Work Update and More Misadventures

Since the Feedback Control TA hasn't even been hired for our 7:30 Monday morning three-hour lab, and many of us left in bitter exhaustion from the early morning wake-up (by college standards, of course), I'm taking this time to eat and update.

When I started at the beginning of the summer, the person doing work and research on the Flamespeed Project was just about to leave for Germany for two and a half months. Since then, I've gone from the basic metal parts of the tube to the assembled tube complete with O-Rings to where we are now (and here in vacuum testing), custom stands carved out of a 4x4, a custom upper level of the 500-pound optical table, a system of electropneumatically-actuated ball valves, a 19" panel mount, and a brand new lab space that was definitely worth the work everyone in the Gas Dynamics Lab had to do to get and move into it.

In addition to my project, there was also a 26-feet long shock tube, 6 desks, 5 computers, many tool boxes, huge cabinets, vacuum equipment, and another optical table weighing around 1000 pounds crammed into the original lab. Now we have room for a 35-feet long shock tube (which hasn't been built yet) and a propellant mixing laboratory along with the Flamespeed Project and original shocktube. It took 8 people to move the top of the bigger optical table to the elevator on the 4th floor of the Research Pavillion, and another 5 to move the actual table. We used wheels and dollies whenever we could, but it wasn't always that easy navigating the narrow hallway with one of the carts because one of its wheels didn't roll straight. After two 10 hour days, one with 4 people and the next with 8, we finally finished moving.

We're still in the process of settling into the new area, but from what I've heard we have one of the nicest educational research labs in the nation if not the world. The good thing about the lab is that it's on the first floor near the giant garage door of an out of the way building a block away from the old lab. This way we can move the propellant mixing equipment in easily once it's ready to come in from Building 44. Either way, once the guy contracted from Rolls Royce comes down from Canada in November to work on the Flamespeed Project, I think he'll be impressed with our work.

____________________________

A few weekends ago my friend Sam and I went rocket launching. It was windy, the forecast was bad, and we really didn't have a place to launch, but we being rocket scientists and experts in flight dynamics and solid propellant propulsion decided if we angle the launch rod towards the parking lot into the wind the rockets should come back to us. We set up in a ditch out by the UCF soccer fields behind Academic Village and started firing away. Our first launch was with a recently built Estes Alpha rocket, nothing special.

Sam: Ready...3...2...1... FIRE!!
Nothing.
Ben: Lemme check the connection.... yep, it wasn't in all the way.
Sam: Alright...3...2...1... FIRE!!

SSSSSHHHHHOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!........*pop*

The rocket flew above the group of girls who appeared to be cheerleaders without makeup (read: nice bodies but nasty faces) as the ejection charge blew. The first thing I noticed was that we were in fact correct in making wind angle corrections; the rocket started coming back towards us. However, it came back in two pieces. One was the rocket. One was the parachute, which somehow detatched from the rocket. The rocket crashed down at the foot of a construction dirt pile while the parachute floated off in the distance. It broke a fin, so we retired it for the day.

The next launch was my X-Cup Prize rocket, which I painted and assembled with painstaking care to make it look nice. It was my turn to hit the button.

Sam: Alright, make sure the fuse is in the engine.
Ben: It is... ready? 3...2...1....FIRE!!

SSSSSHHHHHOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!........*pop*

It launched over the parking lot, the ejection charge fired, and sure enough the parachute floated off. Two launches, two failed parachute. There was no way we could catch it in time to make the envied "rocket in the hand" catch. It crashed 50 feet from the pad without breaking anything, but without a parachute I didn't feel safe launching it again.

Next we tried the tiny Mosquito rocket I had. If you remember the previous Rocket Misadventures story, this was the one that took off and I never saw again. Foreshadow, hint hint...

Sam: I doubt it will go as fast as you say it will.
Ben: Wanna bet? We're going to lose this one.
Sam: Whatever, 3...2...1... FIRE!

ZIIIIINNGG!!!

Sam: I lost it
Ben: I can see it, I see it, I see it... I don't see it.

If someone finds it, I sure hope it wasn't because it hit their car. If it did, I don't think it could even dent the metal.

With only one rocket left, the Army rocket I had launched many times over Spring Break, it was time to test my new parachute. The original one was lost on the 4th launch of the day and I barely missed catching it last time, but it was a new day. I had a new parachute, constructed entirely out of a synthetic polymer salvaged and specially contructed for optimal aerodynamic drag (read: a Wal-Mart bag I cut up).

Ben: You think this will work?
Sam: Of course it will work.

SSSSSHHHHHOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!........*pop*

Guy in Parking Lot 1: What the #%@$ was that?!
Guy in Parking Lot 2: A plane?
Sam: .... wow.

At first I freaked out because it went WAY over the parking lot. Had my parachute failed it would have no doubt landed on metal or asphalt. Instead, the chute deployed perfectly and the rocket sailed back towards us. It worked too well; I had to run up the construction sand hill to make the perfect catch.

Ben: YES! I CAUGHT IT!! I CAUGHT IT!!
Sam: Great, now you smell because it's 105 degrees out here.

Reload, restuff, and relaunch.

SSSSSHHHHHOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!........*pop*

This time, however, the winds had picked up, the rocket sailed higher, and the parachute was even more effective. Sam ran up the hill while I ran through a pile of sandburrs. He watched as the rocket floated past the hill, past the road and trees, and landed smack in the middle of a water retention pond off of Research Parkway.

Once we came close to get a better look at the situation, we realized this rocket was not just retired temporarily, it was gone for good, just like the mosquito.


After that it started pouring. We rushed to the launch site to pick up the pad and assorted supplies and managed to get in the car as soon as the rain stopped. I hate Central Florida weather. The rain managed to soak the launch pad, making the smell of burnt propellant even stronger. My clothes still smell. Not because I got the soot on me, but because I threw a pile of clean clothes on it afterwards because I forgot I left it out.