Hope they yelled heads-up!!!

(via DRB's, Oops! Weirdest Accidents, Part 5)

A Bifurcation of Fireballs

Cross-posted from EMRR's Rocket Family Photo Contest (Entry #3):

Here is my mini fleet of Fireball XL5 models. The scratch-built 'papa' flies nicely on 29mm motors and the 'mama' is my Deuce XL5, which is a kitbash of the FlisKits Deuces Wild!. A paper model converted for Micromaxx is the 'baby' of the family. I recently added the 'weird uncle' that they don't like talking about. He's just too 'goony', being bashed from an Estes SS1 kit. Three of these have been reviewed, and the weird uncle is awaiting a flight test. - Papa: Fireball XL5 Mama: Deuce XL5 Baby: Matchhead XL5.

How many of the 16 might find their way into your rockets?

Popular Mechanics presents 16 Wild Materials. Ceramic cloth (#2) and paper honeycomb (#16) seem to have the most direct applicability here in the Dungeon. The rest would take some thought.

V2...oooops

May 30, 1947

El Paso and Juarez were rocked Thursday night when a runaway German V-2 rocket fired from the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico crashed and exploded on top of a rocky knoll three and a half miles south of the Juarez business district.

....

CRATER 50 FEET WIDE, 24 FEET DEEP
....

Read the entire article on Tales from the Morgue. There are also links to related reports.

Bacon up that sausage, boy!

Homer: So you think you know better than this family, eh? Well as long as you're in my house you'll do what I do and believe what I believe! So butter your bacon!

Bart: Yes father.

Lisa: Mom, dad, my spiritual quest is over!

Homer: Hold that thought... Bacon up that sausage, boy!

Bart: But dad, my heart hurts!

(from The Simpsons)

What inspired this post is the Bacon Explosion, two pounds of bacon woven around and through two pounds of sausage, smoked, and slathered with BBQ sauce. Yum! Read about it here (the source site seems to have clogged arteries).

Spaceport America has a twin

A twin sister, that is. Here's the intro to the announcement I saw first on Res Communis.

LAS CRUCES, NM – Officials from the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Spaceport Sweden to align with Spaceport America as ‘Sister Spaceports’. Working in collaboration, the two spaceports will increase global cooperation in the commercial space industry, promote cultural understanding and stimulate local economic development, tourism and education.

Outrage, well expressed

Rocket Jones calls it like I see it.

GRIN

I just found the Great Images In NASA site. Although not as large as some archives, it has a bunch of rocket and rocket-related photos. Here is a photo of a ram-rocket at NACA Lewis (later NASA Glenn Research Center), circa 1947. Bigger copies can be found here.

Artis Magne Artilleriae

Wayne Hill found a reference to this 17th century artillery manual by one Casmir Siemienowicz, General of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Crown Artillery. He also posted Cas' bio:

(born)1600 (died)1651
Kazimierz Siemienowicz, born near Raseiniai in Samogitia, was a Polish-Lithuanian commander in the Polish Royal Artillery. He was fascinated by artillery from childhood and studied to increase his knowledge in this area. He became an expert in the fields of artillery and rocketry. His Artis Magnae Artilleriae pars prima which was first printed in Amsterdam in 1650 became the standard book on firework displays, military and recreational pyrotechnics and rocketry for well over a century. In Artis Magnae Artilleriae pars prima, he published designs for multistage rockets, batteries of rockets, and delta wing stabilizers.

Cool photo of the SS1 cockpit during flight

via digg via Wikimedia - click it!

Ram-rockets in the news

Wired reports on the Navy's Higher Speed Antiradiation Demonstrator (HSAD) project, an upgrade to the AGM-88 HARM missile. The NSAD rocket uses its combustion chamber as a ramjet, making it a 'ram-rocket'. They expect "twice the range of the current HARM at two to three times the average velocity as HARM." Velocity estimates are M3+ to M4+.

This is not a new concept and has even been researched for sport rockets. If the old TRF archives were up I could provide a thread that links to the related documents. I thought I had already done so, but didn't quickly find the post, and didn't look hard since it would only point to the (hopefully temporarily) missing post. These articles, by Chuck Rogers, came from July 1982 and October 1982 issues of California Rocketry magazine. IIRC they were hosted by US Rockets, but I couldn't find where. Luckily, I grabbed them :) There is a also a related post on Rocketry Planet. I am really batting 000 on this issue. If you have additional links, please leave them in the comments.

