More info on large launch vehicle concepts, circa 1961

YORF's luke skywalker has evidently been playing  a lot on the NTTRS.  His earlier post entitled Saturn Studies Summary--Large Launch Vehicles System Oct.1961, provides a summary of an 800+ page report.  Again, he has generated a summary description and has extracted many diagrams.  I grabbed a single diagram showing another NOVA concept (which is actually not from the study, but what the heck..

This is another NOVA concept that would make an interesting model... it consists of a first stage consisting of a cluster of SIXTEEN! SRMs, 612 inches in diameter! The second stage consists of 4 SRMs in a 360 inch diameter cluster, topped by a third stage that is 360 inches in diameter powered by 6 "S-II" engines (presumably J-2) with a fourth stage that looks like a stretched 260 inch diameter S-IVB stage, powered by a pair of J-2 engines... what a COMPLETE MONSTER of an LV!!

Big a$$$$$ rocket of the day - JPL Solid Propellant NOVA vehicle

The NOVA was a series of conceptual vehicles which would have competed with the Saturn V using all solid propulsion. YORF user luke skywalker has provided a flood of info on the NOVA, starting with excerpts from a 1962 JPL study entitled "The Applicability of Solid Propellants for a NOVA class Injection Vehicle and Comparison with a Liquid Vehicle of Comparable Capability."  He provides a text file summarizing the 109 page document as well as a bunch of diagrams showing the vehicle options.  I grabbed only the first one as a teaser.  This beast would weigh 30 million pounds (about five times what a Saturn V weighed) and could lift lifting 500,000 pounds to LEO and 130,000 pounds to escape velocity.   His later posts to have also include info from other sites, including Astronautix and Wikipedia.

MDRA donates $1k to the Japanese earthquake/tsunami relief effort

As posted on ROL...I hope my last donation was a part of it!

MDRA has expanded its role outside of the rocketry community in the past couple of years. The Red Glare series of launches have served as the vehicle to extend a hand to those less fortunate. With the selfless participation and generous donations of MDRA members, groups like Caring Bridges, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and Fisher House have been recent recipients of MDRA’s goodwill.

The members of MDRA have banded together to help those who required the Red Cross to intervene when Mother Nature dealt them a bad hand. Victims of Katrina, the Thailand tsunami, and the Haiti earthquake, to name a few, have been helped by the goodwill of the MDRA family of rocketeers. Now, the victims of Japan’s devastating perfect storm of a 9.0 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe are in need, and MDRA has reached out to the Japan Association of Rocketry, JAR, to help with their immediate needs.

Japan Association of Rocketry is the Japanese equivalent to our own National Association of Rocketry, NAR, and is the largest organized rocketry organization in Japan. With the help of the MDRA member Momoko Harper and the JAR, MDRA has sent a donation of $1,000.00 to the Japanese Red Cross to assist the victims of this disaster. Once again, the members of MDRA dug deep and gave, so that others would have a better tomorrow.

Despite the magnitude of the disaster in Japan, as it would with any good rocketeers, the JAR’s note of appreciation quickly turns to back to rockets. Below is the e-mail received in appreciation of the donation sent to the JRC:

Thank you so much for the donation of $1000.00 sent to the Japan Red Cross by MDRA.
JAR (Japan Association of Rocketry) appreciate the warm friendship of the members of MDRA towards Japan.
The Japanese team participating in the TARC event is from Iwata High School and will be led by Mr. Harada who has gone to 7 TARC finals.
The latest earthquake hit the Iwata area. Happily everyone is safe and ok.
According to the schedule, we will be participating on May 13 in the TRAC Finals. We ask for your support.
Furthermore, JAXA, the Japan Space Agency Education Center, personal have prepared a gift to be presented at the TRAC Finals which represents the friendship between America and Japan.
JAXA Space Education Center director Hideo Nakamura and Space Education Personal have worked very hard.
Please convey to President Robert Utley JAR's deepest appreciation for his actions.
To each and every member, our deepest heartfelt appreciation.

Japan Association of Rocketry
President Mokoto Yamada

NASA Satellite MESSENGER Sends Back First Image of Mercury from Orbit

NASA Satellite MESSENGER Sends Back First Image of Mercury from Orbit, originally uploaded by NASA Goddard Photo and Video.

Quadrocopter Ball Juggling

The latest Quadrotor hijinks from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology:

Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport progress

The DCist blog had a photo progress report on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.

Denny's goes bacon crazy

If you read my blog regularly, you know I like bacon.  I have posted about bacon Vodka, the Bacon Explosion featuring a made-in-heaven mix of bacon and sausage, bacon bras, and bacon cupcakes.  In reality my love of bacon seems to end at dessert.  It now appears Denny's if featuring their own bacon extravaganza, the Baconalia. So far so good.  Extra bacon on sandwiches and with eggs and flapjacks.  So far, very good.  However, it appears they are also offering a...bacon maple sundae.  I'm sorry, but I'll clog my arteries with a bacon sampler with eggs.  If I feel like maple and bacon I'll have the pancakes...or even a McDonalds McGriddle.  Dang, now I'm hungry!

RIFT Pt. 2

KIWI-->NERVA-->RIFT-->Flight Tests  (Don't forget to tell Castro to duck.)

