Author: Administrator

We think we can get a couple more firings on the existing generator. The dozen cracks need to be epoxied. The anode and cathode have been pulled, caked on residue been removed and the copper polished. We’re going to up the data rate from 5 samples a seconds to 20 samples to second.  The data logger has an extra channel. We’re going to connect it to the motor ignition line. This will give us a clear start indicator in the data.

I put the Sky Pup through her paces at Franklin Field on Sunday.  Just a few feet up and runs down the runway. Things were more exciting on the taxiway though. About half way back the Pup started pulling to the left. I started putting in more and more right rudder to compensate. About three seconds later the landing gear failed, the nose went down and the propeller shattered against the tarmac.  The damage isn’t to bad, but the gear is pretty integral to the fuselage and will take some work to replace. The entire plane will need a pretty good inspection.

We finished the long airbeam for the High Beam mission.  We pressure tested and it held fine under the full load. It’s has enough strength however it wants to snap into an arch given any chance. Something new to tackle. High aspect ratio airbeam stabilizing.

We fired a model rocket engine (‘D’ sized) through the quad’s magnetohydrodynamic generator. The engine was significantly smaller than the quad. We wanted to give the unit and the data logger a shakedown under “hot” conditions. We were pretty startled by the performance. We saw twelve amps at one volt. The ceramic housing developed several cracks from the two firings we did and the cathode worked loose. It was a great first look at the unit. We’re going to rebuild the generator and do a few more of these firings. This will let us refine it a bit before the quad firing.

I like to do a simple sketch of each project we plan to do. This is the Transatmospheric Ascender docked to a small Dark Sky Station.

We came across a study where researcher uses a model rocket engine to test a simple MHD generator.

Experiments for Pulsed MHD Accelerator
driven by Model Rocket Engine

This is a brilliant idea. The MHD generator on our quad engine is of the same general type. Using a small model rocket engine is a great was to calibrate the sensors on the quad. Our Generator is a bit bigger then the authors of the papers used. We’ll use a ‘G’ class motor instead of the “‘C” motor they describe. We need to pull the MHD generator off the quad and build a separate stand for it. I hope to be trying a firing this weekend.

Here a sketch of our first balloon launch rocket. We flew it back in 1995.

Tonight we pressurized the outer shell for the long airbeam for the high beam mission. It runs the length of the outer shop, through the door and into the electronics room. The beam is straight but ended up with a slight twist. We’re going to pull one of the seams about half out and resew to correct it.

We got the Sky Pup to the airport, off the trailer and all assembled, then the wind came up. It was 5 to 10 knots down the runway while we were preping. As we were warming up the engine it shifted to 15 knots 80 degrees across the runway. That’s a bit much for the trial run so back on the trailer she went. The gusts were hitting 18 while we were putting the pup away.

At least the modifications to the tail mount on the trailer worked well.