New high power Rocket launch

[paul1598419]

I guess the GPS system is the difficult part. I will be looking forward to the new higher launch. I'm sure your students are loving this.

 

[Seoul_lasers]

I guess the GPS system is the difficult part. I will be looking forward to the new higher launch. I'm sure your students are loving this.

"Technically" these aren't my students but I was helping out with the launch. These are my brother's students, but it takes 2 people with propellant certification to set these off.

BTW, I work at 2 private schools as a TOC (teacher on call), I hopefully will be put on at the public school as a Ed-tech expert.
I know what else I will be building with students, especially grades 10-12.

Projects I am wanting to build with older students:

a) Large 1-1.5MV Van de Graaff Generator. Do-able.
b) Large 7.5-10KW (already got the secondary and caps and NSTs and a 14.4Kv metering XMFR @250lbs) Tesla Coil.
c) Particle Accelerator? might be wishfull thinking.
d) Large computers for 3D Animation/media and 4K RAW footage
processing. 1800W ATX full sized tower with an 8 core X99 based
system here we come. 2x Titan X or Nvidia 1080s... more later.

e) Re-do all the computers in the school and update them for the 21st century.

f) Dedicated media server for school. 4K footage, Movies, etc

g) A demonstration laser for optics, TEA Nitrogen and TEA CO2 lasers for
Physics classes.

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Today we were scheduled to launch 3 rockets this morning at ~9:20am, and 2 made it onto the firing rails. Our large 7ft tall rocket had a malfunction with the rail pins and needed to be re-seated. Unfortunately this meant that we aborted the launch of the larger rocket.

So all in all, 2 rockets flew today. Our first launch was about a 1200Km/hr flight to just over 2.2Km altitude. The pictures attached is of a still frame capture from a video recorded at 1080p @ 120fps.. The video from both rockets have the loud crack that one would expect from a .22LR.

1st rocket launch clearly showing mach diamonds in the exhaust flame.
Note the engine contains both Potassium Perchlorate and Ammonium Perchlorate. The Potassium perchlorate makes this engine burn with a very intense violet purple flame.

2nd rocket (first 2 attached pictures with orange flame) exceeded the first rockets speed we figure by ~300 Km/hr.
The intense acceleration was enough to warp the airframe. Rocket was recovered with a warped body tube and scorched fin tips.

Updated click on the attached movie.

This is the first Rocket launch. Note that this movie is a downconverted clip from 120fps to 60fps @ 1080p
Remember this is a ~1Kg rocket (fully loaded) zipping off the pad at ~330m/s. Note the debris flying up into the camera from the engine blast.
Our engine is a newly released high impulse 195 newton second rocket motor from Aerotec.
Kids were enjoying every minute of launch period yesterday.

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Just attached the video in the previous post. <More video going to be attached once I get the next clip down-converted.


:beer:

 

[Seoul_lasers]

My second Video of our last launch.

This rocket is using a much larger engine with higher impulse over a longer time period. The Rocket zips off the pad at just about 584Km/hr but attained approx. 1500Km/hr at around 700m -900m and continued climbing past 2Km altitude.

apogee occured @ 2.5Km

This Rocket suffered catastrophic body tube failure as well as shredding one of the fins from the speed at peak thrust.

Just a note that the beeping in the video was due to my external mic picking up ambient noise interference. No that's not a Buk Surface to air missile locking noise. :wave:

 

[Benm]

Those things disappear into the sky quickly

Any on board footage from these launches?

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Those things disappear into the sky quickly

Any on board footage from these launches?

Both of these rockets were tests of our new Jolly Logic Altimeter Three only. We were trying to get a good speed and altitude comparison between 2 motors.

We have a new launch scheduled for a larger 2x motor (double H195) payloader rocket. This one will be carrying a video camera and the Jolly Logic Alt3. I'll post the footage here for sure once it has been downloaded from the camera. :beer:

 

[Seoul_lasers]

A major rocket firing is scheduled for today. I'm testing 3 rockets today including our dual motor 3.25" dia rocket for doing cinematography.

Pictures posted of our several hours of prep on Saturday Nov.19th.


IMG1325: Short rocket, has managed to survive 2 sonic flights. Requires a new parachute.
IMG1326: Blue and black rocket getting a taphole for a pressure/speed sensor. This rocket is expected to travel well past 6800ft (+2Km).
IMG1322/IMG1323 : The dual engine (5ft) payloader. This rocket is carrying our camera as well as a JollyLogic Three sensor.

NOTE: IMG1331. Picture of the rail system, note that it is approximately 2m tall. It is just large enough to launch the largest rocket (rails are 2m in total height). With the base added the total hight is closer to 2.5m in total height.
The base of the launcher is made out of an old stainless steel camera tripod from the 70s. It's a serious beast and was meant to hold at least 60kg worth of camera equipment.


Monday Nov.21st Students will launch their smaller rockets including the payloader and the larger 7ft tall high power rocket. ( not in any of the pictures)

 

[Seoul_lasers]

The launch of the 7ft tall "payloader" didn't go completely as planned. We also had issues with our large launching rail. The rail pins required major sanding as they seemed to be ever so slightly burred.

