If a balloon pops in near-space, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? (Robonaut-1)

A: Depends on your payload.

Wanted Dead or Alive: Amateur rocket GPS tracked to >100K ft

Rocketry Planet reported on a bounty offered by John Carmack of Armadillo Aerospace:

Earlier this week, the gamer-turned-aerospace developer posted an offer of $5,000 for the first rocket to exceed 100,000 feet above launch altitude that could provide a GPS serial log of the flight with at least one report above the magic number. The rocket would also have to be recovered intact within 24 hours of the launch.

This challenge was issued on the aRocket amateur rocketry mail list.  The RP post provides all the particulars.

It appears Paul "Unreasonable Rocket" Breed, owner of Netburner and like-minded rocketeer, offered up another $2K.

The article mentions how John and Paul like reading about rockets...well, so do I.  Following this will be fun!  Since I don't follow aRocket, I'll have to report 2nd, 3rd, or nth hand on this.  Ladies and gentlemen, light that fuse!

PS - I hear at least one other person has sweetened the pot.

Student balloon project images Discovery from above

Alan Boyle reports on the Robonaut-1 balloon project, which imaged Discovery/STS-133 from the stratosphere.  The project was a joint project by between the Challenger Center for Space Science Education and Quest for Stars.  The balloon payload included a smart phone, however, the team found that the cell coverage over the south Florida swamps was poor.  They have recovered the Robonaut-1 and are extracting more images.

This is a frame grab from a video shot by a GoPro Hero Motorsport on a helium balloon launched to image the shuttle Discovery as it transited the stratosphere. The fogging is due to the fact that the balloon is coming through the troposphere when this picture was taken at 5:05 ET.

Bye bye Discovery

Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133, originally uploaded by NASA Goddard Photo and Video.

Feb. 24, 2011 - STS-133, the 38th and final mission of Space Shuttle Discovery, OV-003.  Click through for more photos.

A brief history of the British Interplanetary Society

Project Daedalus - Credit and copyright: Adrian Mann

Paul Glister posted a short history written by Kevin Long, physicist, aerospace engineer, and co-founder of Project Icarus:  British Interplanetary Society: Then and Now - Centauri Dreams.

NASA Tech presents 360o panoramas

NASA Tech provides some cool 360 degree panoramic views of KSC/CCAFS and related space projects.  Currently featured on the home page are STS-134/Endeavour, STS-133/Discovery and 3-D images from the Opportunity Rover.  High speed Internet connection recommended. (hat tip to Clark Lindsey)

If you don't attend a launch, do rockets still fly?

Since I couldn't attend last weekend's ESL launch, I thought I could at least post a few photos. Warthog sent me these: The "Christmas in February" Candle on an I211W and his IRIS was on an I225FJ.

Rocket fans, mark your calendars

Glory
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 23
Time: 5:09 a.m. EST
Location: Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
Coverage: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv (3:30 a.m. EST start)

Space Shuttle Discovery
Date: Thursday, Feb. 24
Time: 4:50 p.m. EST
Location: Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Coverage: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

 X-37B
Date: Friday, March 4
Location: Cape Canaveral, Fla.

(reminders courtesy of the Parabolic Arc)

Water rocket stagecoach spaceship

Clark Lindsey reports on another reference spaceship design, the Space Coach, which was first described in a paper published in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society.  In a real sense, this would be a water rocket.  Water plays a central role in its propulsion (the rocket part) as well as crew safety and life support.  The authors liken the spaceship is stagecoaches that helped develop the Western US. 

Poke around their website.  It is quite interesting and is unconventional when compared to the metal capsules that come to mind when most of us think of spaceships.

Surgical tools

Pictured below are the tools I used in performing the recent trans-tubal resection of the shock cord mount in the Ballistic Chicken.  Specifically, the curved blades.  These can both be used to pry and are sharp enough to cut away the paper. If you are gentle and go slowly, no sutures will be required.

