BALLS 20

Internet connectivity seems to be alive and well in or near the Black Rock Desert. I've seen several reports, but this is the first eye candy. The Bayourat posted this video of a 3-stage,  N-N-M flight.  Hard to see on my small screen, but the up part looked good!

Moonshine motor (updated)

Update: Someone on TRF pointed out that the flight motor may have been a RATTWorks Tri-bid.  That actually makes a lot of sense to me.  If so, they may or may not have used their hooch. Skeptics. They will ruin yer fun every time. :)

In between watching the other new episodes of Rocket City Rednecks (beer can IED armor, DIY exto-skeleton armor, and one I haven't seen yet), I snapped a shot of the moonshine motor's combustion chamber/nozzle unit.  Mounted on it's tree stump test bed. Yeehaw.

I think we're going to see a lot of rockets on this show.  The 'Ironman" suit's weapons unit is a multi-rocket launcher.  The rockets resembled Estes Quarks.

FSI E60-4 motors

FSI E60-4 motors, a photo by stefan_e_jones on Flickr.

Click through to see other vintage FSI products.

Rocket City Rednecks moonshine rocket post mortem

If you haven't seen the episode and are worried about spoilers, hit your back button now.  However, I won't spoil it much since the attached promo photo pretty much already did that.

The idea is that they had a few days to build a moonshine and nitrous oxide powered rocket, including distilling the alcohol.  It was pretty clear to me that the rocket itself was well under way before the idea was supposedly hatched and it played 2nd stage to the construction of the still.   No details were provided but it looked like a typical HPR class rocket: fiberglass tubing, dual deploy, and an altimeter.  You didn't see much about the power plant save there was a copy of the nozzle/combustion chamber assembly used for a test firing.  I may go back and pause the DVR for a better look. 


They pretty much violated all three of their safety rules along the way.  The rules are cute and go something like, '1. Always follow rule three; 2. When in doubt refer to rule #1; and, 3. Safety first.' There was a mishap with one ejection charge, which was reportedly 'pre-loaded at the factory'. Hmmm.

Despite its flaws, I was entertained and, in the end, the rocket did fly.  Not bad for a backyard design on home made moonshine, even of some of the work took longer than advertized.  It is TV entertainment after all.  I have three more episodes that will be viewed at my leisure.  I hope these guys do more rocket episodes.

Changes to rocket motor shipping regulations

Below the page break, you'll find the National Association of Rocketry's (NAR) statement on the termination of DOT's rocket motor shipping exemption.

BALLS 18 is around the corner

BALLS 2011 - 'normal' waiver 112.5k', 150k' with BoD approval, higher with a L-2 waiver (?). 'Nuff said!

Primer woes

I've been filling/sanding/priming/sanding by Big Brite clone and need to make a note to myself: Next time, buy something other than Rustoleum Painter's Touch Ultra Cover 2x.  I have had this problem before, but only remembered after I repeated my mistake.  That is, the primer develops hairline cracks that defy filling with additional coats.  I think I blamed this on the undercoat the last time but, this time, I shot the primer on unfilled LOC tubing and bare wood.  I shot two coats, one a half hour after the other.  This is well outside the 'coat before 1 hr or after 24 hrs' window.  Since it doesn't occur over the entire surface, I suppose it has to do with the thickness of the coats.  I generally lay paint on too thick, but generally do this on purpose with primer.  The fix is that I have to scrape the cracks with a scribe or hobby knife and then fill them with Fill'n'Finish before recoating.  In any event, in the future I will merely use another brand.  Plastikote has been good to me.

DVR alert: Rocket City Rednecks

Rocket City Rednecks debuts tonight at 9PM EST on the National Geographic Channel.

Meet the self-proclaimed Rocket City Rednecks. They’re five “backwoods” guys from the rocket city: Huntsville, Ala., home to NASA’s Marshall Flight Center and the birthplace of the U.S. space program. Sure, they love to shoot stuff and drink beer, and one of ‘em lives in a trailer, but with a family tree full of NASA rocket scientists (not to mention their own PhDs and advanced degrees), they aim a little higher — like using homemade moonshine to fuel a rocket! In each episode, we'll see how they apply redneck ingenuity with advanced engineering and physics to creatively solve real-world problems... and have a little fun, of course! 