High power/low tech - ya' gotta love it

I see the principal behind Inverse Engineering has been good enough to begin documenting his exploits on YouTube:

Financial crisis hits sport rocketry - LAUNCH magazine is taking a 'time-out'

As predicted by several people on the rocketry forums, LAUNCH mag announced today that they will be taking a two month hiatus to regroup. In a few day's they'll describe their plan for extending existing subscriptions and providing subscribers with access to on-line content.

It strikes me that the conspicuous, uncommon silence over the last month or so was likely because things were in flux and it was better say nothing than be wrong. If bankruptcy was/is even a possibility, they were probably even advised to keep quiet.

LAUNCH has actively supported sport rocketry and I wish them the best. I'm contemplating signing back up but will wait to see what their plans are. Plus, I'm not 1000% sure that my subscription is in fact over. The first one I reviewed might have been acquired at a bookstore. I can't remember.

Electric rocketry

This month's Scientific American has an article on electric propulsion for spacecraft. I scanned the article and it doesn't seem to have anything new, but if you are interested in such things it's probably worth the read. Hat tip to Rocketry Planet's forum.

RRS report from Randy's Rocketry

Randy reports on this past weekend's launch at the RRS, with photo's of a Zn/S rocket (you gotta love that plume!), a Sugar Shot to Space test, and a LOX/kerosene static fire (I think).

NARAM Live! archives

I've been reporting on NARAM via NARAM Live! for several years. One problem with linking to the site is that, after the event, the content of the main pages are moved to an archive directory. So, here they are. I wonder what the chances are that anybody who finds the old posts will find this one?

• NARAM-50
• NARAM-49
• NARAM-48

RIP Dr. Bill Wilson

I was sad to hear of Dr. Bill's passing. Although in a different EE sub-specialty, I was privileged to have taken two courses from him - basic transmission line theory and microwave theory. I remember him as the friendliest and most accessible professor that I had. He'd always provide whatever help I needed and would do it with a smile. He went way out of his way to solve a major scheduling SNAFU that I had in my senior year. I didn't know Dr. Bill as well as many, but was surprised in later years when he didn't remember me. I thought that I had distinguished myself, if not by superior academics or an outgoing personality at least by being an above average pain in the neck. I guess going above the call of duty was business-as-usual for Professor Wilson. Peace.

Genie missile brain fart

I previously commented about the odd fins on the Genie missile. Well, it appears the answer is that they ain't all there in the photo in that post. (To clarify, it seems they actually fold in to allow the chubby missile to fit under-wing.)

Highlights from EMRR on this Saturday

My brief review of Tim Van Milligan's Model Rocket Design and Construction is in today's EMRR update.

The 2009 Box o' Parts Contest is ON! This year, you create your own box o' parts, EMRR will audit that box for compliance, and you will receive a couple of random pieces of, well, stuff. The rest is as expected...build, fly, document, win loot.

I have 7 new RockSims up (see the 'new' flags here). Six are RockSim 9 designs I've featured here: Estes SS1, Semroc Gee'hod, the Pogo PMC, the SpaceShipSqrt(-1), Fireball XL5, and the XR-71 Greenburd (see RocsSim 9 tag below). The other is for the Semroc V2 with the scale fins option.

Overall there are a whopping 125 NEW RockSims featured! I've been busy entering new found designs into the dB.

Oh, yeah, there are also 9 other reviews, go check them out.

(NOTE: The new tags will expire and new updates will come, so if you read this more and a couple of weeks after the post date you may have to look around a bit more.)

Something else I hate on the Internet

It seems most often when I find something that I want to look at on Yahoo News, all they provide is a video report. Usually, I only want to take a quick glance and move on. However, with the videos I have to listen to a couple minutes before I get to the gist of the article. The end result: I move on immediately.

Launching a Better Brain

Launching a Better Brain, by Steve Jurvetson, Harvard Business Review, February 2009. Go Steve! Go rocketry! Read his comments and find related material here.