Painting weather came and went

Today, our winds were something like 40mph sustained with gusts to 60+mph.  But Thursday and Friday were decent.  The results are below.  The process (just for the record): Painter's Touch primer, 2 coats, wait a day; then 'New' Krylon Yellow (p'tuey), 2 coats.  It covered well but the nozzle geometry did seem to be wasteful. But I had a 50% off coupon and that's what Hobby Lobby had.  I also surgically removed the stock tri-fold shock cord mount in favor of an I Build Rockets 24mm parachute anchor.

Updates on the NAUTILUS-X

For you more detail-oriented space enthusiasts,  Robot Guy reports on the interchange that he had with Mark L. Holderman of NASA-JSC regarding the NAUTILUS-X presentation.  Mark also provided an updated presentation, which RG has posted to Google Docs. 

Hot bodies: Lifting, half-cone, and a lenticular

http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/M2-F1/HTML/EC62-175.html

Excellent photos of the HL-10 Lifting Body X-24B (plus more)

I grabbed this photo from a thread on the Replica Prop Forum. Although it focuses on the HL-10, the thread also has some photos of other lifting bodies and X-Planes.  I have seen a lot of them, but many were new to me.  It's well worth wading through.  I also need to see what else is on that forum.

A reader has commented that this photo shows the X-24A separating from NB-008.  See his comment below for more info.

Titan-V, Option 4

Fins adjusted to somewhat resemble the Dyna-Soar Titan-1 variant depicted here.  I just noticed that the previous Option 3 was identified as a Gemini Titan-V even though it had a Dyna-Soar in place of the capsule.  Oops.

New strap-on booster courtesy of I Build Rockets

Before and After:

In my dreams...

Last night, I dremt about an MDRA launch.  As usual, my memory of the dream wasn't very persistent.  However, I remember the details of one flight.  I was going to fly my RocketVision Machbuster (the real one was lost many years ago) on a G-something.  I took it to the 'pads' where I thought it would fit.  In this case, Neil was seated in front of the MDRA controller and the 'pads' were on a table about 3' away.  But all the rods were 1/4".  So, he handed me a 3/16" rod and told me to stick it in the ground by the low power rack, which was a few feet to the left.  This is weird for many reasons.  Anyway, the flight went really hight, but not high enough you coulnd't see ejection.  The small rocket separated into three parts (nose, body, and tail cone) and fell close by.  Of course, the actual rocket didn't have a screw-on plastic tail cone that looked like the top of an AeroTech LMS motor.

That's it.  Psychiatrists need not respond :)

Gemini Titan-V, Option 3

Looks like a five finned, one motored, Dyna-Soar-equipped Deuce's Wild!  The fin style may change, but they need to be BIG to counteract the Dyna-Soar's forward wings!

Gemini Titan-V, Option 2

I just moved the fins from on the strap-ons to in between them.  I thought the first version would be more unique, but I think I like this one better.

The Bloodhound SCC, HTP, and HTPB

If I knew this, I'd forgotten it.  The Bloodhound SSC will use a 'different' kind of hybrid engine - catalyzed High Test Peroxide (HTP) + good ol' HTPB. Clark Lindsey found an article about it:  Tobacco, Flesh and Testing from Outside the Box.  If you forgot other details about this rocket car (or never knew them), you can explore the menu bar on that site.

Gemini Titan-V

NASA's NAUTILUS-X Multi-mission Spacecraft

The Non– Atmospheric Universal Transport Intended for Lengthy United States -- X-ploration Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV) was pitched to NASA's Future in Space Operations (FISO) group by a JSC team. (An advanced version is pictured.)  This is the kind of stuff NASA should be doing!