More about the un-named rocket

Pods are primed, will wait a day or so to lay on the gloss-white.  Each will get three silver vinyl stripes and I'll hand paint the nozzles silver.  Fins are being attached.  I'll paint the body without the pods and will mask their attachment points. Payload coupler is assembled.  The Dyna-Soar is heavy and I don't want it to come down pointy nose first.  I'm going to make it come down in 2 parts and will build a harness connected to both ends of the top section so it will come down horizontal.  Or slightly with the nose up.  I've never tried this before even on models where it was recommended.

As for names, these are some that have come to mind:  Titan-? (? being some letter or number), DynaSoar Carrier, Brigantine, Nixon (after my daughters dog, not our ex-Prez), X-20 Space Pirate.  The quest continues...

NASA launcher and DoC/NASA hypersonic road maps

ParabolicArc presented and discussed these slides from last month’s FAA commercial space conference.  With the current state of NASA and its budgets, the goals on the first one seem awfully lofty.  Maybe of replace the pictures with SpaceX vehicles?  As for the second, it seems to be heavy on 'actual' milestones and a bit fuzzy on the future, especially in the FY11-15 time frame..  Maybe if you hear the whole pitch, more details would be clear?  I obviously thought this was interesting enough to share.

"The Greatest Show on Earth: The Search for the Apollo 11 Tapes”

The following are excerpts from a private email.  It's space related and only of potential interest to those who will be around Houston on the indicated dates. I didn't try to independently confirm the times, etc.   The purpose is "to encourage the NASA release of the already enhanced video from Apollo 11 and promote similar processing of video from other Apollo missions."

Presentations of “The Greatest Show on Earth: The Search for the Apollo 11 Tapes” will be made at Rice University (Tuesday, March 29 @ 400 PM) and at the Lunar & Planetary Institute (Wednesday, March 30 @ 330 PM).

These presentations are open to the public.

[The presenters are Colin Mackellar & John Sarkissian.] Many of you are familiar with Colin from our Apollo 11 anniversary activities. Colin has been a space enthusiast since middle school and is the “Wizard of Oz” of the Honeysuckle Creek website. His day job is an Anglican minister, although he is a degreed geologist.

John is from the CSIRO radio observatory at Parkes, Australia.

Reactor In-Flight Test (RIFT)

Scott Lowther is on "Nukes-R-Awesome" roll.  He presents the RIFT vehicle, a concept for a nuclear rocket that would have been launched atop a Saturn V and ignited sub-orbitally.  It would then plunk into the Atlantic Ocean some 1300 miles downrange and "safely" sink to the bottom.  If the project had gone foreward, maybe Cloverfield would have been a documentary.  Anyway, I wasn't very familiar with this concept.  It does surprise me that this project would have seriously been considered.  A little surfing found numerous references, which I haven't digested.  I think I'll wait for Scott's follow-on.  In case you want to jump ahead:

• Wikipedia, NERVA,  it appears a NERVA derivative would have been used for RIFT.
• Astronautix, Saturn I RIFT, this disucsses a Saturn I vs. V and references a ROVER reactor (doesn't exactly fit but, as I mentioned, I haven't studied the subject).
• Saturn V Restoration Project, Team Member Info for Alfred G. Orillion, Chief of the Nuclear Criteria Unit, NASA MSFC.
• Atomic Rockets, Ford Aeronutronic EMPIRE (1962), discusses Mars study contracts issued by MSFC in 1962, their relation to RIFT and NERVA.

Building an un-named rocket

Fins are filled.  Lower body tube is marked and glassine is scraped.  Long motor/stuffer tube is built.  The mount features three homemade rings, a motor hook with the top tab bent up to allow longer motors, an I Build Rockets plywood shock cord mount, and a steel fishing leader. I am trying to come up with a name that seems fitting for the replacement decals that I used on my Roachwerks Dyna-Soar.  Maybe something pirate-like?

" 'Crying in Rage' " (updated)

NPR has a fascinating but sad account of the loss of Cosmonaut Vladimir Kamarov, who died in 1967 when the parachutes in his Soyuz capsule failed to open.  That failure was he last in a long series of hardware and policy failures, which doomed Kamarov before his mission was launched.  The story is excerpted from a soon to be published book book, Starman, by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony.

Update:  As noted in this post, it appears there are questions as to the veracity of the facts as presented.   I hope we hear more about this.

Update #2:  Even more rebuttal from Space.com.

G. Harry Stine stuff

Chris Michielssen reminds us that today is his birthday and reminisces about their encounters.  He also points to the following video, which I think I've previously posted.  But, it's worth posting again.  Finally, this YORF post provides G. Harry's bibliography via three text files.

Back to building

I finally slithered back down into the Dungeon and started some building.  I cut some fins and built four boosters with the I Build Rockets resin cones and nozzles.  I decided to go with 4 fins and boosters vs. 5.  So, the name of this build, Titan-V, needs re-thinking.  I also made another version of the RockSim and found the loss of a fin hurt stability, as would be expected.  I decided to stretch the design to help in this regards. (The lower fin in this image is not actually missing, it's white and the lighting was off. Close enough for blogging.)