Four-By

Another weird 'what-if' design...that doesn't even fly in the virtual world :( Four 24mm mounts, each with their own 'chute.

(four_by.rkt)

Saving money on magazines

I've been patiently waiting for the latest issue of Launch Magazine for about a month. After not receiving it today's mail, I just remembered reading a thread on YORF that someone's subscription had expired without notice...and the light bulb finally came on! I went back through my blog posts and, sure enough, I've reviewed 12 issues (2 years worth). So, I guess my subscription also expired.

They seemed like such professional outfit - I would have expected them to pester me to re-up. After the first year expiration neared, they actually automatically billed me. I didn't like that and they dropped that policy. Now, they overshot the other way.

I liked the mag a lot, but I think I'm done. I guess I have another $30 to blow on other rocket stuff.

Rocket Girls #60

First, a real-life MDRA'er:

Then, a hodgepodge from Flickr:


And, a somewhat off topic entry (BG):

Interesting fins

I had never noticed the tip cord of the fins on the AIR-2 Genie air-to-air missile. I have seen built-up fins but generally they are no left open. Any idea why?

Here's the answer!

More on President Biden

OK, yesterday I reported that a reporter said that VP Biden was the president of the United States for the 5 minutes between noon, when Bush's term expired, and when Barack Obama took his oath. A reader pointed my to a Snopes article debunking this idea. Although I merely skimmed the article, I decided that the reporter was in fact in error.

Nevertheless, it appears the oath was repeated Wednesday evening. The White House claims that Obama was indeed President as of noon yesterday. But, I guess you can never be too careful:

Craig, the White House lawyer, said in a statement Wednesday evening: "We believe the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday. Yet the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of the abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath a second time."

I was just listening to some news and it appears that some constitutional scholars say that, although Obama was in fact President as of noon, he could not execute any authority until he re-took the oath verbatim.

Aerospace links

I noticed my one remaining Blogrolling list is now totally dead. For a while, they have been having problems and had blocked updates. I don't know if they'll be back. Anyway, nothing I could find could completely read their file format so I grabbed the latest backup (not that new) and edited out all but the links. Here it is, just to remind me of what was there. I may stick them into another area later...

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/index.shtml
http://www.apollosaturn.com/
http://www.designation-systems.net
http://www.dcmt.cranfield.ac.uk/aeroxtra/
http://www.astronautix.com/
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile
http://www.fas.org/irp/mystery/
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/row/
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/smart/index.html
http://aesp.nasa.okstate.edu/fieldguide/
http://www.skyrocket.de/space/
http://www.israeli-weapons.com/israeli_weapons_missile_systems.html
http://www.cpia.jhu.edu/
http://www.yellowjacketsystems.com/jimball/scale-data/scale.htm
http://models.lemut.net/drawings/index.html
http://missile.index.ne.jp/en/
http://www.cloudster.com/VaultLobby.htm
http://www.fas.org/spp/guide/usa/launch/sr_handbook.pdf
http://www.ninfinger.org/~sven/
http://yellowjacketsystems.com/alway/Default.htm
http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/pdf/welcome.html#LOKI
http://www.v2rocket.com/
http://www.wsmr-history.org/
http://www.x15.com/

Apogee Rocketry Workshop Video #1: Add Spin Tabs To Your Rocket's Fins

Apogee has kicked off a series of video workshops with a tutorial on spin tabs:



This joins their video on building great modrocs.

2nd scratch Rocksim-9 design - post mortem

Well, the problem with this design bugged me so I started deleting components until the sim worked. I had to delete the Sidewinders as well as their underlying stand-offs. Not worth adding them back and I retained the original. Here is a 2-D view:



(jet_fighter_rs9.rkt)

President Biden (update)

Interesting factoid. Bush's Presidency expired at noon. Barack just got sworn in at around 5 min after. For those 5 minutes, Biden was President. Well, I thought it was interesting.

Update: A reader points to a Snopes article showing that the news reporter was wrong on this one. Dang, sounded like good tidbit.