The design is adaptable to multiple missions from 1 month through 2 years. It would carry a crew of six.  It  would be modular to allow mission-specific propulsion units, capsule/descent/return vehicles and service modules (including inflatables).  It would include a ring centrifuge to provide partial gravity for crew health (based on a Hughes spin-stabilized comsat).  It would be assembled in orbit so the 'bus' won't need to worry about re-entry. It would utilize the ISS (yay!) for proof of concept testing and operational deployment. I've already spent way too much time trying to summarize what is already well documented.  The following sources provide addition discussion about the MMSEV's pro's and con's.  The devil is in the details...and the  $3.7 price tag when NASA can't afford what they already have on the books.

• Clark Lindsey
• Robot Guy (includes the embedded slideshow)
• Selenian Boondocks

New parts from I Build Rockets

This weekend, I received a small envelope from Sascha down at I Build Rockets.  But it was packed!  I got an assortment of his new parachute anchor kits and 6 pairs of BT-5 resin cones/engine bells.  The anchor kits include a 3/32" laser-cut anchor, a hook eye, a swivel, and a short Kevlar leader. The photo shows a 24mm anchor kit but I also received the 18mm and 13mm versions.  The resin cones are really nice.  The unit on the left will become the new outboard for my MRC Iron Man, replacing the somewhat goofy looking plastic doohickey that I had used when this classic rocket was reconditioned. (I had already replaced it but that intermediate outboard has been removed. The new one will look much better!)

I also am thinking about what to build with the remaining 5 sets of resin nose/tail cones.  Whatever I do, it will also incorporate one of the anchor kits.  One thought is a Titan-like rocket.  I have a suitable Semroc BT-60 cone.  If I go BT-60, then I'll have a long-ish BT50 stuffer in which the anchor will be mounted.  There would be four (or five?) BT-5 outboards.  Then, I have that Roachwerks Dynasoar....

EMRR transition observation (update)

I just noticed that a 'Flight Stats' link has been added to the 'My Stuff' section on the new site.

• The Good: First, I think that it's great that flight stats are being implemented. Plus, info is provided for all years, not just the past three.
• The Bad: Some of the underlying source data is clearly wrong.  I know I didn't fly 6244N-s at the June 26, 2010 launch.
• The Ugly: The 'drill down' isn't deep enough to help identify what the problem might be.

Update:  Roger reports that he is aware of the issue and is working to get the database normalized.

The role of risk avoidance in getting back to the moon

Yet another quote from "Oral Histories From the Pioneers of America's Space Program, Part 2" by Dr. Davis-Floyd (U.Texas) and Dr. Cox (NASA JSC).(highlights are by me)

I’ll make another prediction that’s not original with me because Bob Gilruth said it long before I did. He said, “Next time we go to the moon, the people who do it are really going to find out that it is very difficult.” I would agree with him on that. With the modern ground rules, it’s almost impossible to do. The military talks about “rules of engagement.” Well, I’ll talk about rules concerning risk and so forth. Those rules we have imposed on ourselves almost preclude the possibility of a reasonable landing on the moon in the next thirty or forty years. That’s my feeling. We either change the rules or we won’t get there for another thirty or forty years.

-Max Faget

Oops. Someone didn't hire FlisKits.

Another quote from "Oral Histories From the Pioneers of America's Space Program, Part 2" by Dr. Davis-Floyd (U.Texas) and Dr. Cox (NASA JSC).

When we were evaluating the proposals to build the Mercury capsules, we used a numerical rating system to rank the contractors. I was in charge of the propulsion review team and gave one contractor a zero. Bob Gilruth called me in and said ”Guy, you shouldn’t give anyone a zero. Why did you do it?” I said, “Because I couldn’t give them a minus.” They knew the escape rockets resultant thrust should be along the capsules axis, so they had all the nozzles pointed down right at the capsule so they passed through the capsule’s center of gravity!

-Guy Thibodaux

Dates set for the Saturn 1B launch and Red Glare X

I just received notice that Steve Eves' and Vern Hoag's big Saturn 1B's will fly on April 16th and that Red Glare X is set for the previous weekend, April 8th-10th.  Mark your calendars and watch the MDRA web site for all the particulars.