Women's History Month at NASA (201103160015HQ)

"The Science Cheerleaders perform at a Women's History Month event for middle school and high school girls on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The Science Cheerleaders are a group [of] professional cheerleaders-turned-scientists and engineers who challenge stereotypes while helping to inspire young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math. Photo Credit: (NASA/Carla Cioffi)"

Keith Cowling posts that some people have complained about the cheerleaders in skimpy outfits.  I can see the point he makes in his commentary.  However, I think this is a glass-half-empty/glass-half-full type situation.  People's opinions will be based on their already established biases.  I doubt if the eight women on stage think they are being exploited.  It shows girls/women can be sexy and fun and still be intelligent, successful geeks. (This shows my bias that scientists and engineers are all geeks.)

NOTE:  I originally embedded the photo directly from Flickr but it has since been pulled.  Since it was posted under a Creative Commons license, with attribution, I am posting a copy myself.

SmartBird - the latest in stealth drone technology

German scientists at Festo have built an ornithocopter drone that looks like a bird in flight.

Compendium of V-2 footage

RocketryPlanet has posted seven videos of German and U.S. V-2 launches.

Nautilus-X animation and fan video

Clark Lindsey found this nice animation of the Nautilus-X.  If you follow the link to his site, you'll also find a fan video made by an enthusiastic teenager.  While that video doesn't provide any new info, it does a good job of summarizing what the spaceship is all about.  (You can find my previous Nautilus-X posts via the tag, below.)

Future Armadillos

ParabolicArc posted these slides, which were presented by Armadillo Vice President Neil Milburn at the 14th Annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference.  I love clusters!

BTW, Clark Lindsey passed on a note from John Carmack about the first Stig free flight:

Looking good for >100,000’ flight at Spaceport America in the first week of April.

New RockSim Page

I've added a RockSim page to the header bar, which points to all of the RockSim files that I've loaded onto EMRR.  I created the page because, while the new EMRR does a good job organizing new RockSim data, it can't list all my files originally loaded to the old site.  I found that I had saved an image of an old RockSim search results page, circa late 2009.  I wish that I'd thought to save a copy of the new page before the transition to the new platform.  However, this reflects all but a handful of the files I had submitted.  Again, this is mostly for my use and, if the new EMRR search is update to include the old files, I will drop the page.

Reviews on the new EMRR

Yesterday, I submitted my first new review (the Ballistic Chicken) to the new EMRR.  Today, it was published - that's some turn around!  I really like this mode of publication vs. the batch mode on the old site.  So far, I haven't seen an email auto-notification that the review was published.  Not that I need one, but it would be good to announce it to the world.  It may yet go out.  However, if you subscribe to the EMRR blog (via RSS), you won't need no steenkin' emails.

I really like the submission page.  It's really easy to edit, format and submit pictures.  I merely cut-and-pasted text from the review on my blog and then tweaked it a little to fit the EMRR template a little better. The EMRR review formatter merely needs to sanity check the text and position the photos were submitted in batch.

FAIW, I am going to post all my reviews here.  Most, but not all, will also be posted to EMRR. The My Rocket Reviews page here will continue to be the 'master list' of all my reviews.

These are not the droids you're looking for.

- Obi-Wan Kenobi.

'These are the rockets you're looking for.' - Tim VanMilligan

Actually, the latter is my interpretation of his his video entitled Marketing Model Rocketry.  He recently attended a sales conference in Las Vegas, which described how casinos use Jedi mind tricks to get you to part with your hard earned money.  Tim's video purportedly  passes a bit of this magic on to his readers (in this case, watchers).  I didn't watch it because I was afraid I'd want to part with some of my hard earned money. YMMV

Review: Semroc Little Joe II

This 1/70 scale Little Joe II is one of Semroc’s “Retro-Repro” line of kits. It includes a separately bagged Apollo capsule kit and is billed as a Skill Level-4 “Master” kit. The base rocket is probably a ‘3’ but in my book the capsule is a ‘5’. I guess it all averages out. This rocket flies on 18mm motors and recovers on a single parachute. Specs: 14.6" x 2.217" - 1.9 oz.

While I know you will enjoy reading my review, if you really want a good, detailed, photo-documented tutorial on how to build this kit, I recommend Chris Michielssen's blog.  Read my review to get a general idea about the kit and read Chris' set of posts as you build yours.

Review: Hermes A-1

This review explains how I converted a sport scale Semroc V-2 xKit to a Hermes A-1.

Fear the rocket

This week's episode of House began with two kids launching what could  have been an Estes or Apogee or equivalent Saturn V.  It flies up, stages (?), and bursts into flame.  Plenty of CGI afoot here.  It comes down in the woods and starts a grass fire as it hangs from its 'chute and burns.  That wasn't exciting enough so they had it continue to spew chunks. (Shaking head.)

This won't end rocketry as we know it nor will it make me quit watching House.  It does reinforce that you can't believe anything you see on 'dramatic' TV.

The projectile-firing RC helicopters that they just showed look pretty cool....

Review: Tarkus II

The motivation for this 29mm, sci-fi-inspired rocket began with a container from a bottle of Highland Park single-malt scotch. The truncated oval tube screamed spaceship. From there, the rocket design proceeded in ‘real-time’. The name arose part way through the build and came from Emerson, Lake and Palmer's 1971 album.  The design has undergone one major revision for aesthetic purposes.