The Barakmobile (actually, "The Beast")

Nice ride, Mr. President. The actual specs are top secret but Wired's Autopia gives us some details:

GM says the car occupies the "same footprint" as the current presidential ride, but it is a little taller and the windows a little bigger to improve visibility. Limo One is believed to weigh between seven and eight tons, and spy shots suggest it rides on a GM medium-duty truck chassis propelled by a diesel engine. The body is sheathed in military-grade armor as much as 8 inches thick on the doors (each of which weighs as much as the cabin door on a Boeing 747, Motor Authority says). The armor reportedly is a mix of dual-hardness steel, aluminum, titanium and ceramic. The windows are ballistic glass said to be 5 inches thick, and Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times says there's probably a woven Kevlar mat covering the floorboard to protect the car from blasts. The cabin is believed to feature a sealed air recirculation system to protect its occupants from chemical attacks.

2nd scratch Rocksim-9 design - mixed results

This is a jet-fighter styled rocket complete with faux-Sidewinders. The good news: I like the general look. The bad news: I hit the problem where the sim won't run. Since this was an exercise only, I don't want to replace all the pod-mounted components just to find which one is breaking it. I thought this had gone away since the last several designs worked fine. Sigh.

(jet_fighter_rs9.rkt)

First scratch RockSim-9 design

I was just goofing around and have no plans to build this. It has motors in the pods but no central mount - not generally a good idea. It's named the SPDN1 (Scratch Pod Design Numero Uno). BT-60 main tube, altimeter in payload section, LOC24mm outboard tubes. 20.2 oz loaded with 3 D12-5's. 891" altitude with an optimal delay of 5.73 sec on those three motors.

(FPD-1.rkt)

Microblogging from space

A Japanese non-profit group called called the Kansai Space Initiative (KSI) plans to build a small satellite that will be open to everyone. The KaSpl-1 microsatellite will piggyback on another payload in 2013. While the exact capabilities are still being planned, there will be a camera pointing at a digital screen that can display emailed user messages while in orbit.

Somehow, this capability doesn't impress me, although it would be an excellent project for a university to tackle. Personally, I don't know what to do with terrestrial microblogging. (via techradar)

Gee'hod RockSim-9

Alert: TRF server malware (update)

TRF's new host, IX Web Access, has a nifty little script that redirects link-ins from the major search engines to malware ('Antivirus 2009'). Details are here.

Update: For now this problem has been resolved, but in general you should beware of odd pop-ups, redirects, requests to scan for malware, etc, etc, etc.

TRF is baaaaack!

The Rocketry Forum 2.0 is back on-line . You have to re-register and at least for now, the old database isn't loaded. So for now, it is a clean slate. TRF is under new management but will largely be run as before, i.e. play nice, nothing illegal, 'G' rated, etc. The new guidelines can be found here. I signed on but I think admin action is required since I can't post, set my avatar, etc. Oh, BTW, I have formally retired as a mod and will have no special privileges. Best of luck to the new owner and all the mods, both new and old.

SpaceShipSqrt(-1) in RockSim-9

The wing pods and cockpit worked out nicely. Note that the cockpit components start internally and thus conform to the body tube.

XFY-1 Pogo in RockSim-9, redux

On my previous iteration, I formed the upper section of the body (the body's cross section is oblong) with a single thick fin. This left noticeable gaps. In RS-9, you can add components internally so they will seamlessly protrude from a body tube. In the revised model, I started the fin about 1/2" inside the body tube and extended the height by the same amount. The sides of this component are seamless and the ends are improved. You can still see a half-moon shaped divot in the attached rendering. If the main body was wider or if the added section were shorter, then this would look better. Too bad rendered fins don't reflect an airfoil. I played around with a cone/tail cone pair, but found the fin looked better.

Steampunk rocketry = hydrogen powered rocket

From the annals of Make Mag, I find this cool hydrogen powered rocket. The control system uses a 12V 3.3Ah lead-acid battery to generate the hydrogen and ignite the gas. Kinda like an armor-plated version of the Estes Hydrogen Fuel Rocket Set.

Dean Wheeler also has a hydrogen powered rocket, but his used the hydrogen fuel to pressurize a water rocket.