This post provides the details about the rockets and their power plants: http://rocketdungeon.blogspot.com/2011/01/saturn-1b-launch-announcement.html

Big a$$ rocket of the day - OuR Project 94k

New, via Rogers Aeroscience:

The series of technical articles on the OuR Project R Rocket which were published in the July 1997 issue of High Power Rocketry magazine. The OuR Project R Rocket, which had a total impulse of 260,000 Newton-seconds, reached an altitude of 94,000 ft above ground level based on time to apogee measured from an onboard video which was transmitted to a ground station during the flight. Includes the technical article Postflight Analysis of the OuR Project R Rocket Flight, by Charles E. Rogers, on the postflight analysis of the rocket performance using time to apogee from the onboard video and the mid 1990's versions of the Rogers Aeroscience aerodynamic drag prediction and altitude prediction software.

Download the OuR Project R Rocket Technical Articles

High Power Rocketry magazine, October 1999

Last night, I had a few minutes to kill so I randomly grabbed an old issue of HPR.  I'll briefly review the contents and point out that the last item is really what prompted me to post.

The cover article is about the construction and flight of a beautiful 12" diameter IRIS.  Sonotube, custom nose cone, modular mount, professional paint, M1938.  Although recovery was unsuccessful, the causes were clear so you can still learn from it.

There were two articles on clustering.  One was a typical but thorough review of the subject and included sample cluster geometries, a review of core geometries and propellant types, their relative ease of ignition (i.e. Blue Thunder is the easiest and Black Jack is the hardest), how to dip your e-matches, and much more.  The second was about the less commonly discussed subject of launch lug placement.  The author was the TRA prez Bruce Kelly.  He surrounds his tips with the description of a 3x 'J' motor rocket in which the motors were in-line.  When only one of the outer J700's ignited, it has enough lateral force to whip a 3/4" rod.  He premise is simple.  If you have in-line motors, don't also place the lug(s) in-line. Instead, place it orthogonal to the 'motor line' and centered between a pair of fins.  On all other geometries (three in a triangle, four in a square, a central mount surrounded by 'n' motors), nestle the lug in a fin root.  A more current tip would now be to fly large clusters on rails instead of even large diameter rods!

There's also a short article on Why Altimeters Fail, the 4th installment of Ed Miller's long running series on Rocket Art, and a single launch report on Nebraska Heat III.

Finally, in the Section Soundings section, I noticed a report from Don Brown on a NARHAMS launch.  Say what?  A NAR report in a TRA magazine?

August 14th dawned a beautiful, slightly breezy, HOT, HOT, HOT day....

In attendance were Don, Carly Truszynski, Bob Utley and Kathy Gilliand (now of MDRA fame), Tom Anderson, David Mann, Richard Pennington, the Bittle family and, at the last minute, Alan Holmes.  I'll point out that nothing over an E15 was flown.  Bob and Cathy flew C6's including a cluster with four 1/2 A's.  They also pulled out the mighty D12's.   Don, you flew an Estes Bull Pup on a C5 and a Silver Comet on a D12.  The latter landed in the field over the tree line.  This gave you a dose of something poisonous and itchy.

New rocket term of the day: missilier

Ben Brockert snaps a shot of the Tube Rocket with the fins on: It looks so much... missilier with the fins on - Twitpic (via Clark Lindsey)

The Liberty™ Frankenstein rocket

ATK and Astrium (an EADS Company) are teaming to respond to NASA's Commercial Crew Development-2 (CCDev-2) procurement. I grabbed this diagram from R2K.  As shown, their Liberty™ rocket is a conglomeration of ATK's 5-segment Ares-I design topped by an Ariane 5-derived 2nd stage.  Somewhere, I saw there was a concern that ATK is taking the product they were developing for NASA and now wants to sell it back to them.  I say more power to them. If this turns out to be the best new launcher, at least the Ares-I money went to some good.  I think this is obviously the preferred approach since it will keep ATK in business (I'm being mostly facetious, but that certainly is a concern.)