Review: I Build Rockets' Ballistic Chicken

Watch out Chicken Little, the Ballistic Chicken is loose! 

The Ballistic Chicken is a basic 3FNC, 18mm-powered rocket...with a cool chicken-head nose cone. It is the first offering from Australia-based I Build Rockets. This was a beta test build, so the final kit may vary slightly. (I modified the shock cord attachment.)

Thanks, Sascha, for providing the opportunity to test this interesting kit...and for putting up with the long delay in flying it!

Waverider, redux

The second flight of the X-51A Waverider is scheduled for Tuesday, March 22, 2011. It will be dropped over the Pacific by a B-52 at 50k'. Its booster rocket will take it to Mach 4.5 at which time the scramjet will take over for the jump to Mach 6.



More from the Bayourat and on Spaceports.

Launch Report 2011-01

Location: Price, MD (MDRA ESL-154)
Weather: partly cloudy, low 50's, wind 0 - 5 MPH
Total flights: Today - 11; YTD - 11
Total motors: Today - 21; YTD - 21

I left very early under the light of the Supermoon.  I crawled out of bed earlier than normal to meet Warthog at Batter Up for a big plate of chicken fried steak and eggs. Mmmm, it was good!  The weather was nippy but the wind was as low as I've ever seen it on the Shore.  It was essentially zero for the first few hours. The drive and parking was dry, and the field was partially grassy and relatively smooth.  The crowd wasn't huge but the flying was brisk.

My Flights:

1. Tarkus II on a G138-6 -  This was a re-worked version (purely for aesthetics), complete with the new 'Brown Engineering' crew module (nose cone).  The boost was arrow straight, ejection was a couple of seconds after apogee, but the 'chute didn't open :eek:  Somehow, the only damage was the Lexan stabilizer fin came loose.  I like this new motor!
2. Rocketman Enterprises Explorer 7 Freedom to Fly,  a.k.a. "Crusader" on an I357-10 -  Great boost, ejection at apogee, no 'chute, again :eek:².  One fillet has a stress crack but the fin seems secure.
3.  Art Applewhite Max-Q (beta) on 4 x Estes C6-3 -  The boost was arrow straight (no wind) and the altitude was very respectable.
4. Art Applewhite Max-Q (beta) on 7 x A3-4 -  This spun wildly since one of the outer motors did not ignite.  Quickmatch isn't as reliable on these smaller motors.  Or, more accurately, the installer wasn't as reliable.
5. Art Applewhite Max-Q (beta) on 2 x E9-4 - Nice long flight with a slight turn into the light wind.  One interesting observation is that the motors continued to spew burning chunks as the Max-Q was headed back down after burn-out.
6. Hermes A-1 on a Quest B6-4 - Nice flight with ejection 1 - 2 seconds after apogee.
7. I Build Rockets' Ballistic Chicken on a Quest B6-4 - Nice flight with nose-down ejection.  The second flight was scrubbed because a fin stripped on ejection.  Warthog found it, but it was too late for on-field repairs. Next time, it'll go on a C6-5.
8. Semroc Little Joe II on a Quest B6-4 - Nice flight but it appears bad things came in two's today.  The escape tower obviously hit a fin at ejection and the top was lost.  It was later returned under the provision that I donate a buck to the Red Glare X charity, the Fisher House.  The Fisher House provides housing for the families of military personnel who are hospitalized.
9. Hat of Death on an E9-4 -  Good flight but with some weather cocking.
10. Semroc V-2 (non-scale fins) on a Quest B6-4 - Good flight.
11. MicroMaxx Saucer on 'Roids on a Quest C6-5 - It zoomed over the flight line and some how I found it. This was an unplanned 'filler' flight since all my planned ones were complete.

Photos now tucked below the jump break:

Countin' my chickens before they hatch FLY

The literal count is one, one Ballistic Chicken. But what I was getting at in the title is that I have laid out and prepped my rockets for tomorrow; and I even built a couple of reloads.  Last time I prepped for a launch, I had emergency surgery.  Never the less, I threw caution to the wind and am all set for tomorrow.  What could go wrong?

I won't list all my planned flights but I have several test flights planned for the Ballistic Chicken and beta test Max-Q.  I'm going to try to shred my Tarkus II on a new G136-8 and, if the wind isn't too bad, will put up my Crusader on an I357-10.  I'm also taking my new Semroc Little Joe II, my kitbashed Hermes A1, and my Semroc V-2. The Hat of death will also fly on a mere E9.  (Follow the tags, below, for more on these rockets.)

Air and Space article on Mojave and its rocket denizens

As seen on Clark's RLV and Space Transport Blog:

Air & Space has an excellent article about Mojave, including the Mojave Spaceport and the FAR site, and the various NewSpace style organizations working there such as Garvey Spacecraft, Masten Space, Firestar Technologies, Scaled and XCOR: The Mojave Launch Lab: A community of alternative rocketeers who may one day dominate the space biz - Air & Space Magazine (via Transterrestrial Musings).

VW's transparent factory

How to hack space (and a skeleton-rocket girl)

In a full-page spread in Soho House Magazine!, originally uploaded by arielwaldman.

Ariel Waldman is the founder of spacehack.org, "a directory of ways to participate in space exploration." Evidently, she also likes skeleton rockets. Click through to access a larger copy where the text is legible.

