Tracking Powder

Ideally I would like to get a radio transmitter for tracking my high-altitude rockets (like Stinger, my high-power L1/L2 certification rocket) but unfortunately I don't know anything about it (even though I have my ham license now). In the meantime, I think the chances of successful recovery could be greatly increased using tracking powder. This can be as simple a stuffing flour or crushed up chalk into the drogue 'chute bay.

I recently tested this idea in a small low power rocket. I think it worked. I never would have seen the deployment if it weren't for the bright white puff that appeared out of no where in the sky:

BY THE WAY:

What kind of a rocketeer works out of a Smart Car?

Also, I will not be going to anymore NAR launches any time soon! They wouldn't let me fly Exporter 3000 (the rocket with the 2 G's cluster) because they said it was equivalent to H impulse, which you need to be L1 certified for. I know, however, that you can fly a cluster rocket up to 320 Ns of impulse and 4.4 oz. of propellant before you are certified. I didn't have a copy of the NAR Safety Code on me or I would have shown them. They didn't remember the rule. I was frustrated. But oh well.

Onboard Video!

You can almost see my house from this shot.

First Launch of 2009

I had some great launches today; no failures! Good launches and good recoveries. Plus, my onboard video worked for once! The quality isn't the best, but I've got it. I'll post it to YouTube and my blog once I get it off my camera.

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My altimeter reported a boring altitude on Sky Spy's flight: 546 ft. It should have gone over 800 according to simulations. I have a hunch that RockSim isn't all that accurate when it comes to drag, even when I take care to input all the flight conditions.

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Spare Parts Spaceship had a beautiful launch and textbook recovery.

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I'm looking foreward to a great year of flying rockets!

Launch Coming Up

I will probably have the first launch of the year this weekend, provided the weather cooperates (which it looks like it might). I have 2 or 3 rockets ready to launch:

1) Arrow 2, my most flown rocket with at least a dozen flights, will hopefully fly on a C6-5, possibly even with a D12 booster.

2) Spare Parts Spaceship is all set to fly its second mission, SPS-2, on a G79! (Sadly it will only get 75% the altitude of its last flight on a 137 n-sec G80).

3) A new rocket that I'm pretty much finished with named Sky-Spy, and the first rocket to carry my new video camera! I never bothered to post about it, because it doesn't really push the envelope of my ability in any significant way. It's just a low/mid-power rocket meant to boost a small camera to 1,000/2,000 feet. And that's where the fun comes in.

A Ladder to Space

A whatta to wha? What do I mean by a ladder to space? Am I going to try to build the World’s Largest Structure Ever Conceived by Man?

DTH Rocket Endeavors’ Ladder to Space – noun: A metaphorical ladder consisting of certain steps I must take in different seasons of life to get to the point where I have the ability to build spacecraft and other Vehicles of Wonder.

As far as I can see, this ladder has 5 rungs:
1) Model rocketry
2) High-power rocketry
3) College
4) Either get a job or start a privately funded aerospace research company, eventually augmenting the resources for step 5
5) Build a spaceship

Step One: Model Rocketry

Model rocketry is currently where I'm at in my ladder. Model rockets are small, lightweight rockets propelled by commercially-manufactured, NAR-certified motors under 160 Newton-seconds (35 pound-seconds) of total impulse (that probably doesn't mean anything to you, but it equates to a type "G" motor). On the low end of the spectrum, model rockets are typically made from a paper tube, balsa wood fins, a plastic nosecone, and are propelled by black powder propellants. On the large end of the spectrum they are usually powered by ammonium perchlorate composite propellants, which is what NASA uses to power the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters!

Step Two: High-Power Rocketry

This step will probably be the longest process, because it ranges from rockets slightly larger than the ones I'm building now to behemoth monsters that are almost as tall as some baby model rockets can fly! (That might be a slight exaggeration!) There are three levels of high-power rocketry, but I like to think of it as four, because beyond level three you have to build your own motors. Each level is defined by the power of the motors.

Level 1: H - I motors

Level 2: J - L motors

Level 3: M - O motors

Level 4: Research rocketry - Scratch built rocket motors up to size "T." That's 131,072 times larger than any rocket I've built and flown!

Above is a rocket powered by an experimental "S" motor.

Step Three: College

I can't possibly expect to get to space without learning a few things, can I? Next year I will be a Junior in high school (homeschool) so I still have some time to think about it.

Step Four: Undefined

There are zillions of things I could do in this step. I could either get a job with a pre-existing aerospace company, or I could start one. I could build experimental research rockets, join the air force as and aerospace engineer, or anything else that would bequeath to me valuable experience and consolidate my resources.

Step Five: Outer Space

Uh... Why again would I devote my entire life to this? The answer is surprisingly simple: I am fascinated by it. I want to go there. And it's not just outer space that fascinates me, it's the vehicle to get there!