Rocket

Goal: For this project we needed to create a stable, lightweight rocket capable of launching into the air and staying there for long enough for a parachute to deploy and safely land the "package" (a data bot that will report the altitude it got to).

Prototype One

When making our nose cone we were faced with many obstacles. The first came in the construction of the physical compnent. We knew we wanted a sharp point to make our rocket as aerodynamic as possible, so we had to shave down a rectangle strip into a circular cone. Additionally, we had to figure out a way to attach our nosecone in such a way that it would be effective during the launch yet still detachable to deploy the parachute. We decided to not attach our nosecone at all, instead lightly sticking it into the body of the rocket so that when flipped it would fall off with the help of the charge.

WhatsApp Video 2024-07-11 at 23.53.07_dafb68df.mp4

Our parachute was made in a hexagonal shape to increase the number of strings attached and create a larger space for air to get caught. We dropped it off the balcony to test it and it worked in safely landing the load.

For our fins, we decided to stick to the designs we had previously tested with our straw and stomp rockets. This design consisted of four evenly spaced triangle fins made to stabilize the rocket (we cut the tips off to limit our mass). Next, we realized that we had a problem, we had to attach the databot somewhere. We were worried about simply taping it to the side because it might destabalize it, but it was too big to fit inside the rocket. Additionally, if we were to attach it to the side, we had to figure out how to detach it because the parachute was not strong enough to carry the entire rocket to safety. In the end we came up with a plan to pack the parachute into the shaft of the rocket, with the string hanging out. The end of the string (with teh databot) we taped to the side of the nosecone, meaning the end goal was for the nosecone to detach and the parachute to save both it and the databot. To prevent this set-up from throwing our rocket off balance we put a counterweight on the other side of the rocket to even the distribution. Last, we created a paper cone to put over the additions to allow the air to flow nicely over packages and decrease drag.

Testing

WhatsApp Video 2024-07-12 at 00.17.09_9201ebaa.mp4

The first thing we had to do was test the stability of the rocket. We did this with the "string test". Because the rocket flew through the air how it was supposed to, we came to the conclusion it was stable and ready for launch.

We went outside to do a test launch with a fake data Bot to see what would happen. There, we found out that our rocket was too heavy. Because of this, it did not get enough airtime, and the charge to detach the nose cone was deployed after it had already hit the ground. This was a valuable realization to have as we now knew we needed to lessen the mass of our rocket for it to even have a chance of deploying the parachute correctly.

WhatsApp Video 2024-07-11 at 19.53.09_bf0cc974.mp4

Prototype Two

Because of the conclusion from the test launch that our rocket had too much mass, we came up with many minor tweaks we could make in order to lessen the mass of our rocket.

We shaved down our fins, making each one much smalller.
We cut down our nose cone, making it closer to 4 inches than 6.
We cut down the body of our rocket by about 3 inches.
We omitted the counterweight, as it turned out to be unnecessary weight.
We got rid of the paper cone on top, another unnecessary addition.

After all of these changes, we ended up with a rocket much closer to the target weight of 85 grams and were much more confident about the engines ability to lift it off with enough force to allow for deployment of the parachute.

Final Launch

Our first launch was partly successful. Our rocket launched to about 30 feet high. We did succeed in launching with enough height and airtime to deploy the ejection charge. Unfortunetly, it was not early enough for the parachute to have time to balloon out. It was deployed too close to the ground and was unable to work effectively.

WhatsApp Video 2024-07-11 at 19.55.07_36e5dfb7.mp4

WhatsApp Video 2024-07-11 at 19.54.10_401263f7.mp4

For our second launch, we were curious to see if our parachute would work if given the right circumstances, so we removed our data Bot from the rocket to test it with as little mass as possible. As expected, this rocket went much higher, about 45 feet, and the parachute successfully deployed a good height above the ground. Unfortunately, even with this, the parachute did not balloon out because pieces of tape on the edges of it had stuck together, leaving it in its packed in form.

Conclusion

In conclusion, in the end our rocket was successful in theory, yet in practice there were many flaws. If we were to do this project over again there are many things we would change. To begin, in order to ensure the success of the parachute, we would avoid using tape, instead finding a different method to attach the strings such as tying or gluing. Doing this would avoid the issue we had of the parachute sticking to itself and not opening up.

In addition to this change, we would have made weight limiting a priority from the start. If we had designed our rocket with lightness in mind, we would have picked different fin shapes and orientations, in addition to creating a shorter and overall more compact rocket. But because we did not think of this from the start, we were stuck instead updating an already built rocket instead of building and efficient one from the beginning.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse