JP Aerospace Blog

(actually it’s being prepped for shipping)

The team conducted our 57th MHD generator firing test Saturday. This was our third generation Hall Effect core. This was also our first time using two plasma sources (rocket motors).

Motor start and finish. The motors we use to create the plasma are made for small rockets. They have a reverse charge at the end intended to deploy a parachute.

The good news is that everything worked, the bad news is that the performance was poor. We have four more firing test planned for this unit. On each of the next tests a difference single parameter is adjusted. This should start pushing the performance up.

We just completed our third generation of Hall effect MHD generator core. Now it’s on to building a new mounting rig for the motors and magnets. We are hoping to do the first firing tomorrow.

The Dark Sky Station house band, Space Vacuum has released a new version of the JPA song!

http://spacevacuum.bandcamp.com/track/jp

The team working away on Dark Sky Station Three parts.

They’re are valve and lifting cell interface decks.

This is the Air Force’s Project Farside balloon launched rocket flying through it’s balloon.

High Power Rocketry Blog has a great article on it.

Congratulations High Power Rocketry Blog on your thousandth Post!

2011 Review in Pictures

Today was High Rack day. Three are for upcoming PongSat missions and ATO tests and one is for commercial work. Fin mounts and lift points were installed today.

Another great video out of Japan about our Samsung project. Watch for two familiar faces!

Here is Drew troubleshooting a High Rack before flight while everyone stairs at him. Talk about grace under pressure!

We’re back to the first gen Hall effect MHD unit. In this test we were looking at current with the max battery stack. I think the most dangerous thing we do at the shop is handle these magnets. When stacking and unstacking you wear two layers of gloves. That way when the magnets slip and try and pinch you can spend 15 minutes getting a corner of the glove out from between them instead of a corner of your hand.

Saturday we took the best Faraday MHD unit and mounted it on to our Quad engine. Not long before the first Quad firing. It got delayed with the Samsung commercial and Tandem flight, but we’re going to try and sneak it in while the flying weather is bad.

The Japanese website Gigazine  has some great pics from the Galaxy Space Balloon Cell Phone promotion.

Translated Article

We did the first firing test of the second gen hall effect MHD unit. We got power out but not as much as the best of the 1st generation unit. We are now tweaking and tuning.

New Electrode Core

MHD firing test number 53

The team made great steps forward on 2012 missions. Paul and Ed completed the main truss of the new Tandem and also finished arm one second upper deck structure of Dark Sky Station 3.  Drew preped and reprogrammed the tracking systems for Away 64, 65, 66 and Tandem. Anthony is on the home stretch of programming the new datalogger.

I thought New Years was a holiday!