due tomorrow is my learning team's technical report for the rocket design project we did in AerE160. We completed the report in about one week, it was a mad dash.

NaNoWriMo continues okay, I'm a little behind schedule though. To reach the 50,000 word mark by November 30th, I should be at 28339 words, and I'm currently at 23216. So it's not terrible. Considering I am capable of doing 10k a day (about average for Nanooks in Pajamas), 1914 a day is NOT an issue in the least.

Thanksgiving blessings:

Thank you God for a wonderful family to come home to.
Thank you for giving me a passion for aerospace and your Awesome Creation.
Thank you for giving me a great situation here at Iowa State.
Thank you for saving me from destruction.
Thank you for being my guidance system.
Thank you for cereal.
Thank you for helping me through difficult times as you always have in the past.
Thank you for mechanical pencils.
Thank you for wonderful fall colors... while they lasted.
Thank you for bringing cold weather.
Thank you for getting me through Multivariable Calculus.
Thank you God for being my God and for being so awesome.

Discovery's Launch Postponed

2010-11-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

The last flight of the Space Shuttle has been postponed until later this November. The reason is for a major hydrogen leak.

Oh well.

(I'm secretly glad, because I would have had to miss the launch on NASA TV, it would have been coincident with my calculus class).

NaNoWriMo

2010-11-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

I'm actually writing a novel again this year. I skipped it last year because I was very busy, and even though I'm just as busy this year, I'm going for it.

This year it's science fiction again. In short, it is about some college students interning at the Dellanop Outpost, which is a space station on a planet ~150 billion light-years from Earth, clear across the Universe. Dellanop is linked to Earth by the AerEon, a mysterious portal that had its beginnings as a project at the end of World War V to develop the Ultimate Weapon. While it failed to produce any amount of kinetic energy usable for destruction, it opened up a window into this other star system.

The conflict comes into the story when these students discover the plans of a covert organization that aims to control the AerEon, thereby controlling passage to and from Earth. There are some more plot twists as the story goes on, but I would never reveal them here! (Especially when it is yet unwritten)

So far I'm up to 6883 words, and going strong!

The Launch

2010-10-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

It was a great day, and lots of fun to see all the rocket designs people came up with. There were a lot of great flights... and a lot of failures too! Our rocket performed well, but its second flight randomly went unstable for some reason. We're not sure what was different about the second flight that resulted in the poorer stability because we did everything exactly the same. As usual, blame it on the wind...

In the middle of the day, they paused the rocket launches to fly a model of the Marston Water Tower on an E9 motor. For some reason the rocket just sat and burned on the pad. I can't imagine that the rocketeer who built it didn't calculate their thrust-to-weight ratio, but you never know. Maybe the launch rod was too tight. Maybe the motor didn't work right.

Thankfully the weather turned out great! It didn't rain, it wasn't very cold, and marvelously the wind stayed in a manageable range.

As fun as the event was, I have to say, it was poorly planned.

For one thing, the objective was to stay inside a launch angle of 20 degrees downrange, at apogee. That is a ridiculous objective, especially since it was 100% based on variables beyond our control. The wind, the random weather-cocking, etc. We didn't even get to choose our own launch angle or put our rocket on the launch pad, so how can we have any impact on which direction the rocket takes off? I think maybe the basis of this idea was that stable rockets are going to straighter than unstable rockets, which is true... but pretty much all of the unstable rockets landed within the acceptable range, because immediately after leaving the launch pad they would spin around and plop down, with little chance to veer out-of-bounds.

Other things: They really needed some sort of loudspeaker setup. I'm sure the guy doing all the announcing can't even talk today. Also, I think that if each team were given a queuing number, the launch would have gone much more efficiently, instead of having each group wait in a long line after each flight.

The altitude tracking setup was a little ridiculous, too. The in-class examples of the triangulation methods were similar to the two-station tracking in The Handbook of Model Rocketry, where there is a baseline between the two trackers, an elevation angle, and an azimuth angle. At the launch, the tracking devices measured only the elevation angle, so we were told to estimate the ground angle with our feet... um... yeah. Highly accurate methodology there. I'm sure lot of people just ended up fudging their data, or making it up completely. We'll be comparing these results to our RockSim simulations, but there really isn't any point when we have a precision of + or - 50% to report!

