This blog covers the day to day progress of water rocket development by the Air Command Water Rockets team. It is also a facility for people to provide feedback and ask questions.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Zero-G experiments

We had a chance to fly an experiment several times this weekend that we have wanted to do for quite a while. The purpose of the experiment was to demonstrate what forces act on internal components of a water rocket in flight. Gravity based parachute deployment systems appear to work on the ground, but are unreliable in flight.

The experiment shows what happens to a handfull of loose M&Ms inside the rocket during take-off and susequent zero-G (freefall) conditions. The M&Ms were inspired by Mike Melvill's handfull of M&Ms inside of SpaceShipOne.

The update includes lots of photos,videos and an explanation of the experiment.

It can be found here:

http://www.AirCommandRockets.com/day45.htm

The update also includes our first altimeter flights and some interesting results about foam.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi George
I think your site is the best one ive found for "GOOD" Info. I was wondering if you would like someone to send you some PL. I would be glad to if you would like.
Thanks.

George Katz said...

Hi Dan,

Thanks very much for the offer. I will actually be in the States later this year, so I will bring a whole box full back. I still have a tube and a half of PL to last me until then.

Cheers