Static test of the day

Stig didn't fly today as planned, but they did another static test. Click thru for a big version. (photo by Ben Brockert, found via Clark Lindsey)

What the heck coning, anyway?

Per the archived EMRR glossary:

Coning - An unstable flight condition in which a rocket's spin causes the rear portion of the rocket to describe a circle. Coning greatly increases aerodynamic drag and reduces peak altitude.

It's one of things that you'll know when you see it.  I've mostly noticed it on underpowered winged rockets (e.g. an X-15). Find out more about what causes it on ROL InfoCentral.

(and, what the heck is up with my typing?)

ALWAYS start by flushing your cache

Earlier today, Firefox quit displaying embedded YouTube videos that use the 'iframe' tag. Chrome worked.  Older, 'pre-iframe' embedded videos worked. The on-line help said to try clearing the cache.  That fixed it.  I wonder why I can't remember to always try that first?

Addendum:  I obviously don't know squat about the cache. Why should it effect a new, never viewed page with never viewed content?  One thing I do know about it is that it is evil.

Featuring...NASA's rocket girls

http://women.nasa.gov/

Static test of the day

Check out the high speed/slo-mo footage at about 1:35 in.  Description attached to the video:

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne has completed a series of hot-fire tests of the 52,000-54,000lb-thrust Bantam demonstration engine for a"pusher" launch abort system on Boeing's CST-100 spacecraft, under design for NASA's Commercial Crew Development program. The motor "pushes" the spacecraft to safety if a launch is aborted. The tests were conducted in the California desert.

Sport Rocketry, March/April 2011

This issue really makes up for the last one (which I thought was the least interesting issue since I re-joined the NAR).  Here's a cover-to cover walk through:

The cover features the Rocket Girl, flown by a rocket girl.  Carol M. got her level-2 at NARAM-52 with this rocket. The inside cover features some of Estes new offerings for 2011.  The Maxi Alpha Three looks temping. I see editor is begging for articles so future issues won't resemble the previous one.

The first article is a tale of one rocketeer's quest for his Junior Level-1 Certification. The second is a detailed build article on The W9YA Elegant Launch Controller.  This looks like a pretty good design and it's always good to have some examples if you want to design your own.

The third article is Honoring the Mission: Apollo 13 by Duane Lanterman and Dave Kovar.  It mixes sport rocketry with a lot of historical info and photos (both current and historic).  Very nice piece.   (In the middle is an ad featuring Quest's 2011 lineup.  These sure look nice when laid out all in one place).

Want more rocket history?  The next article is ARCAS by Dr. Ray Houchin II.  This item is packed with historical photos and diagrams.  My favorite is the launch photo, but the diagrams of the motor and parachute details are pretty awesome.  This is one of those articles that would make the magazine even if it was the only one published.

Finally, I got to read about several of my NARHAMS rocketry pals in Jim Filler's NARHAMS does Kitbash. These rockets presented are right up my alley.  You gotta love it when people resort to the kit packaging to complete their rockets :)

NERVA testing videos

R2K dug up some historical footage of the NERVA Nuclear Rocket Engine facilities, including some test firings. As a bonus, he posted a video about Soviet nuclear thermal rocket engines.  The NERVA vids are kind of slow and have no sound.  The Soviet one has more 'action', but is in Russian. I embedded one of them below:

Test of EMRR's gallery widget (updated, now working)

Test of EMRR flight log widget

Pretty cool. The new EMRR site can generate widgets (animated GIF's) of either your recent flight logs or images from your gallery.

Tutorial info on high altitude winds

When I think of high altitude balloons, I generally just think the balloon will start moving with the ground winds and then transition smoothly to higher level winds such as those in the jet stream.  This apparently is fairly naive.  The Rocketry Planet thread about the Armadillo100K launch challenge  transitioned to a discussion of balloon-launched rockets.  Starting in post #25, John DeMar begins injecting information about balloon launches and upper atmospheric winds.  John used to work at NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility, so he should know of what of he speaks.  (Photo of the BLAST launch swiped from NASA.)

Frogtape® use and misuse

When I first saw FrogTape® brand masking tape (the light green stuff), I decided to give it a try. After all, it has PaintBlock® technology. That sounded impressive. I forget what I may have read about it, but I do know I didn't research it much. I have used it numerous times and have decided it works about the same as the blue painters tape. Well, tonight I saw a TV ad that actually explains how it works.

PaintBlock is a super-absorbent polymer which reacts with latex paint and instantly gels to form a micro-barrier that seals the edges of the tape, preventing paint bleed.

Let me just close by noting that I have never used it with Latex or other water based paints  D'OH!

NASA All-Sky Fireball Network

Clark Lindsey found this article about NASA’s All-sky Fireball Network: NASA Building Network of Smart Cameras Across the US - Singularity Hub.  The cameras are specialized black and white video cameras with lenses that image the entire night sky above them (shown to the right). NASA currently has 3 cameras in the southeast and plans to increase this to 15.  The NASA point man is Dr. Bill Cooke, who happens to also fly rockets.

These aren't the only all-sky cameras. For example,  El Paso Allsky is a member of the New Mexico State All Sky Camera Network, which has 100 or so nodes.