XFY-1 Pogo in RockSim-9

Now, with functional outboard booster pods! This is the 2nd RS9 design in a row that worked without me having to remove and re-add the fin's-on-fins. This is a good thing! This changed for me when I registered the program and got the authorization file. Coincidence?

More about the model can be found via the 'Pogo' tag, below.

Got Twitter?

There is no way I want to venture into the maelstrom, but I have to admit that I have been following the preparations for President Elect Obama's inauguration and will be interested to see how it plays out. It sounds like it will be somekind of zoo with an unbelievable 3 - 5 million people expected. I will be glued to the boob-tube next Tuesday. When I saw the DCist said they'd be Twittering the event, I went ahead and signed up. I guess I'll sign on and keep the laptop on also.

I am dubious about whether I'll like Twitter much less whether it will do me any good. I don't know how people use it and I don't do texting. I also don't know whether I even want to start micro-blogging. Heck, I'm not that sure about macro-blogging! I think using it might make me feel schizophrenic. {Shut up. Don't tell me to shut-up, this is my post....}

Maybe if I get any followers I'd consider trying it. So, are any of you regular readers also on Twitter? If so, here's my feed.

More photos posted

I added albums for Red Glare IV, Red Glare II and TRF-3 to my OurPlanet page. I also added some missile-aneous photos to my Flickr photostream. Since I'm volume limited there, I think I'll put most of my rocket photos on OurPlanet.

How far away is the horizon?

I have heard the answer many times but, before Phil Plait asked and then answered his own question, I also had totally forgotten. The answer is found with some simple math which Phil lays out nicely. I'll leave the details to the reader but will grab just a few of his results.

Height (meters)	Distance (km)	Height(feet)	Distance (miles)
0	0.0	0.0	0.0
1	3.6	3.3	2.1
2	5.1	6.6	3.0
12,000	391.0	39,360.0	234.6
100,000	1,132.7	328,000.0	679.6
500,000	2,572.0	1,640,000.0	1543.2
1,000,000,000	1,006,344.9	3,280,000,000.0	603,806.9

The first three items might be useful in limiting a search if you see your rocket come down. Of course these results assume a smooth Earth, i.e. no hills, valleys, or obstructions. The fourth altitude is around where jet airliners cruise. The sixth is around the highest Shuttle orbit. The last item is a limiting case showing that as you get very far away you apporach seeing half of the planet. The mean radius of the earth is around 6,365 km or 3,955 miles. At a height of one million kilometers, the distance to the horizon is approximately that height plus the Earth's radius.

Another RS9 3D render

I'm finding RockSim 9 to be a lot of fun. Here's my latest render...my ancient XR-71 Green Burd. On this one, I'm thinking the stability estimate might be a little pessimistic, as proven by the real world.

RockSim 9 issues post - reminder

I know the organization is getting a little convoluted but, just for the record, I am still maintaining my post on the issues I'm finding with RockSim 9. Now, aren't you glad I reminded you (?).

Falcon 9 standing at attention

This shot of the Falcon 9, at sunset and with a moon rise, is my favorite from Space X's Jan. 11 update. (as usual, click for full sized)

EMRR at 11

And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy parts bin. Then shalt thou count to eleven, no more, no less. Eleven shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be eleven. Twelve shalt thou not count, neither count thou ten, excepting that thou then proceed to eleven. Thirteen is right out. Once the number eleven, being the eleventh number, be reached, then buildest thou thy Holy Contest Entry of Elevate Eleven.

Spudgun and cool Adobe Acrobat application

Bill Gurstelle points to an upgrade to his Night Lighter 36 potato cannon plans. These have appeared in Make Magazine and his Whoosh Boom Splat book. But, Make has now enhanced the plans by including an interactive 3-D model. This is really cool. From within the .pdf file, you can zoom, rotate, and explode (no pun intended) the model. You can also select a single component from the parts list to separately extract that part. The file is here. Grab the file and have fun. I'm sure there are other capabilities I haven't played with. If you find something else cool, please leave a comment.

Estes SpaceShipOne in RockSim-9

The fins are pretty close in shape and size but may be not be positioned properly. I had fins to measure from my bashed kits but didn't have a built kit nor could I find a set of instructions. I'll have to look around some more. The sims even ran!