I really shouldn't complain too loudly though, because the event would probably be a disaster if I were given the task of planning it.

Our rocket being placed on the pad

Long lines

Assorted liftoffs

The water-tower-rocket

Test Launch of AerE 160 Rocket

2010-10-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, my group went out to the cross country fields to test our rocket before today's launch (1-4pm). The first flight was rather marginally stable, and it shot off in a random direction with a little wiggle in its trajectory. We then added a little nose weight, and it flew much straighter. The third flight was a little embarrassing because I accidentally loaded a C6-0 motor instead of a C6-5, so the parachute deployed way too early and it ripped off and floated away. The rocket was okay though. It should perform fairly well today.

Watch JPL Assemble Curiosity

2010-10-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

You can watch the Jet Propulsion Laboratory put together the new Mars rover named Curiosity, via continuous live feed from a webcam overlooking the clean room. Check it out!

If the embedded player doesn't work, click this link:

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl

AerE 160 Rocket

2010-10-11T18:11:00.000-07:00

In my AerE 160 class, we are building small model rockets for our final project. Construction approval is tomorrow, so my group pulled a two-hour build session to get it completed. Here is the result:

Yes, it's kind of shabby, but I think it turned out very well for the average skill level of the group. We're going to be building another one just like it, because we need a backup in case this one fails on the first flight.

We opted for a six-fin design, just to differentiate our rocket from all the others in a unique way. Other specs: 17.5 inches long, 29 mm in diameter, and flies on a C6-5 to about 700 feet. We're thinking about painting it red, and maybe another color, like orange or yellow.

It isn't named yet, but I have a sinking feeling it's going to named after our jolly old professor. (He reminds me of Mr. Pendanski from Holes).

Today we had a test on triangulation and do-loops in FORTRAN. The fictional character of choice this time was Iron Man. (He tries too hard to make the exams entertaining).

Okay, enough ramble. Back to the books.

Wait a Minute, Wait a Minute...

2010-10-08T14:31:00.000-07:00

Maybe someone can explain this to me.

If the Universe is 156 billion light years across...

And if the Universe is 13.7 billion years old...

And everything flew into existence from a single point in the Big Bang...

Does that mean that the galaxies at the outer reaches of the Universe traveled at 5.6 times the speed of light??

Humorous Clip

2010-10-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

Very Lucky Photograph

2010-09-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

A very lucky photographer camped out under high-traffic airspace with a moon-tracking camera and happened to catch this picture.

Taken from Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).

USLI

2010-09-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

There is a group within the Iowa State Space Society called CySLI, which is a small club that participates in NASA's University Student Launch Initiative (USLI, I call it "Oozli," but I think I'm the only one). I think that this will be one of the coolest activities I will be participating in this year. Basically, USLI is a contest in which Universities design and build both a scientific payload and the launch vehicle to carry it to as close to one mile as possible. So far we've been talking about what kind of payload we want to design. One option we've been talking about is having a nose-mounted escape pod with a method of controlling the decent, and a live video feed from an onboard camera.

Here's a video about USLI:
(Iowa State's rocket is the big black one with the orange nose cone).

NASA Student Launch Projects Video

Pop Quiz

2010-09-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

A few guys were studying in our dorm the other day, and somehow the following question came up:

Which of the following has more kinetic energy?

(a) A fully loaded freight train traveling at 79 mph across country
(b) The shuttle orbiting at mach 25

The answer wasn't immediately obvious. We started geeking out about it, looking stuff up online and doing some calculations. Some predicted the train, others predicted the shuttle.

The answer?

A typical freight train weighs about 8,000 tons. It has a kinetic energy of 4,767,000,000J.
The Shuttle Orbiter has a mass of 99,318 kg. At mach 25 it has a kinetic energy of 3,579,000,000,000J. So it turns out that the freight train only has 0.13% of the kinetic energy of the Shuttle. Shuttle wins, hands down.