NAR and Tripoli meet with the BATFE

Earlier in the week, representatives from both national sport rocket organizations met with the BATFE in Washington D.C.  The meeting was requested by Burl Finkelstein, an attorney and NAR/TRA member.  After the removal of APCP from 'the list', there are other regulated items used by hobbyists, such as igniters and black powder.  A lot of questions have arisen during magazine inspections since the ruling and both NAR and TRA thought being proactive was in everyone's best interest.  The meeting was cordial and served to open a dialog.  Read the entire joint statement from Terry McCreary, TRA President  and Trip Barber, NAR President over on Rocketry Planet.

ROCKETS Magazine, Feb. 2011

How many times since ROCKETS first appeared in my mailbox have I complained about the contents mostly being launch reports?  Well, a lot.  Less when there was coverage of launches I attended, but still a lot.  Today, I can happily report that this was not the case with this issue.  Thumbing from cover to cover:

The cover is a nice launch photo of a big Darkstar from Red Glare IX.  But, the background photo on the index  page tops that - it shows Steve Eves' big Saturn 1B standing at attention.  Beautiful!  This awesome rocket will fly at Price, MD on April 16th, weather permitting.  Mark your calendar and watch the MDRA web page for updates.

First up is the third article in Frank Hermes' Coast Optimization System.  He talks gyros, which is interesting even I (or you) don't plan to use one.


Next comes Frank Haas' build article on his 24' tall, 16.5" diameter Andromeda.  It looks good standing in the woods...and even better boosting on a CTI O8000.

East Coaster Dr. Alan Whitmore continues his article series on Rocket Autopsies, focusing on all the ways your rocket can die assuming you motor did not CATO.  It looks like there is a problem with the title but that is easier to live with than the events Alan discusses.  If you haven't experienced some or even all of them, then you probably just haven't flown enough rockets!

Want another great build article...how about Matt Johnson's 30-motor Russian N-1?   Complete with scale launch tower.  And, what a launch shot!  Da, I tease you comrade.

...followed by a 2-page video retrospective of NERRF-6. (BTW, -7 is planned for June 24, 25, 26)

There is a nice detailed report on Red Glare IX, whose pages have a pink background to continue the launch's breast cancer awareness theme.  After all, it is still "all about recovery."  I had my rockets all prepped and ready, but my appendix had other plans.  So, RG IX ended up being all about MY recovery.  All the other MDRA-ers got to launch rockets and all I got was that pink T-shirt :)

Then, ROCKETS followup with another build article! This one presents Brian Whitemarsh's awesome spaceplane-styled Avenger 5.5.

Finally, Wes "Dr. Zooch" Oleszewki has part 2 of his series I Wonder How High That Went. This was a treat.  Instead of something that followed the title, he discussed spiral air flow around tubes, how it effects models like his Shuttle Stack, and how modelers can defeat it.  Short but useful.  The short description of the solution:  air dam.  Da, I tease you again comrade!

Great job Bob and Neil!

EMRR progress - sorting out the URL's

In yesterday's status email, Roger announced that the original EMRR URL (www.rocketreviews.com) now points to the new site.  It looks like the interim my.rocketreviews.com redirects there too.  That's good, because I have both formats and both seem to be working!

He also has retained/archived the original site as http://archive.rocketreviews.com/. Many of the features of the archive, such as flight logs and  the RockSim library, also point to the new site, along with all data entry functions.  So, what's left there?  Well, mostly the old reviews.  This is good in the unlikely event of a formatting error in the porting of your reviews.  In addition, the archive site has some possible useful ways to search the old data (via the old Reviews>MOPS page and even the search field).  Unfortunately, the old 'MyEMRR' page doesn't work under the archive.  I guess the latter isn't a big deal for me as I had captured my page to disk and even have a simplified version (less bar graphs) posted here.  The old contest results are also available should you want to walk down that memory lane.  There may be more, but I've touched on most of the major features.

The old data is also available in another format via the following link: http://www.rocketreviews.com/emrr-archive.html. The format more closely resembles the new site and some of it looks funky so I haven't figured out whether there's any added value.  I guess extra ways to access the data can't hurt.

Amateur sky-watcher day

Today, I spotted two interesting stories about the cosmic beings known as amateur skywatchers (aka astronomers and sat-watchers).  The first comes from the Bayourat's Twitter stream via BoingBoing: Interview with Ted Molczan, citizen satellite sky tracker. Ted works from an urban setting using 25 X 100 binoculars, mounted on a tripod with fluid pan head, and a stopwatch with a 200 split time memory. He manually synchs to a high precision time signal. The article also notes that watcher Greg Roberts of Ted's group has found the X-37B OTV-2.


The second item I saw was yet another amazing photograph by Thierry Legault (found via Clark Lindsey).  His photo shows astronaut Steve Bowen on an EVA during the STS-133 mission. The photo includes an inset of the same scene taken from the  ISS (Discovery?).  This is the first time an astronaut in orbit has been imaged by a amateur ground telescope.  Pretty cool, eh?

Rocket propulsion and launcher reference material

Dunn Engineering from Vancouver, Canada has a small web page containing Information for the Rocket Propulsion and Launcher Community.  Included is an e-book entitled LEO on the Cheap - Methods for Achieving Drastic Reductions In Space Launch Costs (Air University Research Report AU-ARI-93-8 by Lt. Col. John R. London III). This document dates to 1994 but should be a worthwhile read. 