I will record it and report back...at  least on the moonshine rocket episode  It appears that my DVR says there are four new half hour segments tonight, including that one.  It looks like it could go either way, but at least a rocket (and beer) will be involved.  However, I'm tagging this post under "rocket stunts and pseudo science."

Just when you thought it was safe to take off your hard hat

Phil Plait relays NASA's final word on UARS: It came down "over a broad, remote ocean area in the Southern Hemisphere, far from any major land mass."  Despite a 300-500 mile long debris field, it all landed safely out to sea.

Of even more interest, Phil notes that the German satellite ROSAT is due to come back to Earth in a month or so.  Despite weighing ~2 tons vs. UARS's ~6 tons, more of it is expected to survive to impact. That's because its mirrors were shielded.  He reports the odds of it hitting someone is 1 in 2000 meaning the chance it will hit you (or me) is on the order of 1 in 14 trillion.

Simulating square rockets

In Apogee Newsletter #296, Bruce Levinson begins to explore how to simulate square bodied rockets, such as those offered by New Way Space Models.  He starts with a standard round rocket with the same frontal area.  This gives a 'best case' in terms of performance because it doesn't account for the affects the square edges have when zipping through the airflow.  In his day job, Bruce works with scientists who model the structure of complex bio-molecules.  So he is inclined to search for a more accurate representation.  Well, his rocket background probably equally accounts for his motivation.  He proceeds to describe and compare 5 other approximations.  If you are interested in simulating odd designs in RockSim, whether square or not, you will find this issue very interesting.  The bad news is that he doesn't come up with a firm answer as to which one is 'best'.  He points out that wind tunnel or altimeter data would be required to determine which one is most accurate.  On a final note, when I make 'what if' models in RockSim, I usually run several versions and then pick the worst case.

For now he's planning to simulate 3-sided models in his next installement in this series. Maybe he'll also fly an altimeter one in one of his New Way models and report back. 

Dr. Robert Wilson, Fermilab, and the Webb Telescope

Scientific American's Cocktail Party Physics blog posted an interesting article about particle physics pioneer Dr. Robert Rathburn Wilson - Protons and Pistols: Remembering Robert Wilson.  If you're at all interested in science history, it's worth your while.  I transcribed the beginning paragraphs, in which Dr. Wilson eloquently makes the case for funding the Fermi National Laboratory.  The author, Jennifer Ouellette, points out that this arguement may equally apply to many scientific programs that are threatened by our current economic woes (including the James Webb Space Telescope).

Finishing up the 29mm Estes Big Daddy

I originally planned to fly this rocket on the Quest F12 BP motor.  Since it now appears that this motor will never exist, I decided to finish it up. This merely involved permanently affixing the plywood bulk plate in the nose cone and giving it a couple of coats of Krylon clear gloss.  It is balanced for a 'G' but I am liking the recovery phase of the sport less and less.  So, I'll probably grab some sort of single use 'F' motors.  One day, maybe it will fly on the newly announced Quest composite motors.

Hmm, I smell a new project

a dummy fires out of a mock-up of a cockpit during testing of the escape system for the LTV A-7BE Corsair II at Naval Weapons Center (NWC) China Lake, California, a photo by aeroman3 on Flickr.

Psychedelic rocketry, man

AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles on a cart ready for loading on the flight deck of the USS JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV 67) operating in the Red Sea during 'Operation Desert Storm', January 17, 1991, a photo by aeroman3 on Flickr.

AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles on a cart ready for loading on the flight deck of the USS JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV 67) operating in the Red Sea during 'Operation Desert Storm', January 17, 1991

Build Session!

Warthog hosted another great build session.  It was fun to talk rockets, eat pizza, and look at what the other attendees were building. 

I made good progress on my Big Brute replacement.  I cut the body tube to length, slotted said tube, installed the motor mount that was recovered from the original, and attached the fins.  Next, I will add Superfil fillets, attach rail buttons, paint, and fly.  I'll have to tweak my original Rocksim to reflect the actual materials used.  I'm hoping the slightly heavier nose cone will offset the slightly thicker, tabbed fins.

Progress on the big fat Crayon bank was limited to lopping the top off. 

