Rebel Rockets-Day 3

We launched our first rocket today, and it was fairly successful. It reached a height much higher than we initially expected. Our initial estimate was 200-300 feet in the air, but the rocket probably reached a height of at least 800 feet. The rocket did not travel straight up, and it landed much further away than we thought it would. The parachute did not deploy and we definitely need to fix that problem. Maybe the parachute was packed too tightly inside the tube, or maybe the cone fit too tightly in the tube. Also, there might have been too many leaks in the tube that allowed pressure to decrease inside, preventing the parachute from deploying. Also, we need to create a new way to attach the shock cord to the rocket because when we examined the rocket after the launch, the shock cord did not stay in place.

-Christian

Today we got our first rocket to actually launch. It went a lot higher than we though, I'm not sure how exactly high it will be, but it was definitely more than 300 feet. The major problem was that the parachute didn't deploy, we think this is because there was either too much wading in the tube or the cone was too tight into the tube, this is a pretty easy problem to solve. A not so easy problem is that the shock cord didn't stay where we wanted it to, meaning if the chute did deploy the body of the rocket would have still been in free fall. So we need to find an alternate way of attaching that other than just tape. Even though the parachute didn't deploy it was really cool seeing the rocket actually work and fly well, I'm looking forward to see how we can improve our design.

-Mike B.

Today began quite well. We met at the school and repaired the damage done to the rocket yesterday. The rocket was then allowed to dry, and a new engine was put in. We then fired the rocket. It went considerably higher than any of us expected. It remained relatively straight. The only problem was in the parachute. It didn't deploy. This could be due to the fact that the wadding was too tight, or that the cone was on too tight. Either way, we will have to look into this problem and find a solution before we finally test our variables.

-Ben W.

Today was promising. It served as proof that this is actually an achievable project for us. The most exciting part, at least to me, was the relatively stable flight path of the rocket. The fact that there was little tilt and yaw reduces my concern that calculating the height based on accelerometer data would be heinously difficult.

-Mike See

Today we reached the goal of our first stage. Our first launch occurred today, showing that the prototype was a success. There are still factors that need to improve, such as the ejection of the parachute and the wadding of the tube. But the rocket launched to a height beyond eyesight and had a flight path that was easier to calculate with less variation in the data than the worst case scenario. This gives reassurance to the future calculations that we will have to do for the rest of the rockets.

-Scott

We were able to modify our launch pad and fix our rocket for a launch in the morning. We launch our first rocket and it was much better than we all expected as the rocket went relativly straight. We may still need to adjust the rocket angle and figure out another way to do that by changing the launch pad. Overall, we know that we can build a rocket that works and we know that we can modify it to get better results. We also need to rework our parachute as it did not eject itself from the rocket.

-Kushal