AMATEURS AND ROCKETS-1

I was asked recently if I had lost interest in rocketry. Nothing could be further from the truth; I love rocketry as much as ever and can't foresee ever losing my interest in it. Time constraints have kept me from actually doing much, but I'm always keeping my eyes open for anything rocket related. That leads me to this post. A couple of weeks ago someone on the Arocket email list mentioned a long out of print book called Amateurs and Rockets by Humphreys. I was surprised because with as few books that have been written on the subject, I thought I knew them all. I immediately went to Alibris and found that they had three copies, one seller was asking $280, one $180, and one seller was asking just $20. I ordered the twenty dollar book and forgot about it. When I got home yesterday I found that it had arrived and after a quick flip through I was a really happy. The book was written by two members of the Pacific Rocket Society and contains numerous photos and technical drawings from the 50's and 60's. Many of them from the Reaction Research Society of which I am a member. One of the coolest images that I found was of the RRS's newly constructed launch tower. The photo was taken before I was born! The other photo is of me at least 35 years later using the same launch tower. There are a ton of other interesting photos and stories that I hope to share here.

More Old Photos

These are pictures of the very first rocket that I launched at the RRS back in 2002. I hadn't bought a lathe yet and the motors were constructed primarily out of PVC pipe and fittings. It was the largest PVC motor that I have ever constructed and the last before moving on to fully machined motors made of steel and aluminum.

Old Photos

This is a rocket I flew back in March of 2004. My friend Peter and I got a lot of ribbing from the guys as the vehicle was constructed almost entirely from sewer pipe. The motor utilized an unrestricted burning grain, which basically means that it lept off the ground like a bat out of hell. That's me holding a propellant segment, Peter with the rocket, leaving the ground with a bit of an arc, straightening out, and the landing site. Fun Day!

Not Rockets

Other than offering a tiny bit of support to the ongoing Sugar shot project, I've been way too busy to do any real rocketry work. On top of being busy at work, we've decided to replace the floors at home with tile, to the tune of around 900 sq. ft. downstairs and 200 sq. ft. upstairs. I've decided to do the work myself. I convinced myself that it was a good way to save money, but the reality is that I kinda really enjoy the work. One of the first jobs that my dad had was as a stone mason, so maybe it runs in the family? It's going pretty well (I think) and I've gotten into a routine of laying whole tiles at night after the kids are asleep. By morning the mortar is set enough that they can walk on the tiles without causing any problems. Then on the weekends I cut and lay the smaller perimeter pieces when I can use the saw without annoying or waking anyone. In the bottom photo is how the floors looked before, and the other photos show the progression of the dining room area. Grout, baseboards, new carpet (on the stairs and upstairs), and paint still to come. Anyway, if anyone does actually follows this blog, stay tuned as I hope to get back to some rocketry work later in the year and finally fly this rocket.

We once had a Rocket

Mike Roberts posted a link to this interesting documentary film on arocket today. Mike reports that it was inspired by Francis Spufford's book "The Backroom Boys" and it's called "We Once had a Rocket". It documents how the engineers responsible for Black Arrow went ahead and launched the rocket with the satellite Prospero despite the government having just cancelled the whole programme. It includes a number of interesting interviews with some of the guys who worked on Black Arrow at the time. As others have pointed out on the arocket list, it seems unlikely that the government didn't authorize the launch, but the idea makes for a more dramatic story. Either way the video is interesting and worth a view.

Finocyl Propellant Segments Fired

Rick Maschek successfully conducted a static test of the small test motor which used a finocyl core geometry for the SStS project. This is exciting because of the possibilities that complex core geometries open up. Many of the most impressive small sounding rockets utilize a monolithic grain segment with a complex core geometry. Arguably on of the earliest and most successful is the Loki dart which could deliver a small payload to 34 miles despite being only three inches in diameter. It used a simpler cruciform core design.

Photos and video courtesy of Rick Maschek.

Finocyl grain testing

The Sugar shot project has begun testing finocyl grain geometries. Rick Maschek is doing a great job of actually casting the segments. Rick has managed to remove the mandrels with ease , something that is notoriously difficult with complex cores, by cooling it first by running nitrogen through the center of the mandrel. Ed at true-core fabricated the mandrel designed by Richard Nakka. I supplied a short 2 segment casing to work with the Blast Tube Motor that I designed to test ablative samples. Really interesting work that I wish I could be more involved with.