The star of the show was Warthog's SR-71 Blackbird rocket glider conversion.  I had never even seen a R/C servo up close so it was interesting to see how it is being built. 

RIP UARS (updated)

NASA confirms that UARS went down in the Pacific over night.  And, a sat-watcher in Blaine, WA reportedly has the shaky-cam video to prove it.  Zoomed out footage showing in going to pieces would have been cooler.

Update:  I posted this early on my way out of the house.  A reader points out that the video looks like sky lanterns.  I checked back in on the Space.com link and they now mention there are hoax videos.  Their video didn't load for me so I don't know if they agree theirs was a hoax or not. 

Physics in the news

 I have nothing rockets to post about, so....

• Well, despite rumors to the contrary, hardhats may yet be required. "Update for 4:30 p.m. ET Sept. 23: NASA revised its forecast since this report was first posted to note that the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite was not sinking as quickly as expected, and that there was a "low probability" that debris from the re-entry could fall on North America. The revised forecast said the satellite could come down late Friday or early Saturday, Eastern Daylight Time."  I thought the 6:00PM news said something about California. The latest estimates have it coming down at midnight EST +/- 5 hrs.  The 'minus' side of the estimate is dwindling.
• This too has been reported all over the place: Scientists from CERNS's OPERA experiment think they may have discovered that neutrinos move faster than the speed of light.  The Bad Astronomer says, "Slow down folks."
• Shields up! "Antimagnets", the perfect magnetic shield - via Next Big Future.

Sleep well, Marylanders, DCists, and Virginians (update: duck!)

This may not be new news, but I just checked the projected UARS track and it appears the only passes that are even visible on the 23rd through the 25th won't bring the debris field over our area.  Disclaimer: The tool I used may assume a nominal orbit and the re-entry process may cause a variation (?).  Anyway, I'm not going to wear my aluminum foil-covered hardhat.

Well, after actually reading some of the many articles on UARS's demise, I am sure that the tracks presented above are not be accurate.  Its re-entry is affected by the solar flux and the spacecraft's orientation as its orbit decays.

Fat Crayon bank dreams...or nightmares

I'm starting to think about what I'm going to do with the 28" long, 5.875" dia. Crayon bank that Skycopp gave me.  I want to do something out of the ordinary.  So, what else is new? The most conventional idea I've had thus far is to make something like the APSoda rocket that flew at LDRS. I attached a photo from Ray LaPanse's album.  This resembles the CrayCokeZero that I previously posted about, but with four fin/winglet sets vs. two.  With a tweak to the winglets, it could become a Fireball-XL5 inspired build.

Mini-Nuke at LDRSS-XXX

Thank God it was a dud...parachute came out and everything.  My kind of rocket.

"The Shadow"

Hand made fiberglass tubes and nose cone. Custom machined end closures.  Non-pyro piston ejection.  Propellant is dihydrogen monoxide. The Shadow.

Sugar Shot 'Q' motor CATO

The Sugar Shot to Space "DoubleSShot" test motor went boom.  It was a 115,000 N-sec Q-motor with over 160 pounds of propellant.

Pulse jet powered amateur rocket flies

Here's a video of  the first flight of a pulse jet rocket.  That's a bit of an oxymoron since it's not rocket powered.  WTH, it looks like a rocket to me.  I've seen lots of videos on home made pulse jets, but I didn't realize they could be built light enough for vertical flight. This one used propane as its fuel.  If you view the video on YouTube, you can find parts #1 and #2, which document the development of the engine.  Looks like it would be easy to damage yourself and burn up you launch site with these things.  I wouldn't fiddle with them but still think this is pretty darned cool.

Ft Bliss and White Sands Missile Range

Space Shuttle document scans

My wife stumbled across some of my Space Shuttle memorabilia and I scanned a handful of the items.  I posted one here, and the rest are on Facebook (link is supposed to be public).

