Rebel Rockets-Day 2

We were glad to see that the tube we constructed yesterday dried well. The single sheet of paper with the layers of wood glue and polyurethane had a good hardness to it. It took us several tries to get a working parachute. We initially tried to make it by connecting pieces of plastic with masking tape, however this method did not work well. The masking tape made it difficult for the parachute to open up. Instead, we just used a plastic grocery bag that we cut smaller. Surprisingly, this design worked extremely well. Today, we also tried to launch our first rocket, but we failed. We need to devise a better way to attach the rocket to the launch pad because every time we tried to do so today, the rocket would not stay straight. We also need to modify the launch pad so that the fuse is not resting on it. The engine did not even ignite, and we did not bring extra engines with us at the launch site. Next time we need to bring spare materials. Also, the rain did not help today. We should probably find a launch site that is further away from a road. We should also learn to calm down because we definitely rushed this first launch. We were too eager and did not think about what we should have done.
--Christian

Today started off well. We were able to meet up and begin work. We started by going to the local hobby shop and purchasing the items we would need. We bought rocket engines and fuses. We tested out the fuses and the rockets to make sure we would know how to work them and how long it would take until they fired. We then began work on the parachute. The first design was made from plastic bags and tape. It did no hold together well, so we built a new one out of a plastic bag. This design worked better than we could have imagined. We then got to work putting the rocket completely together. When the rocket was completed, we went to the school to test it out. When we attempted to light the rocket, we failed. We had acted too hastily, and it caused us to be unable to launch or rocket. In the future, we will bring extra rocket engines and be more patient.

-Ben W.

Today we were able to start off the morning well by quickly getting the engines and fuses we needed and returning to continue construction. The tubes that were made the previous day came out very well, so we moved on to the parachute. The initial try to make the parachute was unsuccessful, due to the excess of tape used to bind the pieces of plastic. The parachute would not open from a crumpled position and even if it did open it would not significantly change the rate at which the attached item would fall. The second attempt, which worked surprisingly well, used part of a plastic grocery bag. After this, we moved on to attaching the fins and cones while working on formulas for modeling the path of the rocket. Off of the instructions from the engines, we obtained a graph of the thrust(Newtons) provided over time. From here we plan to create a piecewise function to describe the graph, then integrate it to find the momentum. At that point we will divide by the mass to find the function for velocity. From this point, we can find a function for the force of drag and weigh it against the function of the force of the rocket. After this we finished up by putting the engine in the rocket and then set off to test with our first launch. The launch ended up never happening due to a problem with the engine igniting. We failed to modify the launching pad to use with the fuse and to bring extra engines because we were caught up in the excitement of a launch on the second day and were too hurried. In the future we will be sure to have taken care of everything that need be done before any launch we proceed with.

-Scott

We made a lot of progress today. The tubes for the rocket dried and are pretty hard now, and are sturdy enough to make it through the launch. We also got some more supplies, we now have all the rockets we will need and also some fuse as a way of launching each of the rockets. We also had made a parachute, the first didn't work that well and was made up of sandwich bags and tape, so we made another using a home depot plastic bag and that should work pretty well. We also carved out some wings using balsa wood and those look pretty good, not perfect but they are close enough and the rocket should fly pretty straight, I hope. However, at the end we kind of rushed our launch and because of that we attempted to launch in bad conditions and without enough supplies. Our engine didn't ignite so the rocket didn't go off, and we didn't have any more engines so we had to call it a day. The weather we were trying to do this in wasn't that great anyways, it was rainy and cloudy so we probably are better off that we waited.

-Mike B.

Progress was excellent today. The polyurethane had strengthened the tube even more than expected and it had dried quite symmetrically. The construction of the rest of the rocket went off without any problems. Connecting the fins was a simple matter of directly attaching them to the rocket body with super glue and the parachute was just half of a plastic shopping bag. Launching the rocket proved to be more difficult. The weather was damp enough that the rocket would not ignite, and since we had neglected to bring any extra rockets we were forced to give up. The stability of the rocket was also an issue on the launch pad. We will need to put a hole through the blast shield to prevent the fuse from making the rocket unstable.

- Mike See

Most of our work on our inital rocket was done today and we were even able to attempt a test flight which did not work. The rocket engine was a dud and our launching pad needed to be modified so the rocket would not tilt in a dangerous direction. The weather was also not ideal for a test launch as it was wet and a little windy. Despite these problems, we were able to get some sutiable rocket engines and test those out. We also spent time building a parachute and testing that out. So far it works but it may need to be modified in the future. We also worked on some more calculations and it was apparent that a little more research was needed.

-Kushal