Archive for December, 2007

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Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

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More Balloon Launched Rockets

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

I’ve have these three ancient CDs of pictures in the back of my desk literally from about a decade ago. They’ve been sitting because they’re photo CDs in a weird old Kodak format that nothing can read anymore. Today I tracked down the right driver on the web and extracted the pics. Some I had copies of, but most hadn’t been seen in a long time.

I’ve pulled together a few of the “Rockoon”, (balloon launch rocket) flights. These are our early experiment. Most of these pictures show the various launch boxes, the container that holds and launched the rocket. Next year we’ll be lofting our fourteenth generation rocket designed for balloon launch.

first_JPA_rockoon.jpg               First JPA Rockoon

The first rocket was only 14 inches long.

Second JPA Rockoon                     Number 2 failure on rocket ignition.

This was a five foot rocket. It started out well, but had a problem at ignition.

Third JPA Rockoon                     Number 3 running

Rockoon three’s launch box. Three Running.

Fifth JPA Rockoon                     Rockoon 5 running

Rockoon five’s launch box. Five heading for the stars.

Rocket 6 launch box                       Number 6

Rockoon 6 launch box and under balloons.

Number 7

Number seven be carried out to the balloons.

For more pics and info see our Rockoon Page.

Results

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

We got nearly the whole list done on Saturday. The drogue parachute box didn’t get started and the some soldering still needs to be done on the controller daughter board. It was a good day.

We also started reviewing the missions for next year.

Ed and Paul working on the parachute cannon.                             Bob and Ross pulling the prop.

Ed and Paul mount the parachute cannon on the Tandem. Bob and Ross pulling a prop off the starboard motor.

Bob in mission control.                             Kevin debugging

Bob running tests at mission control. Kevin either debugging or looking up specs.

Tasks for Today

Saturday, December 1st, 2007

-Mount parachute cannon on Tandem (needs to be removable).
-Cut covers for PongSat participant’s DVDs.
-Put protection circuits on all Tandem main controller daughter board stamp IO pins.
-Sew pyro container insulation wraps.
-Put switch mount plate on camera controller.
-Drill pin pinhole in propeller thorough prop hub and shaft.
-Glue magnets on propeller shafts.
-Mount sensor daughter board boxes.
-Trim bolts on pyro containers.
-Make drogue parachute deployment box.

Balloon Test Video

Saturday, December 1st, 2007

Here’s the video from the park test of the new 4000g balloon and launch bag. I sped up the time to show the whole day in just over two minutes.
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