Rocket Science 101

[Arizona Hot]

Who here wants to be a rocket scientist? Presuming you aren't one already.

[TaoPhoenix]

That's rather nice.

[kunkel321]

[Renegade]

So I built a few rockets. Now where's my cushy office at NASA as a rocket scientist.

[skwire]

I still build model rockets and go shoot them off with my daughters.  I even built my own launcher box from a fishing tackle box.  Does that count for squat?

[Deozaan]

Reminds me of the Kerbal Space Program

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5OhFnq_iKw

(I was never able to escape the Earth's atmosphere...)

[SeraphimLabs]

Reminds me of the Kerbal Space Program

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5OhFnq_iKw

(I was never able to escape the Earth's atmosphere...)

Kerbal is lots of fun. Gotta be a little methodical in your testing to get results though, but it only took me a few hours to reach orbit the first time. Right now I have ships all over the place, including in orbit of other planets.

But where Kerbal is okay let's do this if it blows up build another, NASA's equivalent is more into realistic simulation and recreating actual mission profiles- theorized or actually flown.

[tomos]

I still build model rockets and go shoot them off with my daughters.  I even built my own launcher box from a fishing tackle box.  Does that count for squat?

do you have to clear the area first? I mean, do they crash land?

[skwire]

do you have to clear the area first? I mean, do they crash land?

There is a large soccer field complex near our home that we use.  On Sundays, there usually aren't too many people out there.  But, yes, they do crash land; some have a parachute and some are so light that they don't need one.  Even if they hit you, it's mostly just a cardboard tube and some balsa wood fins.

[Stoic Joker]

I still build model rockets and go shoot them off with my daughters.  I even built my own launcher box from a fishing tackle box.  Does that count for squat?

do you have to clear the area first? I mean, do they crash land?

IIRC (it's been over 30 years since I did it) the lase stage of the rocket's engine blows backward up the body/tube to dislodge the cone/tip to release a parachute that it "lands" with.

(skwire beat me to it)

[Renegade]

Anyone here ever build a bazooka with model rockets and pipes when they were kids? Or am I the only one?

[skwire]

Anyone here ever build a bazooka with model rockets and pipes when they were kids? Or am I the only one?

We used to use a PVC pipe and bottle rockets for ammo.  We'd fashion a "sight" to the pipe with whatever we had laying around, e.g., cardboard, duct tape, etc.  Aww, yeah.    

* skwire goes rummaging through the garage...

[SeraphimLabs]

I still build model rockets and go shoot them off with my daughters.  I even built my own launcher box from a fishing tackle box.  Does that count for squat?

do you have to clear the area first? I mean, do they crash land?

IIRC (it's been over 30 years since I did it) the lase stage of the rocket's engine blows backward up the body/tube to dislodge the cone/tip to release a parachute that it "lands" with.

(skwire beat me to it)

I still have some of my kits from 10 years ago, and they continue to work like that to this day.

The kit rockets and prepared engines for them are a standard type gunpowder arrangement. They provide a high thrust for launch, then a smoke trail for tracking during the ballistic phase, and finally an ejection charge that "pops" up the tube of the rocket to eject the nose coupling and deploy the parachute for recovery.

Gotta clear a small area for the launcher just in case, but most of the time they can be flown successfully in a football field sized arrangement- or really any similar sized open field free of trees and power lines that they could get caught on.

[Stoic Joker]

Anyone here ever build a bazooka with model rockets and pipes when they were kids? Or am I the only one?

While gunpowder was regulated and not something they sold to children even back then, rocket engines were easy to get in any hobie store... Granted the (Um...) "extraction" process was insanely dangerous in retrospect...but the results were quite entertaining. However I'll not be detailing them here to avoid having dark sedans appear in my driveway...

[rjbull]

Video complete with The Blue Danube music, just like the seminal video game Elite...