Rebel Rockets-Day 5

Turns out we didn't need that 2 inch PVC pipe, the motherboard was smaller than we initially thought so it turns out the original size of the rocket fuselage is fine. Today we basically just consolidated all the information we had, and continued construction on the new rockets. We just made some progress but nothing that drastic happened, but we completed a decent amount of work.

Mike B.

Today we figured out that we did not need the PVC pipe because the accelerometer does not take as much space as we thought it might. We then spent time making tubes of the original size and making the styrofoam cones to that size. We also were able, through trial and error, to make a piece-wise function to approximate the graph of the thrust force over time given by the instructions of the C-class rockets. From here we can find a function for acceleration and then move farther on our way to modeling the flight path.

-Scott

Today was just another day of construction basically. We found better way to fold the parachute so that it opens when it is supposed to. Before, it wasn't opening completely, but after playing around with the way that it was folded, we found it to completely open. Also, we came up with the idea of using styrofoam for the cones. We began construction on the cones by cutting and sanding layers of styrofoam. Also, more mathematical work was done and a piece-wise function was devised that would approximate thrust force vs. time. This would allow us to get a function for acceleration, which in turn would make the goal of modeling a flight path more attainable. More tubes were constructed today, but these were slightly thinner than the one we tested the other day. Also, the two inch diameter tubes won't be needed because we found out that we could make the accelerometer fit into a smaller area.

-Christian

After our first launch, we found out that we needed to change the way our parachute ejected so we played around with that. We also began building a styrofoam cone for our rocket. It may be the right idea so the accelerometer can fit inside the rocket and not get damaged during a launch. The accelerometer was smaller than we expected to be so we used our original design materials and began building the frame of our second rocket. Obviously there will be other variables we will change from what we learned from our first attempt.

-Kushal

Today, we did more work on the construction. We began to work on a cone made of Styrofoam. To make the cone, we cut a square out of foam and began to sand it to the desired shape. The math team made good progress on the equations. The larger 2 inch pvc pipe that we bought the other day was found to be unnecessary.

-Ben W