References (all via Clark Lindsey):

• ATK/Astrium enter CCDev-2 with Ares I/Ariane combo - RLV & Space Transport
• Companies team up on new rocket: Liberty could haul space taxis to orbit - Florida Today
• Alliant, EADS Unit to Launch Rocket Venture - WSJ.com
• Rocket could "close launch gap" - BBC
• Thoughts on Liberty and justice for all CCDev competitors - Clark Lindsey, again

Mini-Review: Negative Camouflage

[This review is 'mini' because it's about an old rocket, the rocket was destroyed, and my memory isn't that great.  But, hey, it's not like I haven't built around 300 rockets in recent post-BAR history.  How can I be expected to remember them all?]

This was a BT-60 rocket with a 29mm mount.  The nose was recovered from another project, the fins were scrap plywood, and I forget how the mount and recovery system were constructed. [See above.]

The original nose had a long section of BT 5 mounted in it.  I didn't like the looks so I chopped most of it off.  I added a small conical nose that was inset slightly into the tube, kind of ram-jet style.  I wasn't that crazy about the looks of this iteration either, but I thought it was an improvement.

The shape of the fins was actually determined by the shape of some other set.  They were recovered from areas around the holes left when said other fins were cut.  I like the shape a lot.

I hand painted the not-so-camo paint scheme.  The nose was the original color.

The first flight was on Feb. 23, 2002 on an F10-8.  The long burn was really cool and it was quickly out of sight. We saw the tracking powder at ejection, but the rocket was gone. But, not for long. It was found and later returned.

The next flight was on August 11th of that year.  I thought I'd use a smaller motor for the second flight so I adapted an E9-6. Well, it hung slightly on the rod and, when it finally got free, went horizontal. It hit a remote launch tower and exploded due to impact. The cone and upper body were converted to a bag of small pieces. The fins were again scavenged.

New Quest motors on the way? I'm not holding my breath.

Chris Michielssen posted the following from a discussion on TRF.

Posted on TRF from Oliver - European Rocketeer: "But seriously, our German Quest distributor is currently developing a new engine line. From what I heared, Bill Stine just visited him last year so we may see this engines comming to the US sooner or later. I just saw first prototypes last Friday including D engines in 18 mm casings - looking great!"

Check this out:
http://www.europerocketry.com/index.php?id=rocketnewsdetails&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=205&cHash=ac2ed8acd5b4511045e37fbfd5f6da9b

An 18mm D7?
24mm C12 and D18s
These are composite propellants, not black powder.
These engines will be available (in Germany) in the next six months, replacing the older WECO line.

The German Klima website is fun to look through even without the English:
http://www.raketenmodellbau-klima.de/

While I am always happy to see new motors come out, I take these reports with a grain of salt. Even if they exist in Europe, that doesn't mean we'll see them here.  And if we do, how much will they cost?  New 'D', 'E' and 'F' black powder motors were announced away back at NARAM-50 in mid-2008 (ref. this post).  I know these existed as there were reports of test flights.  However, due to various regulatory and economic factors, they are still vaporware.

Time will tell and I'm sure we'll be hearing some follow-up reports.

Warthog Build Session 2011-2

The subject build session was conducted yesterday. My thanks to the host and the givers of food and beer. 

If you weren't there, you probably won't be interested in what's here.  In fact, I mostly am posting this for future my own reference. Last time, I forgot all the tips I supposedly 'learned'.

I didn't build anything but did eat, gab and dip wires. 