Garvey Prospector 18A

Clark Lindsey has an update on the latest Garvey / Cal State Prospector 18A flight.  This nice sized LOX/ethanol rocket carried several science experiments and 50lb of steel ballast.  It flew with a short burn and reduced thrust to allow it to fly on a Class-2 waiver.

Rare, vintage sounding rocket photos

Hydra-Sandhawk, from the private collection of Fred Seward, who was the PI of the science experiments on the launches.

This thread on NASAspaceflight.com features vintage photos of various sounding rockets, including the Bullpup-Cajun, Aerobee 75, Dualhawk (Sandhawk-Tomahawk), Hydra-Sandhawk, Nike-Nike-Deacon, Nike-Nike-T40-T55, Nike-Nike-Triple Deacon-T40, Sparoair II, and Sparoair III.   I included a reduced resolution photo of the Hydro-Sandhawk, which launched 3/4 submerged from a floating platform.  See the forum for the full sized version and a shot of it being loaded onto a ship. (via YORF)

You can find more on the Hydra-Sandhawk here.

Rocketplane girl!

With a big hat tip to Brian...presenting Miss Edwards.

via NASA DFRC circa 1962

Nice Discovery slide show

See the full sized version of this image and 19 more here.

Patriot Missiles are the new license plates

The Danger Room discusses how parts of the Patriot Missiles are assembled by 23-cent/hr prison labor.  The labor is provided through UNICOR:

"UNICOR, Federal Prison Industries is a self-sustaining, self-funded corporation established in 1934 by executive order to create a voluntary real-world work program to train federal inmates."

Their involvement is missile programs is openly described on their Guided Missile Components page.

Who would have thought it?  It does seem that electronics assembly is better training than most classical prison jobs: making license plates, doing laundry, distributing library books, or breaking rocks.  My only real concern would be whether the people running UNICOR are pocketing the difference between the going industry rate for missile assemblers and the 23-cent salary they are paying the inmates.

X-37B clues

Short Sharp Science discusses some Boeing patents which may provide clues to part of the X-37B's mission - Secret space plane has solar stowaway.  The first patent is for a quickly retractable solar array (see image) and the second describes the design and operation of the spaceplane's 'ruddervators'.  These were issued in 2003 and 2004, respectively. (hat tip to Clark Lindsey)

Hypersonic boost gliders may be the new ICBMs

Wired's Danger Room has an article on how the USAF may be planning to strike terrorist targets - New ‘ICBMs vs. Terrorists’ Plan: Now 50% Less Crazy!.  The answer:

“Our focus is on boost-glide capabilities,” [Maj. General] Scott said, “including the Hypersonic Technology Vehicle concept.”

(I've seen more than one boost glider flight that resembled a missile attack.  A  couple have even been mine.)

Half-a$$trobiology or proof of life? (updated)

There is quite a ripple in Internet Force regarding the report that Dr. Richard Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, claims he may have found fossilized bacteria in a meteorite.  I don't feel compelled to summarize the details or speculate, but a photo and links sounded good.

• Source article: Fossils of Cyanobacteria in CI1 Carbonaceous Meteorites, Richard B. Hoover, Ph.D., - Journal of Cosmology, March, 2011 
• Life in meteorites? Study stirs debate - Cosmic Log
• Has life been found in a meteorite? - Bad Astronomy/Discover Magazine
• Life found in a meteorite? Probably not. - High Power Rocketry
• Keep following Clark Lindsey's Space for All for updates

Update:  As the day progressed, the story looks more and more implausible.

• Did scientists discover bacteria in meteorites? - Pharyngula: "NO" - this article prompted me to add 'kooks' to my extensive list of labels
• NASA MSFC Astrobiologist Claims He's Found Life in A Meteorite - NASA Watch

X-37B OTV-2 is is orbit...at least we think it is

We'll have to wait for official confirmation from the unofficial amateur sat-watchers, but it sound's like the X-37B is in orbit.

Trina's Rocket

Trina's Rocket, originally uploaded by therealdjflux.

Rocketry Magazine Archaeology: The Tripolitan

This morning, Chris Michielssen posted about an old rocket magazine named Rocketrek. Chris evidently was a contributor and notes that he hadn't even seen an issue in 30 years.  I, personally, had never even heard of the magazine.  Chris says he'll be posting some of his content to his blog.  This reminded me of another old magazine.  While 30 years places Rocketrek around the turn of the '80's (along with California Rocketry), the Tripolitan dates back over 42 years to 1968.  The material in this post was extracted from the March 2001 issue of High Power Rocketry, which was a 33 YEAR, 168 ISSUE INDEX of the magazine.  The articles were written by Bruce Kelly with input from Francis Graham and Tom Blazanin.

