rockets
sjurvetson | May 13, 2009Estes is the major brand in low power rocketry, with Quest as an alternative. If you launched rockets as a kid, it was probably Estes. They make black powder motors in cardboard cases. As I have moved on to the bigger projects, the only lingering reason to consider these motors is that you can tape the top of one to the bottom of another for a cheap and easy way to do multi-stage rockets. Realize though that this shifts the weight of the rocket to the rear, which can make them unstable, as I have learned from adding three motors to a rocket designed for one:
"Icarus" came back about 15…
sjurvetson | May 12, 2009I am still collecting topic ideas from the prior post, but several people asked how to get started in rocketry, and what is legal in the local neighborhood. Well, if there is no fire involved, it is probably OK, and so the air, water and baking soda+vinegar rockets are probably fine in just about any town. The later category makes for some sour showers though:
This thing really pops up fast since it quickly evacuates all of its fuel (>95% of its weight). With a regular camera, the human reflex is not fast enough to capture the rocket in frame (there is no signal before it pops). So I set…
sjurvetson | May 11, 2009As the sun sets on a wonderful set of insect photos from the Wild...
I thought I should start with a transition photo, on a photosynthetic bug bed, to a new photo theme - rockets:
Many insects have served as brave cosmonauts - flying as a somewhat unwilling payload in Estes rockets. The National Association of Rocketry has rules against living payloads, but they make an exception for invertebrates. (I think the intent of the rule was to prevent kids from flying their sister's pet, but to allow for some curious exploration.)
The Quark is the smallest rocket I have built, with rear-swept…