Stupid pre-coffee thoughts

Why do I add dashes where they don't belong and leave them when they do? Fireball XL-5 vs. Fireball XL5 and V2 vs. V-2.

In internet communications, smileys should be a valid form of punctuation :) Ending a sentence like this just doesn't look right to me :).

There was more but I got sidetracked while getting more coffee.

Fireball XL5 in RockSim-9

Follow the tag for more on this model.

RockSim-9 running problem list (update 5)

Thought I'd document these here. Some may be operator error. All apply to the Goonball XL5 unless otherwise noted.

1. When adding a custom fin to a pod, the plan point graph is blank and display only the origin point. When you try to add a point you get a message saying that you can not divide that line. If you add the fin to a regular BT, you can then cut and paste it to the pod. You can then modify the graph. See more below but don't copy them from another body tube. Instead, select an existing fin design from the library and modify it. You can, however, copy from another pod.
   
2. When I looked at the calculation methods, they both said Barrowman. Since this design used components that can be handled by that method, the program should switch the selection to RockSim. It undoubtedly did so under the hood. Worked in V8. This may not be an issue. I was just looking at the model for the Madcow Jayhawk that is included with this revision. It allows both Rocksim and Barrowman modes and the CP does change with each selection. Maybe this limitation has been removed in V9(?). One more odd thing, however. The Barroman mode is more pessimistic than the RockSim method. Just backwards from what I expected from previous versions. Furthermore, the more optimistic Barrowman mode says the CP is 19.5" from the nose cone tip. So, what's odd? A: The instructions say to balance the model at 19" from the NC tip! :eek: For now I don't trust the 'pod' extensions. This model was stable with that CG.
   
3. I load an engine just like in V8, but the rocket never moves. Thrust to weight is good. Other designs of mine seem to work. The provided model for the Madcow Jayhawk (uses pods) works. Head scratching going on. I deleted components until I found which ones were causing the problem. It was the fins-on-fins. I deleted them, added in a set from the library, and modified the points to get the proper shape and dimensions. It now works. Evidently, Rsim didn't like me copying a fin from elsewhere on the model.

Here's some more notes based on a model of my Fireball XL5:

1. I started by importing an existing RS-8 'what-if' model.
   
2. I ran into the same type issues as noted above. Initially it worked. However, after I tweaked the details including fin shape, position and thickness, the sims wouldn't run. I had to delete the fins-on-fins and start over. It then once again worked.
3. The motor mount design screen didn't display the position control. I couldn't reposition it after changing the rocket's length due to the added tail cones. Luckily, I could control the overhang from the rear by changing the mount's length. Not optimal, but at least it got me by. This isn't the case in any other designs I've looked at, so this likely is not much of an issue.
4. Update 5: Along the lines of the bold comments to item 2 above, the model of my XL5 is both cool and concerning to me. The Barrowman CP is at 17" from the NC tip and the RockSim is at 17.4". The actual as-flown margin is 0.13 and 0.23, respectively. I can't say that my model is even accurate enough to believe a margin that close. There are elements to the XL5 that still are not modeled, such as the main wings being big wedges, etc. I also can say the model is wrong, because I guess it could be that it flies fine with those margins....but....I doubt it. It has flown stably in moderate winds but it wiggles a lot after burn out, however - a sign of marginal stability. Again, for now, I will take the results from fin-on-fin designs with a grain of salt.
   

Goonball XL5 in RockSim-9

Here's a 3-D export from RockSim-9. I still have to tweak the actual measured mass. Without a motor, it seems stable enough with a margin of 0.78. However, I probably will have to add a bit more nose weight when a motor is loaded.

Obama and space

The blogaverse is full on info on Obama and space - what he may and may not do, what his transition team is up to, who may and may not replace Mike Griffin, etc, etc, etc.

Here are two news items I saw this morning.

chron.com notes that NASA's new moon rover will act as the caboose in the inauguration parade.



And Masten has posted the summary of their meeting with the NASA transition team.

Sport Rocketry, January/February 2009

Lead article is coverage of the 17th World Spacemodeling Championships that were held in Lleida, Spain. Other than spotting NARHAMSter Ed Pearson, this one didn't really interest me. Nor did the article on the OOP Estes CAMROC. What saved this issue was an article on two DIY centering ring jigs, one for the outer surface and one for the inner hole. Oh, and the cover came from NARAM-50 rather than the Spacemodeling Championships.