The current Tripoli Rocketry Association  traces its roots to a science club in the East Pittsburgh area.  The club soon expanded to three sections (hence Tripoli).  The organization was known as the Tripoli Federation of Rocket Clubs and its sections were dubbed prefectures, a designation that remains until today.  While the prefectures agreed to have a common publication, they didn't agree on who would produce it. The Radio and Aerospace Team of Conneauville (RATC), led by Eugene Bocan, produced the first issue of the Tripolitan. It was merged with their existing newsletter so they released it as Volume 1 Number 2.  However, another prefecture, the Aerodynamics Institute for Terrestrial Rocketry (AITR), didn't like this arrangement.  So, a couple of weeks later, Arthur Bower released their version as Volume 1 Number 1.  Tripoli has been somewhat contentious is recent years and I guess it gets this trait honestly!

RATC only produced two issues and dropped out of Tripoli "over some unrelated matters" (Graham). The AITR version continued, morphing to the old High Power Rocketry magazine.  The early issues were mimeographed and featured hand drawn covers.  From the indicies provided, the magazine covered more than rocketry.  There was other 'sciencey' material and a lot of politics. One issue was dedicated to things Nixon said about Watergate. Imagine how such subjects would go over today.   The covers reflected the group's rocket orientation, well, mostly.  One showed a rendition of The Beatles' Sgt. Peppers cover with the Beatles being replaced with the club leaders.  This sketch was placed over a tombstone engraved with "NAR". There was also a issue with a blank cover and one cover was from a high school yearbook that was saved from the dumpster. Hobby publications have come a long way!

I thought that HPR Mag should resurrect some of the old articles as a regular feature in the newer issues.  My suggestion was ignored.  I'd love to see articles such as "New X-Fuel Development", "The Mini-Herc Really Works", and "Gloria Mundi - A Tripoli First" to name just a few.

The magazine retained its name for 98 issues.  The August 1991 saw it renamed to The Tripolitan, America's High Power Rocketry Magazine.  The first 98 issued saw many editors (mostly Arthur Bower, Francis Graham, and Tom Blazanin, with some issues from Cleve Barnes, J. Daniel Potemra, Barton Levison, William Hall, and one Bruce Kelly).  The quality of the production steadily increased with the biggest change being under Tom's leadership.  Bruce Kelly took over with the 95th issue and remained editor to the end.  On issue 105, the name was truncated to merely High Power Rocketry.

(out of time for now...decided to publish as-is)

X-37B OTV-2 to launch tomorrow (Saturday, March 5th)

Since there isn't much to say besides the new date/time, I'm merely republishing yesterday's post.

The OTV-2 space plane is slated to launch tomorrow from the CCAFS atop an Atlas V.  The launch window opens at 4:09 p.m. EST.  More details and a link to the webcast is available on the ULA site. As usual, Spaceflight Now's Mission Status Center is also up an running.

Loki Research up for sale

Nothing on his web site yet, but Rocketry Planet reports the following from Jeff.

After more than six years of running Loki Research, LLC, I've decided to move on. In spite of a generally poor economy, the business has been doing well. However, I have lost my lease at the current factory location and I don't have the will to set up at a new location. Therefore, over the next 6-8 weeks I'll be closing down and selling off the company assets. It is my hope that an entrepreneur will step up and buy the company as a going concern, however if that does not happen, I will liquidate. If you have an interest in acquiring the company as a whole, please contact me immediately.

I'm once again happy that I got my Loki 38mm hardware free with reload purchases. 

Splish splash

110301-N-7237C-009, originally uploaded by Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Amazing ground images of ISS and Discovery/STS-133

Astro photographer extraordinaire Thierry Legault has captured some amazingly detailed images - Mission STS-133 (Discovery).  His page includes both stills and Flash-10 animations, one of which is in 3-D.  He instructs the viewer on how to merge the images by squinting, however, my eyes didn't cooperate.  It was still pretty awesome.  For the technical photographers out there, he also describes his set-up.

Probable label issues

I've noticed this for some time now, but it just struck me that there may be lasting effects...

When I start entering a label in a post, blogger pops up a list of existing labels containing that entry.  You can then click the one you want to enter.  However, I have noticed that Blogger seems to like to enter the top item in the list rather than the one I select.  I haven't paid that  much attention to the symptoms but it seems to happen fairly regularly (always?) on the first entry, but then seems to work correctly on subsequent labels.  I've caught this many times at post time and, earlier today, found a case where I didn't.  So, I suspect than many of my posts could have a somewhat random label attached.  I'm not going to scour my older posts for these mistakes but will take a look when I revisit particular items.  If any of you notice an obviously incorrect label, I add appreciate you dropping a comment.  TIA!

More from Robonaut-1

In this video (about half way in), you can see Discovery's plume dissipating in the upper atmosphere.  Too bad there isn't a video of the launch itself (or at least a segment thereof). 

Happy Birthday to Verna and Randy's Rockets!

It looks like my favorite e-rocket girl, and her other half are celebrating their 6th birthday in the Interwebs. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUYS!  To celebrate their 7th year on-line, they feature club updates (as usual), Beta test results of the Estes E-beam LED launch controller, and the spectacular balloon's eye view of the Discovery launch.  This month's photo of the month is actually a group of them, which convey the message, "every flight is unique."  So, here's to another great year!

WANT: pointy things

They are probably metal and thus verboten, but how cool would these retro ('50's-'70's), East German TV tower models look on top of your rocket? (via DRB)

Aaaaaaachooooo!

HMS Liverpool's Sea Dart launcher

HMS Liverpool's Sea Dart launcher, originally uploaded by Solan1487.