JP Aerospace Blog

Saturday the team really got some work done. First we cut out handles and mounted them on the crew module mockup. This allows us to easily lift it on and off of the interior. Before putting it over the chair assemble they had to do a fair bit of rearranging of the shop.

We bumped to telemetry system work to next week, but did get three more balloon bag panels sew together, the popper/propeller circurt further along and the two more test antennas for the quad engine soldered together.

Here’s the list for today’s build session:

-Mount handles on crew module mockup, (six handles mounted on the exterior so we can lift the thing).
-Assemble the propeller popper, (upgraded backup balloon separation circuit use the Parallax Propeller chip).
-Join launch bag panels, (each of the 28 foot panels need to be sewn to each other).
-Assemble 3 backup trackers, (we’re rebuilding all of out backup tracking telemetry systems).

The last of the inner lining went on last night. The shell is complete.  Now the work of figuring out where all the equipment goes begins. The mock up has already given us one good feedback on the design. The hatch needs to be six inches higher on the wall.

JPA rockets make an appearance at the Yelpbot Odyssey 2010.

The both the fiberglass prototype ML rocket and the carbon ML block 3 rocket partied into the night with robots and other Yelpers.

We’ve been working on the inner skin for the last two days. It’s 75% done. Today we should be able to get the last of it on. That will let the shell assemble have a least a full day to dry before Saturday. We plan to spend about two months playing with the configuration. Once we’ve decided the size is right we’ll start construction of a 1/2 scale model for pressure testing.

The “lid” and outer skin went on to the crew module mock up Saturday. We experimented with several adhesive combinations on test segments and on the walls themselves. The paper covering is really stffening up the walls and adding to the strength, but they are coming out pretty wrinkly.

We welcomed our new intern Ethan on Saturday. I was only away for 30 minutes. I was in my office with Ethan and his teacher doing paperwork. I knew I shouldn’t have left them alone with the crew module. When I got back it was too late. Our crew module was no more, replaced by….. The Disco Room. sigh….

The Disco Room

The crew module mock up has sides! At least foam core does.

Toshiba featured JP Aerospace’s work on the ‘Space Chair’ commercial at there booth at SPIE Photonics West. Photonics West is a huge trade show held this week in San Francisco. It featured what seemed like every laser and advanced optics company in the world.

Tuesday night at 7pm pacific time I’ll be on David Livingston’s radio program, “The Space Show”. You can tune in on the web at:

http://www.thespaceshow.com/

Click on “Listen Live”.

Call in and say “HI”.

We’ve started building the shell for the crew module mock up. The shell is make of one inch foam to be skinned with kraft paper. To get the foam to bend how we want we drilled it full of holes. The side walls are make from six large sheets. We calculated that we drilled just over 1,400 holes on Saturday.