Pinewood derby on roids

Like pinewood derby? Want more speed than gravity can provide? Try CO2 rocket cars. Pitsco's Science of Speed site offers all kinds of info of the competitions, the techniques, the science, and the kits. The photo is Alan M's Muffin, which places 12th in the 2008 middle school competition.

Fringe breaks into the real world?

I like Fringe, an 'X-Files-like' show that is set in a world where reanimation, teleportation and other 'mad science' is not only possible but is being implemented. Now, I see Wired Danger Room's report on a US Army conference called the "2008 Mad Scientist Future Technology Seminar."

"The objective of the seminar was to investigate proliferating technologies with the potential to empower individuals and groups in the next 10-25 years," according to an unclassified summary of the Mad Scientist gathering, obtained by Danger Room.

Wired even has an unclassified (watered down and non-technical) summary of the conference, which included presentations on:

• Robotics (Jones, iRobot Corporation)
• Human Life Extension (Coles, Gerontology Research Group)
• Quantum Technology (Dowling, Louisiana State University)
• Molecular Manufacturing (Jacobstein, Teknowledge)
• Machine Intelligence (Yudkowsky, Singularity Institute)
• Global Sensor Grid (Orcutt, University of California – San Diego)
• Synthetic Biology (Weiss, Princeton University,
• Virtual Reality (Peterson, The Strategy Augmentation Group)
• Beyond Silicon Computing (Mazumder, National Science Foundation)
• Nano Materials (Sulcoski, National Ground Intelligence Center)
• Alternative Energy (Bushnell, NASA Langley Research Center)
• Brain/Neurologics (Braunreiter, SAIC)
• Emerging Individual Empowerment (Petersen, The Arlington Group)
• Superempowered Individuals (Smart, Acceleration Studies Foundation)

These topics don't seem totally mad...but then...we don't know the details.

Direct 2.0 makes pitch to Obama transition team

NASA Renegades Pitch Obama Team New Post-Shuttle Plan - Popular Mechanics (via Clark Lindsey)

"We got a full hearing today," he says. "If they're interested, they'll call."

Rocket-powered karts!

Rocket Karts is a cool page featuring rocket-powered go-karts. The one shown is "Captain Jack" McClure's Turbonique-powered go-kart. This used the bigger 1500 lb motor and would hit 215 mph in the quarter mile.The site speculates that these karts might have led to the NHRA ban on Turbonique. (link found on Rocketry Planet)

Rocket girls #59

Before there was electricity a safety code:


A few (more) from Madcow:


No rocket here, but I liked it. Here's Jean Rogers playing Dale Arden on the original Flash Gordon serial.
And, sometimes, it's all about perspective:

RASAero 1.0.1.0 released

A new release of Rogers Aeroscience's RASAero is now available. Fixed a few bugs. Still FREE!

Retro-oddity: a jet-powered train

The Aérotrain was air-levitated and powered by a Pratt & Whitney JT12 jet engine.

Fanboy.com has a nice post with the history of this concept (nice, even though it was jet-powered rather than rocket-powered). The source material includes Wikipedia article and this French site, which is the source of the photo to the right.

What's next, a burrito tax?

It appears someone has actually measured the frequency and volume of cow farts. They also differentiated between dairy and beef cattle. As I was sitting here sipping coffee, I started thinking. Cows may generate more methane than people, but I bet there are a lot more of us than them. Should the government then go after the growers/producers/resellers of the foods which cause the most gas in humans? The added tax per burrito* would be small, but then we eat a lot of them. (*replace this word with one of your own selection)

(Only drinking coffee, honest!)

EPA wants to tax bovine greenhouse gas emissions?

