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Kerbal Space Program Unofficial Model Rocketry Megathread

TeslaPenguin1

By TeslaPenguin1
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TeslaPenguin1

TeslaPenguin1

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On 9/11/2018 at 9:18 PM, Nutt007 said:

The only successful flight from my brother's, his friends and I's completely homemade rocket program. From almost exactly a year ago:

 

 

Homemade SRMs are hard! It's not enough to just fill a tube with explodium (KNO3) and let it fly. A big problem was that our clay nozzles kept blowing out which depressurized the motors causing them to stop producing thrust. We fixed this by adding a copper "nozzle" into the center of the clay. You can see the depressurization beautifully in this video of one of our launch failures here:

 

I miss building rockets. It's like KSP but with more risk of losing an eye!

Uhh, in the video... 

Where is your launch rod? It wouldn't have tipped over if you had used a launch rod.

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LaydeeDem

LaydeeDem

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3 hours ago, TeslaPenguin1 said:

Uhh, in the video... 

Where is your launch rod? It wouldn't have tipped over if you had used a launch rod.

In true Kerbal fashion our launch pad developed alongside the rockets. Our launch rod was being sticky and we were desperate for any sort of a launch that day so we removed it. We later replaced it with metal instead of wood which fixed the stickyness.

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  • 5 weeks later...
Ultimate Steve

Ultimate Steve

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Absolutely amazing weather today, little wind, clear skies, 60 degree temperature. Unfortunately the cornfield behind my house has not been harvested yet, but a friend and I drove out to my Church, which has plenty of empty fields surrounding it.

We launched 3 things today, with one success, one failure, and one partial success, for a total of a 50% success rate... Which, unfortunately, seems to be my average success rate in general!

The first rocket was fairly standard, and succeeded. I almost managed to catch it!

The second one was a test of a cluster engine configuration (this time using two separate launch controllers, and elevated wires to give more ignition time as opposed to the first test which used a parallel setup with one launch controller) but like the first test of this rocket (named the X-3 Red Goblin) only one engine ignited, and because I was using low power A engines for testing, it only made it about 10 feet into the air.

The third flight was a rocket designed for D and E engines, but flown on a C engine to test some systems prior to the next flight, which will use a *new* E engine. The previous two times we have tried to use E engines they have exploded, probably because someone may have dropped the engines at some point. Unfortunately due to a lack of tape and an oversight by me, the nose cone separated from the rocket (not supposed to happen, the parachute opening is further down the rocket) and the payload fell out... Luckily, the payload was an altimeter attached to the nose cone, which was purple. It stuck out fairly well in the light brown field and we were able to find it.

Good news - on the fourth flight of this altimeter, we finally got it to work! All three launches with it onboard have either arced over due to payload overfilling or exploded on the pad. It registered 282 feet, which is pretty good. The rocket has an advertised maximum altitude of 1500 feet on an E engine, so that seems about right. When we do the E engine run we are going to reef the parachute, or use a smaller one, however. Wind was minimal today, for Iowa at least, and the rocket still drifted quite a ways.

Video coming soon, remind me if it's not up in a week or so.

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Ultimate Steve

Ultimate Steve

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So, today I launched some more, this time with two friends, later to be joined by my sister.

Conditions were a bit cloudy and a bit more windy than last time, but manageable. The only high altitude rocket we flew had streamer recovery so the wind wasn't a big problem. We launched four rockets.

 

  1. Calypso, B6-4. Highly streamlined rocket, reached approximately 600 feet. Recovered by streamer. Completely successful - I managed to catch it! This was my first time ever catching a rocket!
  2. Egglofter, B6-2. Despite the name, we have yet to fly it with an egg on board, but we flew two cookies. Altitude achieved, maybe 300-400 feet? I don't have the altitude chart for this one, as it was given to me fully assembled without packaging. The cookies, we ate afterward to a toast saying "To Space!" I also managed to catch this one, while holding a running camera!
  3. Alpha Streamer, C6-5. Partial success. This rocket is small and goes high. It is a modified Alpha-3 with a five foot long streamer instead of a parachute. It also has a payload bay at the nose, which we stuffed a blue rubber lizard into. We did not secure him properly and he flew out and is MIA probably KIA. Other than that, the flight was completely successful! The streamer fully deployed and was visible even at apogee, which is estimated to be around 1200 feet. Somehow I managed to catch this one as well, three in a row!
  4. Space Invader, D12-5. A renamed "Mean Machine." 6 feet tall. Painted really cool. On its second launch attempt it got stuck to the launch pad and burned a hole through the deflector plate, so for this launch we used a normal launch rod instead of a maxi rod. But it tipped over so we used our maxi rod as a diagonal support for a rocket, jury rigging a small pocket out of scotch tape for it to rest in. Worked like a charm! Estimated altitude 300-400 feet. I think I may modify this rocket to have an additional body tube as a payload bay if I find the time. And get this - I CAUGHT IT AS WELL! I literally caught all four rockets today! Also, it's been a while since I've launched anything larger than a C, I forgot how loud D engines are!