The large Rocket fishtailed off the launcher due to a fin stabilization issue. :yabbem:
We ended loosing the rocket some 3Km downwind from the launch site in a tree directly above the local firehall. The fire Dept. called the school knowing full well who fired the rocket.
:crackup: Good thing the parachute fired properly.

Rocket only flew to about 500 or 600m or so, but drifted after apogee 3km from the
launch site.

We will attempt another launch with our new onboard video camera soon with the Loc Precision double barreled payloader. Stay tuned. It will be a high altitude flight.

 

[BowtieGuy]

Keep up the good work, Seoul!
I'd love see some of the video from the on board camera when you get some.
It's a good thing that your rocket landed at the fire department, they're supposed to be good at getting things out of trees; your rocket can't be any harder than a scared cat. :crackup:
:gj:

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Keep up the good work, Seoul!
I'd love see some of the video from the on board camera when you get some.
It's a good thing that your rocket landed at the fire department, they're supposed to be good at getting things out of trees; your rocket can't be any harder than a scared cat. :crackup:
:gj:

Still itching to try my supersonic launch. I've got a brand new Aerotec (AP-metalized Rubber propellant) high impulse rocket motor ready to be used in a re-enforced (Cheetah) with an I-series engine mount mod. :eg:

I figure 7000' will be easy.

 

[Alaskan]

I have an idea, combine your laser hobby with your rocket and have a night launch of your rocket with a powerful 520nm laser diode onboard shooting straight up out of the rocket, ought to be cool. You should be able to find it when it comes back down, if enough battery to keep it running awhile after the launch.

 

[Seoul_lasers]

I have an idea, combine your laser hobby with your rocket and have a night launch of your rocket with a powerful 520nm laser diode onboard shooting straight up out of the rocket, ought to be cool. You should be able to find it when it comes back down, if enough battery to keep it running awhile after the launch.

Interesting idea.

However, I am thinking about using a high power LED strobe that would be in the 520nm range. Green is at the peak of what we see anyways so it should be easy locate.

I am also toying with an idea of RF location. There are a number of micro GPS transponders for dones one could adapt... or DIY. :san:

Using a laser on a rocket is an interesting idea. I'll give it a thought.

 

[Benm]

Cool stuff!

If you could get a laser to fire straight up from the nose of the rocket that'd make a very cool piece of visual feedback on attitude for a night launch.

As for finding the rocket: the easiest solution would be something that uses gps and cellphone infrastructure if the latter is available in your launch area.

If not a small vhf or uhf beacon could do the trick, though you may need a HAM license to operate that. These also require fairly large antenna's to work well, though they need not be heavy. If your rocket stays in one piece and the outer shell is not conductive, thin wires along the length would be just fine. But since it looks like it has a metal body it might better to put the transmitter assembly on the parachute if possible.

 

[Seoul_lasers]

Cool stuff!

If you could get a laser to fire straight up from the nose of the rocket that'd make a very cool piece of visual feedback on attitude for a night launch.

As for finding the rocket: the easiest solution would be something that uses gps and cellphone infrastructure if the latter is available in your launch area.

If not a small vhf or uhf beacon could do the trick, though you may need a HAM license to operate that. These also require fairly large antenna's to work well, though they need not be heavy. If your rocket stays in one piece and the outer shell is not conductive, thin wires along the length would be just fine. But since it looks like it has a metal body it might better to put the transmitter assembly on the parachute if possible.

The VHF/UHF beacon does not require a HAM radio certificate/license according to Canadian laws unless it falls into the 1Watt transmission strength.
Our rockets are thick wall cardboard impreg. phenolic resin. which is extremely strong stuff. fins are PolyCarbonate.
Furthermore according to civil aviation rules and CNRA no rocket is allowed to have metal parts especially the body tube.
This is done to prevent catastrophic property damage if an ejection charge fails to fire and the rocket comes in ballistic.
Having already had this happen once, I can only imagine what kind of damage an all metal body tube and cone would do to a roof or car if it dropped from 7000ft.

 

[Flaminpyro]

Don't worry about it cuz it really dosn't matter what the rocket is made of if it comes back in super sonic it going to bury it's self in what ever it hits !!!

Here are some pictures I took of a fiberglass and carbon fiber body rock that came down 12 feet away from me at the BALLS rocket launch put on by the TRIPOLI rocket club in the Black Rock desert in Nevada in 2014

I came in super sonic we didn't hear a thing till it hit the ground and then it was like some one hitting a wall with a sledge hammer.

This rocket was 4 feet long and when it stopped burying it's self the only part sticking above the ground level was the fins and nozzle about 6"


That's my trailer in the background.

This is extremely hard ground it a prehistoric lake bed, it took 45 min to dig it out and we never got it all out.




Here's one that made it back down safely from 78,000, you can see the electronics package on the table behind the sm plastic box.


This one only made it to 68,000


And this is a modern version of a model from 1958 the original was only about 8" high and used a re-loadable motor, this one is 8 feet tall.


Happy flying

This is done to prevent catastrophic property damage if an ejection charge fails to fire and the rocket comes in ballistic.
Having already had this happen once, I can only imagine what kind of damage an all metal body tube and cone would do to a roof or car if it dropped from 7000ft.