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Our main project for this week was to design, build and launch a 1 stage rocket to deploy and recover a databot which will record: air pressure, UV index, humidity, CO2, and temperature.
The 1st step was to make the tube of the rocket, which accounts for most of the content of the rocket.
We made it out of a 17” length of a paper and rolled it up against some glue.
1st Time Building for the Test Run
The tip and fins of the rocket were made out of balsawood, one from the plank and the other from the stick.
These are the fins of the rocket, we used delta shape because it can provide more stable air flow and reduce the drag.
We attached the wooden tip to a plastic bottle because it will be later used in the parachute.
The dimension of the fins are 2.5 x 2.5x 1.5''
This is our parachute for the databot, it's made of a plastic trash bag that we cut up to make flat. We also cut off the edges to reduce the size, reducing the mass on the rocket. To secure the string holding the chute, we wrapped tape around the connection of the rope and the bag to make it stronger.
The body of the rocket is a paper tube. We rolled up 3-4 layers of paper around a PVC pipe and glued it throughly. We would also tape the edges to secure the paper between gluing layers. When the paper was dry, we took it out the paper and had a hardened tube.
Then we attached the fins by hot glue. It can stand by itself and is over a foot long.
The fins are evenly spaced out with a 90 degree angle between them.
On the left is the first version of our rocket. It has the tube, fins, bottle with parachute and payload, the tip, and straws to hold up the rocket during launch time.
On the right the part of the rocket that will detach when the rocket is in flight. The parachute will only hold the payload and the nozzle.
However, we changed it so the parachute will hold the payload and majority of the rocket, leaving the nozzle behind, salvaging our rocket for the real launch. This change is not picture in the photo on the right.
Testing day
IMG_0344.movThe test launching was fail, but we found that the problem was the rocket itself was too heavy, so we made some changes.
IMG_6505.movThe rocket went about 15 feet up, but it was less height than expected. The parachute also didn't deploy. When it landed, 2 of the fins broke but the rest of the rocket was intact.
2nd Time Building for the Real Run
The body of the second version of the rocket is much smaller because we cut it shorter (compared to the 1st version) to reduce the mass.
Additionally, we also shaved down the wings so they could also be scaled down with the tube.
The tip of the rocket was also cut down to reduce the weight(not pictured).
This is our final rocket the day of the launch.
It is very similar to the version we had for testing, except we made it smaller so it could make the mass requirement of being under 85 grams.
This version includes the real databot instead of a payload.
Final Launch Day
IMG_6509.movOn the final launch day, our rocket went up high and nose-dived straight down.
The parachute was unsuccessful because it didn't deploy.
After it landed, some fins broke off and parts of the rocket melted.
If we wanted to change and fix the rocket, we would make the rocket light and the parachute smaller. We would also just connect the parachute to the databot instead of the entire rocket.
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