2011 Recapitulation

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!

"Untitled" Set to Launch!

It's embarrasing to have spent so much time and energy on a project you can't even come up with a creative name for. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.

Later today I will be flying this rocket for the first time in its two-stage configuration. This is the moment of revelation. Will it work?

I took the rocket to a MASA launch a week ago, and got some helpful advice. According to the manual for the electronics, a single 9V battery won't reliably ignite an Aerotech FirstFire igniter. The igniter requires 4.0 amps to light, and at 2.0 amps the voltage drops down to about 3V, and at 5.0 amps it drops down to zero. So to remedy this problem I added another 9V battery connected in series.

It is staged from a G64 to an E16. The entire rocket weighs pretty close to 3 lbs loaded, and the upper stage weighs about 1.5 lbs. The upper stage has at best a 2:1 thrust-to-weight ratio, but with an upperstage it isn't a big deal, since it can be considered as prolonging the coast phase.

First Multistage Rocket: Complete!

I just finished my first mid-power dual-stage rocket! I've built several low-power ones on Este's dash-zero motors way back when, but now I'm venturing into the world of electronic ignition, misfires and lawndarts. I've got a small electronic timer that activates 2 seconds after the G-switch is triggered.

I flew it at a MASA solstice evening launch with only the upper stage. RockSim reported iffy stability, so I wanted to test with as few people around as possible. There were, however, no major anomalies and it flew straighter than an arrow (just a figure of speech), but I think it helped that the wind speed was about .0000001 mph.

The only concern I have can be easily seen in the picture below. Somehow the motor slipped down off the clip. RMS casings can get pretty pricy, and this was a close call.

Finished paint scheme:

Announcing a New 2-stager!

"Untitled"
Length: 48 in
Diameter: 3 in
Payload: camera, altimeter
Max. altitude: ~3,000 ft
Max velocity: mach 0.5
Max acceleration: 350 ft/s/s
No. stages: 2
MMT: 29mm-29mm
Intended motors: G64 to F40 or G64

I'm VERY excited about this one. It's my first composite motor staging attempt, and (once again) I'm being pretty ambitious. This will also be the first rocket to use the altimeter to deploy the chute, and I haven't the faintest idea how that works.

I'm trying to do a SUPER job on this one, spending extra time shaping airfoils, glassing airframes, polishing, and fitting together every piece. I love engineering!

By the way, as usual, I can't think of a name. So if you have any ideas, I'd appreciate it!