And it makes sense when you think about it. Just think how much fuel the Shuttle has to take on as opposed to the relatively small tanks in the diesel engines. (Not to mention that the energy is proportional to the square of velocity, and not the square of the object's mass.)

College is funny.

P.S. Will it ever stop raining??

Career Fair

2010-09-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

Due to the recent flooding in Ames, IA, the Engineering Career Fair at Iowa State University had to be moved from its usual location in Hilton Colosseum to giant white tents outside Schemann. The fair took place on the 21st, a day of solid rain. Determined students vying for internships braved the weather and showed up professionally dressed but soaked to the bone. It was fun.

As a freshmen, I didn't expect to be inundated with opportunities, but even so, it was a great experience to be there, learning about options for the future. I only had time to hand out about five resumes, which is sure better than none! The most interesting employer that I talked to was for the Strategic Systems Program of the U.S. Navy. They take on engineering students for summer internships, who work on submarines, strategic missiles, and other goodies like that. There are numerous opportunities like that out there just waiting for me!

XCOR Conducts Supersonic Wind Tunnel Tests

2010-09-20T08:41:00.000-07:00

XCOR Aerospace completed extensive supersonic wind tunnel tests for their commercial sub-orbital spacecraft, Lynx. The tests were conducted at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The vehicle was shown to be a safe and stable design under mach conditions, with only a few minor design changes.

I am looking forward to the completion of this spacecraft. I like to see the private space industry emerging.

PrISUm

2010-09-07T20:02:00.000-07:00

I decided to check into some student clubs and organizations, just to see what opportunities there are to get involved. One thing led to another, and I find myself on PrISUm, Iowa State's Solar Car Team. As an aerospace engineer, I will primarily be working on things like reducing the aerodynamic drag on the body of the vehicle (check out the sleek airfoil on last year's car, pictured above). I don't know all the details yet, but this sounds like some great experience, and lots of fun.

Basically, what PrISUm does is enter a new car every two years into the American Solar Car Challenge. Apparently I joined at just the right time, because if I stick to it all four years of college I will see the complete design, construction, testing, and competing of two complete cars before I graduate.

There are three sub-teams that comprise PrISUm: the Mechanical Team (that's what I'd be in), the Electrical Team (that's what my roommate will be in), and the Business Team (somebody's got to manage this quarter-million dollar project!!). There are also several sub-sub-teams that comprise the Mechanical Team: the suspension team (responsible for the suspension), the frame team (responsible for the frame), and the aero team (responsible for the aerodynamics)[duh]. Each of these groups that comprise the Mechanical Team will have at least three or four individuals in them, give or take.

We just had our first meeting tonight, so I don't know a whole lot. I wanted to wait until the first meeting before I decided if it was something I was really interested in and post about it on my blog, but now it definitely sounds worth it.

After the meeting I hung around and talked with the directors (who are students themselves), which was probably a good idea, because now they know my face, and I got more personalized information!

Tomorrow is the Clubfest (where student clubs and organizations on campus showcase their clubs), and I volunteered to help out for an hour or two to represent the Solar Car Team. This is the same strategy I employed for Tripoli MN Rocketry Club. In order to really get to know the club, volunteer to represent it.

More details will follow.

By the way, I'm also looking at ISSS (say I triple S, it's easier), which stands for Iowa State Space Society. It's is a club that does astronomy and high-power rocketry and a whole bunch of other space-related activities. The first event for that is on Thursday.

More details will follow.

I Just Had a Thought...

2010-09-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

Scientists would be out of a job if there weren't any engineers in the world. What would be the use of striving to understand nature if nobody took the initiative to harness its power? Certainly science is awesome and cool in its own right; but without engineering, it doesn't produce anything (for propriety).

Just a thought.

Experimental Photography

2010-08-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

Another thing I do when I'm bored:

Ambassador of Death

2010-08-23T05:39:00.000-07:00

So Iran has U235. Now they're building unmanned bomber aircraft. And they expect the West not to be suspicious? This new bird's official name is 'Striker,' but President Ahmadinejad introduced it as 'the ambassador of death to our enemies.'

Hm.

Classes Start Tomorrow!

2010-08-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

I am very excited to start classes. I've enjoyed the last few days, but I'm ready to start studying!