Stuff to remember:

• Tom showed off some bead stringing wire that should be great for shock cord leaders on modrocs.  Despite being really thin, it is made up of many smaller wires.  You can also get crimp connectors.
• Don had a large diamond cut-off wheel that should be really useful for cutting and slotting larger parts.
• Tom also had a $30 Dremel attachment kit that he found at Lowes.  This included the quick-switch collet and a bunch of attachments for both this and the standard collets.  The quick-switch stuff alone is individually worth a lot more than $30. 
• There is such a thing a bacon-flavored Kosher salt.
• I need to read and return Don's Modern High Power Rocketry 2

Красных муравьев

From the mind of the mad rocketeer known as Dr. Zooch:

On testing planes on rockets:

Over the years, I've seen numerous photos of what appeared to be models of aircraft attached to rockets (ref: Photos of odd, interesting, vintage rockets).  One reader (R2K) posed the question of why rockets were used instead of wind tunnels.  Well, I ran across this quote in  "Oral Histories From the Pioneers of America's Space Program, Part 2" by Dr. Davis-Floyd (U.Texas) and Dr. Cox (NASA JSC).  I'm just noting it 'for the record.'

NACA’s role during this period was to carry out research that would advance aircraft design and to pass its discoveries on to the military or the aircraft industry. Purser and Gilruth put Thibodaux to work on rocket propulsion; Faget got busy designing ramjets--jet engines that take air in at the front, heat it, and spew it out the rear fast enough for a plane to travel supersonically. His job was to see if he could make one thin enough to fit inside the wing of an airplane, and he came up with one a mere six and a half inches in diameter; it later powered a test aircraft to an altitude of 65,000 feet and a speed that exceeded Mach 3.

Thibodaux began by designing rockets to be used for launching aerodynamic scale models of supersonic aircraft at Wallops Island, a barrier island about 85 miles northeast of Norfolk. NACA had established the Wallops Island range because Langley’s conventional wind tunnels choked up and became unusable at what are known as transonic speeds--speeds just above and just below the speed of sound.

- “Annals of Space: Max Faget and Caldwell Johnson,” by Henry S.F. Cooper, The New Yorker, Sept. 2, 1991, pp. 41-69.

"Oral Histories From the Pioneers of America's Space Program"

These file present oral histories, in interview format, from some of the engineers responsible for our early manned space program including, but not limited to, Guy Thibodaux, Max Faget, and Paul Purser. I haven't read these yet and didn't even research the site these are hosted on.  But they look like they are well worth sharing now.  (Hat tip to the Bayourat via twitter)

• Part 1
• Part 2

Stonehenge to STEREO: How We See the Sun [video]

Stonehenge to STEREO: How We See the Sun [video], originally uploaded by NASA Goddard Photo and Video.

Rocket and mountains

Rocket and mountains, originally uploaded by popoki1.

Nothing else to say...

Note from Performance Hobbies

Since I've seen this email cross-posted to an open forum at Kenny's request, I thought I'd post it here also.

Hey Gang,

Great news!

I'm selling Aerotech 29mm through 98mm reloads 25% off and you don't have to pay shipping, or hazmat.

You also don't have to prepay and wait a month, or longer.

It pays to ask your local vendor if he'll at least match competitors discounts rather than "sell out" to the competition.

For those of you who did this.....you lose!!!

All orders shipped outside of my delivery area will receive a 30% discount on $4,550.00 or greater orders and customer pays the shipping and hazmat.

On $500.00 orders, receive a 25% discount and customer pays shipping and hazmat.

If I don't have the items you want in stock, allow 4 weeks delivery time.

NC residents add 7.75% sales tax.

Ken
performancehobbies.com

Steven Johnson dicusses Where good ideas come from (and relates how the concept of GPS came about)

I got this video for the brief story of GPS (which pops up at about 12:20 in). However, the whole talk was interesting.

It's Groundhog Day...

Phil says the Rocket Babe saw snowflakes...so there's 6 more weeks of building season!  Also, check out the Star Trek dog and the story of America's first astronauts - Miss Baker and Miss Able.

Tempted to get an Aquapod launcher to launch water rockets made from the bottles of the same name. (Am I boring, or what?)