Launch Report 2011-6

Location: Central Sod Farm, Centreville, MD (MDRA ESL-160)
Weather: cloudy, high 60s, wind ~5 MPH
Total flights: Today - 4; YTD - 52
Total motors: Today - 4; YTD - 67

The day started poorly with drizzle and Terp-football-induced traffic on the Beltway.  However, once past US-1 it was clear sailing to the Sod Farm.  The corn had been harvested but the generally easterly wind kept the rockets away from that area anyway.  The main field was just plowed so we had to trudge through thick, soft top soil.  A scout troop raised the flag to the Pledge of Allegiance and generally slowed things down.  It's the price we pay to nurture the next generation of rocketeers.




I saw and snapped some photos of the ~6in, single-use, 'P' motor that lofted Neil's Cow at LDRS.  Very impressive.

Skycopp gave me a 5.75" diameter Crayon bank and the tube from a 4" bank.  Thanks David, I'll put them to good use.  Hope you and your wife have a great trip!

Finally, on the Red Glare front, it was announced there would be an October launch at the Sod Farm.  'Nuff said!



Flying was cut short by light drizzle at 4PM. My few flights included:

1. Public Enemy Ultra Fatboy "Mini Mojo" on a G185-6 - Very late ejection broke the ejection-charge-weakened 1/2" nylon strap that came with the kit.  I have a fin to reattach and will add a Kevlar leader through the body adjacent to the upper lug.
2. Killer Bee on a G64-6 - Nice flight.  Ejection was 1-2 sec. late.
3. Zoomie P-51D on a D12-5 -  Great flight! It rocket weather cocked and 'flew' into the prevailing wind. Ejection was late but it recovered with no damage. A 3 sec. delay would be advised.
4. Hostile Projectiles Delta X-15 on a E20-7- This too angled into the wind.  Late ejection was the order of the day.  It found the gravel access road and one of the wing tip stabilizers broke.  Easy to replace.

Underwater water rockets?

While jumping from video to video, I stumbled across this one from my favorite water rocket site, the good folks at Air Command.

Fork Rocket Ready to Launch

Why would anyone want to do this? To do strength of materials testing on forks, of course! I had no idea how to categorize this post.  I guess it goes under sport rocketry since modroc motors were obviously involved.

Fork Rocket Ready to Launch, a photo by WEBstaurantStore on Flickr.

Video of 'P' motor CATO at LDRS

Bayourat Aerospace and Rocketry has a video of the CATO of Troj's 'Insane Project'.  That's an impressive array of rocket confetti and showering propellant!

A cool polyhedric rocket

[Via Ray LaPanse] 

NASA SLS - back to the future

A few months ago, TRF/YORF member lukeskywalker was posting summaries of old NASA reports...and I was summarizing his summaries. A lot of those old studies involved adding SRBs to Saturn-derived rockets. If interested, follow the 'historic' tag below and cruise back a ways.

Aside: As many have pointed out, the images released today are 'rocket p0rn'.  That is, they were made to look pretty and may not accurately reflect the final product.

NASA reveals their proposed Space Launch System

Clark Lindsey posted some links and this animation. 

• NASA Announces Design for New Deep Space Exploration System - NASA
• NASA announces design for new heavy-lift rocket - Spaceflight Now.
• There will be a technical presentation at 12:30 pm EDT today on NASA TV. 

Looks like a mashup of a Saturn V and the defunct Ares heavy lift.  Shredvector asks on TRF, "shall we call it "Saturn 6" (VI after it flies) or "Nova light"? (NOVA tag included for reference.)

Apollo 12: Proof that lightning really does strike twice

In the latest issue of Apogee's Peak of Flight Newletter, Issue # 295, author Bart Henin describes how two lightning strikes nearly aborted Apollo 12 less than a minute into launch.

How things had gone to hell so quickly was anyone’s guess. Mission rules said Apollo 12 should have already aborted.

LDRS-XXX photo update

I am still surprised how few photo galleries I've found.  However, what's there is good!  Ray LaPanse continues to populate his albums. And, ROCKETS Magazine has their mega-sized albums up.  The Saturday album killed my computer, so I still have a lot to look at!

Neil's LDRS-XXX Cow

Looks like it even recovered. Credit: Ray LaPanse.  Click through for more shots.

Mobile Service Structure roll back

"Time exposure showing the Mobile Service Structure rolling back from the Skylab 4 Saturn 1B on November 15, 1973." [via]

World rocket pens : H-IIA, Saturn, Soyuz

world rocket pens : H-IIA, Saturn, Soyuz, a photo by trust no one on Flickr.

