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Boosted Bear was MASA-Dearborn's second rocket built for IREC which competed at the 2018 Spaceport America Cup in Las Cruces, New Mexico in the COTS 10,000K category.
Boosted Bear was named after both its flight profile and payload. "Boosted" came from the rocket being a boosted dart where the booster drops off after motor burn out and the upper section, or dart, continues in an unpowered ascent to apogee. The "bear" came from its biological experiment which aimed to sample microorganisms at 10,000ft. During collection we were expecting to see Tardigrades or also known as "water bears" which gave us the inspiration for our name. Unfortunately, the payload was not flown on the rocket due to complications with design and manufacturing.
Vehicle Specifications and Flight Predictions
Vehicle Specifications and Flight Predictions
Airframe Length: 12' 8"
Booster Length: 73"
Dart Length: 79"
Mass: 65 lbs 5 oz
Max Acceleration: 316 ft/s
Max Velocity: 967 ft/s
Motor: Cesaroni M2245-IM
Motor Impulse: 9997 Ns
Dart Avionics
Dart Avionics
Deployable Fins
Deployable Fins
Booster Avionics
Booster Avionics
Dart Main Parachute
Dart Main Parachute
Launch Day
Launch Day
Boosted Bear was launched out of the Muskegon Wastewater Treatment Facility in Muskegon, Michigan on Sunday, July 22. The folks at Muskegon Michigan Area Rocketry (MMAR) helped us with the launch preparations and we were able to launch with seconds to spare on the FAA Waiver.
After launch the booster was found in a residents yard approximately 3 miles away from the launch site. The dart sections tracking systems died out before the team was able to locate it. Two months later the rocket was found while a local was scouting for dear. Unfortunately, the dart was not found in as good of a state as the booster section.
The pictures in the section below show the state of the dart upon recovery in October. To our knowledge the dart got tangled up with logging equipment whilst in the trees of Muskegon and was severely damaged. Thankfully the electronics package was untouched by the equipment which meant flight data was able to be extracted.
Flight Performance
Flight Performance
Booster Apogee: 8300 ft
Dart Apogee: 10662 ft
Max Velocity: 1002 ft/s
Ascent Time: 25s
Dart Descent Time: 71s
Dart Drogue Descent Rate: 328 ft/s
Dart Main Descent Rate: 37 ft/s
Overall Project Boosted Bear came to a conclusion with a highly successful flight. The dart section continued in unpowered ascent for more than 2000ft meaning that the deployable fins implemented to keep the dart stable in the coast phase worked.
Overall Project Boosted Bear came to a conclusion with a highly successful flight. The dart section continued in unpowered ascent for more than 2000ft meaning that the deployable fins implemented to keep the dart stable in the coast phase worked.
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