When designing the recovery system for a rocket the maximum forces must estimated. There are two main considerations, the deceleration of the separating parts of the rocket as the shock cord goes tight and the deceleration of the rocket as the main parachute deploys (in dual deployment systems). Firstly the separation velocity must be found. …
My final year project was on building a guided rocket using canards during which I was fortunate enough to get access to a large wind tunnel for a week at very short notice. This proved extremely enlightening as the aerodynamics were much more complicated than I had been assuming.Firstly the lift from the canards was …
It is important that vents are drilled in the rocket so that the barometer on the flight computer can sample the atmospheric pressure (and calculate the altitude). There are various rules of thumb for sizing such ports but few explanations from first principles. Intuitively (or based on dimensional analysis if you will) there must be …
Due to a late minute design change we could not get the parachutes to fit inside the booster section of Martlet 3. Perhaps inspired by his PhD on Dyson vacuum cleaners Jack suggested that vacuum bags might help, no one thought it would work. A short trip to Asda and some experimentation later and the chutes …
The standard in model rocketry is to use a small (about 2 grams) black powder (BP) charge to deploy the parachutes. The black powder can be ignited with an e-match which can be fired from a flight computer. The rapid combustion produces hot gases which pressurise the sealed parachute bay causing the rocket to separate …
I’ve managed to get my final year project to be based on rockets, what’s more a guided rocket! The project has a few key areas: Airframe construction, IMU and simulation/control. I chose to use canards for a few reasons: They can be used over the entire ascent of the rocket not just the motor burn, …
Model Rocket Guidance by Canards (4th Year Engineering Project) Read More »
Over the past week we have modified some of the existing parts of Quasar (our static hybrid rocket) and machined a new injector and nozzle in the student workshop.
Collected two part which were water jetted by the workshop. The three pieces fit inside each other to hopefully make a gimbal. I made the central part at home using a lathe, shaper and drill. The blue dye is for marking.
Ordered from shapeways. Designed to hold 3 sub micro servos.
