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How to build liquid fuel rocket?

NASAFanboy

By NASAFanboy
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NASAFanboy

NASAFanboy

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Me and a bunch of friends want to build liquid fuel rockets.

We just got clearance from the local government to do so, and we have an small rocket. Our eventual goal is like Copenhagen Suborbitals, we want to send one of us into space.

As of now, we've sent a three weather ballons into the stratosphere, of which two where equipped with solid boosters that we patched together from Estes kits (They managed to get around 32KM apogee). All where recovered.

However, I want to take my experimenting into the next level, with liquid rockets.

Any tips on building them will be greatly appreciated. Might post a picture or two of our fourth ballon launch when it does.

I already designed the capsule, and we're in the process of reviewing it.

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miracmert

miracmert

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Me and a bunch of friends want to build liquid fuel rockets.

We just got clearance from the local government to do so, and we have an small rocket. Our eventual goal is like Copenhagen Suborbitals, we want to send one of us into space.

As of now, we've sent a three weather ballons into the stratosphere, of which two where equipped with solid boosters that we patched together from Estes kits (They managed to get around 32KM apogee). All where recovered.

However, I want to take my experimenting into the next level, with liquid rockets.

Any tips on building them will be greatly appreciated. Might post a picture or two of our fourth ballon launch when it does.

I already designed the capsule, and we're in the process of reviewing it.

We have a similar project in my university yet we haven't send anything to the sky yet. I am the designer of the rockets, and I'm designing a Pegasus-like rocket to be launched from a supersonic unmanned jet. It's easy if you skim through rocket plans, such as Copenhag Suborbitals (they have the plans on their website) and I recommend to build a small one first. Our rocket is going to launch a cubesat into LEO so it's not that much of a big one.

If you are also going to design a rocket engine though, I recommend you should design bunch of them and test before designing the rocket since your fuel tanks are going to be shaped after your engine powers.

Also, one more recommendation: I don't know about your knowledge but it would be good to learn some rocket chemistry, aerodynamics, pressure physics.

EDIT: I forgot to add that, never go manned first. You have to experience the technology first. Go with suborbital flights, then orbital cubesats and maybe than suborbital manned ones. Here's an aviation saying: "The history of aviation has been written by blood. And thanks to that history, less and less blood will be required in the future."

Most of the technologies in aviation was invented after there was a crash. Your blood is precious. Never waste it to write lines that are already written.

Edited by miracmert
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NASAFanboy

NASAFanboy

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We have a similar project in my university yet we haven't send anything to the sky yet. I am the designer of the rockets, and I'm designing a Pegasus-like rocket to be launched from a supersonic unmanned jet. It's easy if you skim through rocket plans, such as Copenhag Suborbitals (they have the plans on their website) and I recommend to build a small one first. Our rocket is going to launch a cubesat into LEO so it's not that much of a big one.

If you are also going to design a rocket engine though, I recommend you should design bunch of them and test before designing the rocket since your fuel tanks are going to be shaped after your engine powers.

Also, one more recommendation: I don't know about your knowledge but it would be good to learn some rocket chemistry, aerodynamics, pressure physics.

EDIT: I forgot to add that, never go manned first. You have to experience the technology first. Go with suborbital flights, then orbital cubesats and maybe than suborbital manned ones. Here's an aviation saying: "The history of aviation has been written by blood. And thanks to that history, less and less blood will be required in the future."

Most of the technologies in aviation was invented after there was a crash. Your blood is precious. Never waste it to write lines that are already written.

Right now, we hope to launch our first manned flight in 2020. Before that, there will be three test flights, one to test the rocket, one to test the capsule, and one to test both of them together. I'm also working on a small sounding rocket. .

Most of the project is vaporware (Beyond weather ballons, some engine parts, windtunnel model of capsule, SRBs made of modified estes engines, and a small fuel tank), so my team is mostly regarded as a bunch of crazy teenagers running around with blueprints, welding tools, and scientific instruments (Clostest we got to publicity was a quick mention in the school newspaper). Right now, my plans for the manned rocket is strapping a bunch of SS67B-1 tanks together and running them with one large engine (The Saturn IB used several Redstone tanks strapped together).

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miracmert

miracmert

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Right now, we hope to launch our first manned flight in 2020. Before that, there will be three test flights, one to test the rocket, one to test the capsule, and one to test both of them together. I'm also working on a small sounding rocket. .

Most of the project is vaporware (Beyond weather ballons, some engine parts, windtunnel model of capsule, SRBs made of modified estes engines, and a small fuel tank), so my team is mostly regarded as a bunch of crazy teenagers running around with blueprints, welding tools, and scientific instruments (Clostest we got to publicity was a quick mention in the school newspaper). Right now, my plans for the manned rocket is strapping a bunch of SS67B-1 tanks together and running them with one large engine (The Saturn IB used several Redstone tanks strapped together).

That's cool! When you look at the history, most of the inventions are done by people who were called "crazy" :) Still, I recommend you that you should do a lot of unmanned test flights with different types of lifters, engines, payloads. They don't need to be huge they can be as small as an average human. The point is to "feel" the technology so you subconscious would help you in next designs. Also, you are going to do mistakes at some points, even though something is theorically fully correct, still you will have something going wrong with it and it's not really fun when you have those moments while you are carrying a life with it. Testing is good, and improvement is even better. You would love to "light the candle" that will lift a life up in the sky when you absolutely trust your technology. Nothing is easy, but nothing is that difficult either. Well I should also add that nothing will be %100 perfect since there are so many known and unknown factors affecting it, but even being 70% is something. Copenhagen Suborbitals is a good example for this. Even though almost all of them are experienced engineers, they still test every bit of their technology all the time, and then fire up the rocket in the sky every summer (which is still a test rocket for the manned one)

Good luck on your "civil space program", and I believe you are going to be successful if you keep patient through the progress. I believe my group too, and I recommend you to not listen anybody who is making fun of your dreams.

Hopefully I will be watching your launch live in 2020 :)

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minerman30

minerman30

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http://aeroconsystems.com/cart/literature-and-software/amateur-rocket-motor-construction/

Try that, too, for making your rocket boosters. An ideal system would be one that uses only solid fuel to get up to 10,000 feet or so, then decouples its boosters and uses liquid fuel for the rest of the burn.

Alternatively, you could try this:

http://what-if.xkcd.com/24/

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  • 1 year later...
Tarrow

Tarrow

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I'd have thought that the next logical step from solid rocket motors would be a hybrid rocket using solid propellant and a liquid / gaseous oxidiser (i.e. a big metal tube packed with high-density rubber as fuel, and a big bottle of nitrous as the oxidiser). They're technically much simpler than a pure liquid setup, requiring no turbopumps only a single solenoid-controlled actuator to handle oxidiser flow.

Which country do you intend launching from out of interest? Because I've never heard of a goverment willing to allow a launch of a rocket system, or anything airbourne for that matter, that they haven't had full specification information on. Note that is isn't just local government that you'd need to get permission from either - you'd have to deal with the police (storage of explosive devices / rocket fuel mixtures), the national agencies handling air traffic control (on a per-launch basis) and a handfull of other groups. Here in the UK (as well as a significant part of the rest of Europe) what your proposing would far exceed the allowable weight classes for amateur rocketry and would land you in jail.

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