Now, these would make awesome MicroMaxx conversions!

Delta X-15, all decalled up

As mentioned earlier, I have the decals on my Hostile Projectiles Delta X-15, the USAF/MDRA version.  I took several photos, all of which are pretty poor quality.  Couldn't decide which to post, so I posted them all!

Sport Rocketry, September/October 2011

While the lead article is  on TARC, it is the other articles that I found interesting.

Jeff Taylor has a nice build article on the Deimos, a futuristic kit provided by Sirius Rocketry.  The kit features pods on the wings and can fly on 'D' through 'F' power. Looks nice!  Next, tube fin guru Lary brand shows us how to convert an Estes Super Neon to fly on the CTI H45 (G motors too, of course).  I may not convert one but the techniques used may prove useful.  Vince Giovannone presents a themed oddroc that was built to honor the100 year anniversary of the Latham Fire Department. It featured a cartoon-like hydrant nose cone from a lawn toy, themed fins, and a long tail cone that looked like the nozzle of a fire hose.  Awesome concept but, unfortunately, it fell victim to a CATO on an old Ellis H275.  Next up, in case you don't know how to upscale your favorite rocket, Kathy Miller tells you how.  Finally, Ted Cochran has an article on the pending updates to NFPA 1122 (modrocs) and 1127 (HPR).  He describes the process and lists the major changes.  The article is spruced up with photos of the Philippino (?) Rocket festival, which features huge home made black powder rockets.  Now I have to read that article!

Stupid rocket trick #18

It's been a while since I made one of these posts.  Not that I haven't done anything stupid in between, I just haven't done anything that stood out. Except maybe leaving the ejection charge out on my Big Brute's last flight but that's another story.

Today's trick is about decals:

Waste a sheet of clear decal stock because you expected your dot matrix printer to print white.

So, I had decided to reprint the decals for my Hostile Projectiles Delta X-15.  I ruined the set provided in the kit when I covered them with Future Shine.  I thought this stuff was completely safe for decals but I found out otherwise.  Luckily, HP provided a full resolution image on the instruction CD.  I printed a new set and began reading the instructions to get a feel for their placement.  Then I read something like, 'I had to print them on white decal stock because my cheap printer won't print white.'  D'OH!  I struck me that my cheap printer won't print white either. 

I printed another copy on full page label stock.  They are on and the clear coat is drying.  I left off the 'NASA' banner on the dorsal fin because I had already applied MDRA stickers.  I guess mine is the USAF/MDRA variant!  Photos will be separately posted shortly.

Yet more from early Wallops

Recently, reader Artemi pointed me to A new Direction - Wallops Island Flight Test Range The First Fifteen Years.  This 700+ page document is jam packed with photos and info about odd and wonderful rockets.  I have just scratched the surface as I hate reading on-line.  But, I did grab a few that caught my eye.

DM-3 Solid Rocket Motor Test (09/08/11) [updated]

Will this ever fly? Maybe as the ATK/Astrium Liberty.

P.S. - Hat tip to ridingwithrobots for the embedded photo. Click through and take a gander at his/her other work. (Note that the original photo from MSFC's photo stream was deleted. I know material on the Internet isn't highly persistent, but it usually lasts over a week!)

More LDRS stuff

 Tap, tap, tap.  I'm impatiently awaiting all the photos people have said are out there.  Here are a few more LDRS items from here and there.  There are certainly a lot more than this but I haven't pointed out every 3FNC rocket or long distance launch shot.

• Dave Hein posted some photos on RP.  There's a nice shot showing the full scale Tiki Hut oddroc.
• No photo's but Crazy Jim broke the sport rocketry speed record (?), hitting Mach 2.35 and 23,000ft on a CTI L-730. His minimum diameter rocket featured machined, diamond airfoil fins.  He will make more for $75 a set. Or is that each?
• Rumor has it that his big 'Mega' project didn't fly because the single-use CTI 'P' motor was a demo and there wasn't a manufacturer's rep on site.
• Sorta.
• LDRS-31 will be back in Potter, NY.

