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.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Progress update

This week we continued with the nosecone plug and it's now ready to start forming nosecones. I need to get some mould release agent this week so we can start. The fiberglass is all cut up as well. The guys on  Australian rocketry's forum as well as the Yahoo water rocket forum have given me some really good tips on on preparing the mold and the upcoming moulding process.


We also pressure tested 3 more of the spliced quads to 270psi. We have 5 of these now ready for flight, with two more to be fiberglassed this week.  So far we are quite happy with the quads, but until we test them on real rockets with the kind of forces they will experience in flight and landing we won't know for sure.

To get an idea on what we are up against, we assembled the spliced quads into the Phase 3 main stage, and put a representative sustainer on top. The boosters and fins are not shown.Once on the pad it will sit at least another foot off the ground. We will definitely need a full size ladder for launch day. :)

Last night I also prepared the 3 fins to be used on Phase 1 of the rocket. All three of them weigh 83 grams, but will need to be attached to the removable fin can which will likely double that weight.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

whow thats a big ass water rocket george !!! :P

Unknown said...

Wow! Thats big how tall in feet have you measured it?

Doug

George Katz said...

Hi Doug,

I don't know the exact length of the full rocket yet, as I don't know the final length of the sustainer nor the length of the final staging mechanism. Overall though it is likely going to be in the order of 12-13 feet.

Unknown said...

Thats very impressive, I'm sure you cant wait too see it fly! I know i cant :)

Doug

rstaff said...

That's looking awesome. Can't wait to see the 'full stack'.

Gabriel Cascaes said...

Wow that's great
this one is going to be in orbit when it fly...
How do you think you are going to bring it back to earth? This time the gravity won't be enough haha

MariusD said...

Hi George,
I didn't enter blog until now when I discovered that you are quite active and somehow addictive! :)
Now you have 3 cuts and reinforced with fiberglass. At what pressure they fail?
Sustainer is reused ? It looks new!
On simulator you get 1100-1200 feet's?
Impressive work with your site also!
Good luck
Marius

George Katz said...

Hi Marius,

We still haven't blown up one of the spliced quads. I think the burst pressure is likely to be 300psi or so.

The sustainer is just one of the rockets we had. The final sustainer will be about the same length, but probably narrower.

Haven't done final sims yet, since we don't have enough info about the rocket in terms of final weight, and what nozzle we decide to go with. We are hoping for good performance though. :)

- George