I wasn’t sure how quickly the summer would go by, since this
is the first time since I was 16 that I didn’t work a full-time summer job, but
the time has rocketed by. Whether research, thesis work, personal rockets, or mixing
propellant for the rocketry team, each day is filled with rocket-related work
one way or another. I’m really enjoying it, and I think this will be a time I’ll
look back on and fondly remember.
A big part of my time as been spent building a large high-power
rocket to launch payloads for Honeywell. We’ve worked from a Madcow 8” DX3 that
is 11 feet tall and will weigh just under 100 pounds on the pad. It has been an
expensive project, but it’s especially fun, since it isn’t on my own dollar. We
have one launch scheduled for July 20 (same day as the Apollo 11 landing 50th
anniversary), two in August, and another at LDRS in August/September.
We’re also mixing potassium nitrate-sorbitol rocket motors
using Loki research hardware which has been exciting. The thrust stand I
designed 2 summers ago is being put to very good use, so much so that I’ve made
numerous improvements to make it easier and safer to use. These tweaks including
building a blast box of ¾” MDF to go around the rocket motor, relocating the
instrumentation below the table to protect it during motor operation and
transportation, and installing a new pre-load system for the load cell to get
better data. Rocket motors can vibrate on and off the load cell, especially
during ignition and burnout transients, so the pre-load applies a 26.5-pound load
before, during, and after the motor firing to provide a common benchmark for
data parsing and post-processing. Just yesterday we fired our first high-power motor,
one that ended up being a 96% H200, according to Thrust Curve Tool. This was
good, except that it overperformed the Motorsim simulation quite a bit, so we
think there may be an issue with the pre-load we set up just an hour before
firing that motor. If subsequent firings this week are similar enough, we’ll be
able to launch it next weekend!
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| Data from TCT |
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| Blast box in the case the motor has an RUD/CATO |
I’m also making some progress on my thesis. I’m getting 3D
prints to turn out better, improving my CAD skills, learning SolidWorks CFD,
and even got a nozzle printed out of stainless steel over a month ago. However,
the sinter to cure the printed part (currently very fragile) is requiring
additional materials, so the nozzle has been sitting idle since then.
I’ll update after the launch next weekend. Currently the
plan is to launch the 8” DX3 on a CTI M3400 for Honeywell first, then fly the
research H200, and wrap up with an Aerotech K805G on my L3 project from 2 years
ago, Odyssey II. I have my 2 stage also ready, but I’ll only attempt
that if the winds are light enough. I’ll be camping out the night before, and I’m
psyched to be back at the Rocket Pasture after 4 months!
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