Look for a post on how it turns out.

Moving In

2010-08-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

College is going to be AWESOME!!

It took me two days to pack and half an hour to unpack. My dorm room is really nice and my roommate is even nicer. I'd post pictures, but I forgot to reinstall my camera software after my hard drive crashed so... no pictures yet.

All is going well. I got my books today. Chemistry and Multivariable Calculus look the most challenging, but fun. Classes start next Monday.

My Identity

2010-08-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

A good thing to know about one's self is one's identity, especially when said identity will be challenged by the world when one moves to college.

So here's mine:

Above all, I identify myself with Christ. Since he saved me from sin and God's unbearable wrath, I am pleased to live my life following him.

Everything beyond that is just detail:

I am exceedingly fascinated by all things that fly, and the giant expanse of the sky calls to me.
So I study rocket science.
I was born into a wonderful, Christian, home-schooling family.
I have been lucky enough to live on a sod farm (rocketeer's envy!)
I used to hate math, but now I love it.
I am currently stepping up to the 2nd and 3rd rungs in my Ladder to Space.

The list was going to go on, but I ran out of time!

Thou hast given me understanding to compass the earth,
   measure the sun, moon, stars, universe,
   but above all to know thee, the only true God.
I marvel that the finite can know the Infinite,
   here a little, afterwards in full-orbed truth;
Now I know but a small portion of what I shall know,
   here in part, there in perfection,
   here a glimpse, there a glory.
To enjoy thee is life eternal,
   and to enjoy is to know.
Keep me in the freedom of experiencing thy salvation continually.

~A puritan prayer from The Valley of Vision

Hard-Earned Level 1 Certification!

2010-08-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

It has been a very long day. But I am happy to announce my successful level 1 high-power certification!

It actually took me two attempts. The reason is that the motor failed on the first attempt. It was rather frustrating. I only brought enough money for two reloads, so I had to skip my level 2 attempt for now. But at least I did eventually get my level 1.

The rocket sims to 4500 feet on an I285, but the altimeter recorded only 3400 feet. Even then it drifted far away and over the edge of some trees. I NEVER would have found the rocket if one of the rocketeers hadn't lent me his transmitter. It was fun learning how to use it, and it saved my rocket.

But unfortunately... it did not elude the clutches of the rocket-eating trees. It dangled about 30 feet high in a tall oak. It took a lot of thinking, but eventually I suggested finding a long stick in the woods and attaching the pruning device with duct tape, sort of like a long extention. The pruning pole had a hook on it that we tried to snag on the edge of the body tube. It was tedious, but we finally got it down.

What an interesting day.

I set the altimeter to deploy only the main. The drogue was deployed with the motor based ejection charge. The black powder goes into the pvc section on the forward bulkhead.

I taped the rocket hunter right to the nose cone, with the antenna up inside it.

Silly me, I designed the arming switch inside the altimeter bay, so I had to carefully take the rocket apart once it was upright on the pad in order to arm the altimeter. You don't want black powder going off in your face.

Ready to rock.

Very little damage after the fateful first flight. The main chute ripped off and drifted away. My dad found it.

Looking good on the pad, ready for its second flight.

Oh boy.

Where's Waldo?

Here's a shot of the pruning pole hooked onto the body tube.

Suprisingly, this was the only damage. And it was caused after it landed from yanking on the pruning pole.

Now I am looking forward to level 2!

Certification Attempt Tomorrow: Gulp.

2010-08-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is my one shot at certification until next year. I hope to use Stinger for my L1 cert on a Cesaroni I285. If I pass L1, I'm hoping to try L2 on a J285. If everything goes correctly, I should go from level 0 to level 2 in just one day! If I pass, I'll come back next year with an L motor!

I've been doing a lot of ground testing, since I've never tried altimeter based ejection charges before. Today I put one gram of black powder in the ejection charge, used a longer shock cord, and a lot more wadding. I think that one gram was just a bit too weak, and somehow the parachute still got a wee bit singed. What I need is Nomex cloth. Too bad I don't have any.

I HOPE I PASS!!!

You can expect a very peppy launch report tomorrow.