Insane Project (and insane CATO)

Ray LaPanse has just started posting photos. He currently only has photos of Troj's Insane Project flying and CATOing on a 'P' motor. The album will be worth visiting again over the next few weeks. (While you're at it, check out his other albums.  The LDRS-29 photos are really great!) More good news. He allows re-posting with attribution. Consider this attributed. Here are just a few low res copies to show how big the rocket was, and how bit the ensuing boom was.

LDRS-XXX, where are da photos?

A few days ago, some nice photos began to show up on Flickr.  Thanks to the owner's generosity, these were embeddable...and a couple were embedded.  Then they stopped.  Some nice photos are beginning to show up on TRF.  These are not embeddable and I don't reeling like asking permission to repost them.  Here's the linkies:

• Troj's Buckets V2, a rocket after my own heart.  In his shop.  After a successful M1400 flight at Argonia.
• Troj's Insane Project 'P' motor CATO.  Rocket confetti.  A 'P' motor case, unwrapped.

I expect a flood any time now.

More historic research rockets

The first launch from NACA's Wallops Island facility.

Rocket to test Project mercury drogue 'chute.

A pair of historic research rockets (updated)

For the history of the first rocket shown, please follow the links provided by Artemi in the comments. The Wallops document on Scribd is a particularly good find. I found it interesting that "the general configuration was followed later in the design of the Navy-Martin Bullpup air-to-ground guided missile."





(via Aeroman3)

Mothership hovering over Austin, TX

Credit: Lewis Leibovich/KXAN Austin

The Alpha Mini Book of Model Rocketry

Came with the Sizzler Starter Set. All you needed to get started. Besides the kit, launcher and motors, of course. Sign that safety code!

Bastrop County Fires in Texas

Bastrop County Fires in Texas, a photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on Flickr.

Anvils and rockets

Just watched the Discovery Science Channel show on anvil 'tossing'.  The basic idea for the standard competition is to set a 100lb anvil upside down on tamped and leveled ground.  Fill the opening with a pound of black powder.  Put another 100 pounder on top.  Light fuse and run - heads up!  You get one point for each foot of altitude and minus 3 points for each foot of distance between the landing site and launch base.   Kind of like bowling ball spot landing with the ball replaced with the anvil and the rest of the rocket eliminated.  Except for the raw propellant, that is.  I added a screen snap but the Interweb is full of photos and videos.

And, there was an interesting ad:

Scanning more kit plans...NOT

I grabbed my stash of old kit plans with the intent of scanning some of the old ones.  Unfortunately, I found them to be in pitiful shape.  Thinks like fin patterns and marking guides were all cut out and they have their share of paint smudges and dried glue puddles.  I lost interest and scanned the fin patterns that I just posted.   Luckily there is Ye Olde Rocket Plans and JimZ's Rocket Plans.

Fin patterns

In case you have designer's block.  Full size was 8 1/2" x 11" but I shrunk the file size.  These are provided mostly for motivation anyway.

Full scale Mercury Redstone!

1961 ... 'Freedom 7' first Mercury flight!, a photo by x-ray delta one on Flickr.

1961 ... 'Freedom 7' first Mercury flight!

This rocket sucks

Day 247, a photo by megram on Flickr.

At least it could if it had been plugged into an electrical outlet. Yup, it started life as a shop vac.

ARA Press to publish book on nuclear propulsion

Scott Lowther, of the Unwanted Blog and the Aerospace Products Review, has been the source of many of my posts over the last year or so. Many of these have been about Project Orion (one of my pet subjects) and other proposed nuclear-powered spacecraft. He has been working on a book on the subject and just announced that ARA Press (run by rocketeer Jack Hagerty) will publish it. That's cool, my copies of the Spaceship Handbook and Saucer Fleet are lonely.   He is also looking for an illustrator if that's your bag.  Here's Jack with a concept rocket that won't be in the book :)

Another shot of the Tiki Hut

Tiki, a photo by trbobrick on Flickr.

Remember, if you click through to the owner's album, you might find more related photos. Including one of Kari ;)

LDRS-30, Tiki Hut oddroc

IMG_9720, a photo by megram on Flickr.

I had heard about this...er...rocket. Twitter user bayourat was involved and reports it won the oddroc competition. Want...more...details. (And a photo or two of Kari.)