Full video coming soon-ish, but for now here's me launching and catching the Space Invader:

 

 

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Ultimate Steve

Ultimate Steve

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Can I ask for advice here?

About 2 and a half years ago I launched a model rocket with a tiny onboard camera.

The camera was definitely not HD as it was advertised, and its controls left much to be desired, but it was small enough to fit on a rocket. But then it broke after its second launch, not even because of the launch. We bought a second one which didn't work at all.

And now I'm running around Ebay and Amazon trying to find a decent camera that is small enough to fit in a rocket, standalone, and won't break if you look at it weirdly. I would also prefer it to be affordable, but if it fits the first three I'll pay for it within reason.

All of the small cameras I could find have mostly negative reviews.

Anyone have any suggestions as to the camera type? Because right now my most plausible option appears to be adding an additional payload segment to one of my current rockets that is wide enough for a larger camera and fitting a mirror so it can film sideways. The only problem with this is that I risk my larger camera (still a knockoff though) and that technically might break the rocketry code (no large heavy objects).

So if anyone has a camera that they use for this, please tell me about it!

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Ultimate Steve

Ultimate Steve

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@TeslaPenguin1 Nice collection you have there! I also have a rocket called Paradox, although it is a lot less cool looking! May I ask about the one on the right, if that is a kit or self made? If it is self made, how did you go about making something that large in diameter, and how large diameter is it?

Asking because I'm considering making a high diameter rocket possibly powered by CDE engines for camera purposes.

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TeslaPenguin1

TeslaPenguin1

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10 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

@TeslaPenguin1 Nice collection you have there! I also have a rocket called Paradox, although it is a lot less cool looking! May I ask about the one on the right, if that is a kit or self made? If it is self made, how did you go about making something that large in diameter, and how large diameter is it?

 

That one is a kit called the Penguin. It is based off of BT-80 or BT-70, I can't remember which.

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TeslaPenguin1

TeslaPenguin1

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12 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Here are the highlights of my last two launch days!

Nice!

I wish I lived somewhere where I could just go to an open field and launch my rockets... *sigh* At least there's a launch at my local club coming up in a few weeks!

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Ultimate Steve

Ultimate Steve

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I launched three more rockets today, for a total of 10 this month, a new record!

Launch 1 - Unnamed rocket given to me a while back, obviously one of those bought-in-bulk school project rockets. We named it "Nyooom!" on site and launched it on an A8-3, successfully.

Launch 2 - Astron III, built at scout camp a few years back. Unfortunately the parachute was too tight and the glue too old, instead of deploying the chute, the ejection charge on the B6-4 motor ejected the entire engine compartment...

Launch X - 2 stage Comanche-3 on a B6-0 and a B6-6. Unfortunately I wanted to check the streamer pack for tightness because of what happened to the last launch, and it was too tight to get out. I ended up breaking the shock cord in 2 places, so no launch. :(

Launch 3 - Olympian Mission 7 - E9-8. The first E engine I have ever launched successfully. Unfortunately the altimeter did not trigger, but on the packaging it says it should have gone around 1600 feet up, but since we had the weight of an altimeter, some spin due to subpar fins, a slightly off-vertical launch angle, and an exterior backup shock cord (which failed) I'm guessing it was more like 1400-1500. If it is towards the upper end of that spectrum, then that is a new altitude record for the Notebook Space Program, on par with the Hi-flier on a C6-7 and a 2 stage variant of the Comanche-3.

But that record will only stand until I finally let off the Comanche-3 in its 3 staged configuration - 2250 feet, here we come!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
Ultimate Steve

Ultimate Steve

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Hmm... Regarding the legality of making my own rocket engines in the US... At least on the federal level, it's allowed as long as it's not obviously tremendously dangerous and stays on my property.

I'll still have to check with the local and state levels, but it's a start.

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RealKerbal3x

RealKerbal3x

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I’d love to build model rockets, but I live in a rather dense urban area in the UK and you have to travel quite a way to find any big enough open space for something like that. Also, I don’t even know if the laws here would allow the building of rocket engines.

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