When I first saw this, I figured the story's source was The Onion. Nope. The Cattle Network discusses how recent EPA actions may lead to a 'cow tax'. It seems they issued an NPRM asking about regulating greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. If they then find greenhouse gasses are a pollutant, the Clean Air Act will kick in and require entities that emit over 100 tons per year get a permit. Well, it is estimated that this will affect about 99 percent of the dairy producers and 90 percent of the beef producers. It surprised me that any farm/ranch with over about 25 dairy or 50 beef cattle would be affected. I had heard that cattle farts were a major source of methane emissions, but I never thought 25 cows could generate 100 tons per year. It is estimated that the proposed actions will lead to a "tax" of $175 per dairy cow and $87.50 per beef cow.

EMRR 2009 contest pre-announcement

EMRR has posted a first-look at the

2009 EMRR Challenge, and

2009 Design this Spaceship Contest.

TOGinator....schweeeeet!

How could I not swipe a copy of this photo of Boris and Paul's TOGinator? Click it and take a gander at what a 27 motor cluster looks like. Follow the link to find out more about this and their other cool projects.

Magnetic fin jig?

Seems pricey for what it'll do for me, but this magnetic jig might be adaptable or rocketry use. (Via Toolmonger)

Unidentified historic rocket

This was lifted from YORF. The name on the file is 'Tuckerton Rocket'. Just thought it fit nicely with some of the other oldies that I've found. (The others are identified with the 'Professional Rocketry: Historic' label.)

The (not so) big list of 2008 lists

As 2009 approaches, the 'Top 10 1 - 100 of 2008' lists will begin showing up in the ol' newsreader. This year, I will again capture them in a single post. As I update the list, I'm going to try updating the date so it pops to the top of my blog. I'll see how that works out. Now, just like in 2006, my list of lists is started with Phil Plait's top 10.

Best of 2008

• The Bad Astronomer's Top 10 Astronomy Pictures of 2008
• National Geographic Top Ten: Most Viewed Photos
• Science Magazine's top 10 via the Cosmic Log - The Year in Science
• Discover's Top 100 Stories
  
• Wired's Sexiest Geeks (currently in the voting phase)
• The Best and Worst Selling Cars and Trucks (Forbes)
• Time's Top Ten of Everything
• Lifehacker's top 20 top 10's of 2008 - so this post has become a list of lists of lists
• National Geographic's Top 10 (most read) Archaeology Finds
• National Geographic's Top 10 (most read) Dinosaur Fossil Finds
• Did you contribute to Yahoo's shopping top 10's? (another list of lists of lists)
• And, I even have my own Top 10!
• The Cosmic Log's Year In Space (includes voting on the top story of 2008)
• Space.com's top 5 astronomy discoveries
• Tina Fey, entertainer of the year? You betcha! (is a list of one item still a list?)
• Popular Mechanics' 6 Technologies That Shaped 2008
• Vote for the weirdest science of 2008 (via the Cosmic Log)
• Best of IO9's Found Footage: NSFW, Just the Way You Like It
• Top Tech from Wired
• PCWorld's top tech lists
• FlightGlobal's top 10 aircraft images
• IEEE Spectrum Winners and Losers IV (no direct links to the items, so look at the magazine index (at least until the next issue takes its place))
• Clark Lindsey's NewSpace Review
• Clark points to a few other year-end reviews
• The Best of Dark Roasted Blend
  

Predictions for 2009

• Science Magazine's 7 to watch via the Cosmic Log - The Year in Science (near the bottom)
• The Cosmic Log's Year In Space (includes voting on the top trend of 2009)
• Space.com 2009 night sky calendar
• Ian Kluft's State of the Research 2009 on the suspected impact crater in the Black Rock Desert
  

What's In and What's Out

• The List (may ask for a log-in; I hit back and when I tried again it came up)
  

(I added the 'not so' to the title as I have omitted more than I added, mostly from main stream pop culture - best movies, actors, actresses, etc, etc, etc.)

Air Command's Recovery Guide

Air Command has compiled an extensive guide to rocket recovery. Although oriented towards water rockets, it provides a comprehensive survey of processes and techniques. For example, we 'pyro' folks almost never plan to use lawn dart recovery (although we end up with our share of them). The guide does cover many things that are more common in our world than in water rocketry. What interests me most are the things rooted in water rocketry that I might someday want to try.

NAR website outage

I just saw a note that the NAR's website is down due to a problem with their hosting service. Hopefully, service will be restored today.

Robbie, Rhys, and Robbie