Wireless Video Rocket

5,4,3,2,1… blastoff. Here you can clearly see the benefit of the blast shield plate (protecting the launch electronics below).

My friend Erik modified a LOC Precision NORAD rocket to take a video camera and transmitter in the upper body tube. I am stationed at the base station with a medium-gain directional antenna and video recorder. I posted a clip of the video feed, where you can see me and the red blanket after takeoff.

My favorite part is the roar of the motor and the speed of ascent. The motor is a hand-assembled Aerotech G64.

The altitude is limited by an early ejection charge. This causes some crazy tumult in the video. The chute pops while the rocket is still climbing fast, and it keeps climbing, with the air drag of the open body tube. It’s still climbing when the chute catches air and unfurls, and that finally arrests the climb (the heavier bottom tube shoots up fast the nose cone at this point; so the two rocket halves are still climbing with the chute below holding them back).

20 responses to “Wireless Video Rocket”

Erik Charlton

Aug 23, 2006 at 4:38 am

The RocketSim launch (simulation software) showed that I needed a longer delay…but that was the only motor I had. According to the software, the modified NORAD had an upward velocity of about 47 feet / sec when the parachute was deployed. That is approaching the edge of tearing the shock cord…but still "technically" in the "good to go" category. Well, it worked out!

Reply
benjiman

Aug 23, 2006 at 5:14 am

Sooo… Steve or erik please explain how/why the early ejection charges work.

Awesome shot and rocket!

Reply
angry shock

Aug 23, 2006 at 5:27 am

Ahoy Erik! Please to meet you! I am the alieness, aka Gisela, A.P.A.’s (see tags –> "Alieness Postprocessing Agency ") founder and director and, uhm, sole employee too. =)

Steve friends are my friends so I am very happy to see you here in flickr, welcome abord! Enjoy the ride! 😀

I´ve peeked your abum a second ago… do you have there a photo which would be the original version (not the same pic but the same scene) of this photo here I slightly tweaked, don´t you?

Neat shot anyway. I´ll go see the video. *blink blink*

Oops… Nice date today! -already today here- P-)

Reply
No veo nada (Coke)

Aug 23, 2006 at 7:57 am

wow……congrats man….that´s a fantastic shot

Reply
esteban

Aug 23, 2006 at 3:36 pm

More of this please.

Reply
alex jtb

Aug 25, 2006 at 10:23 am

YES! YESS! BRING IT ALL DOWN! that looks like good fun – I feel a bit stupid with my bottle of diet coke and pack of mentos…

Reply
jurvetson

Aug 25, 2006 at 5:10 pm

Don’t feel stupid…. =)

(Here is the grand 200 liters of Diet Coke + 500 Mentos video for those who do not know the reference)

Esteban: more? Happy to…. The "Rocket Set" above right has the past… Next month, I go to the Black Rock Desert for some really big rockets. I am borrowing a Canon 100-400mm Image Stabilized lens from a friend for the event…

benjiman: premature ejection is a bit of a bummer… 😉 Worked out fine here, but it can damage the rocket, or worse, if the rocket faces too much wind resistance, it might not be able to get the nose cone free and the chute deployed…. and then it becomes a lawn dart:

Each motor has a delay fuse before popping the forward facing ejection charge (gunpowder blasts forward within the rocket to push the chute and nosecone out). The fuse time needs to be appropriate for the rocket size/weight and motor size. Kits comes with recommended motor configurations. Custom rockets with custom motors, like this one, take guesswork and experimentation… and they can benefit from RockSim.

Reply
Oliver Lavery

Aug 26, 2006 at 4:50 am

(Hi, I’ve chosen your photo for the competition of the week at Scientist Photographers group, you can follow the scoring in the discussion section of our group! Good Luck!)

Reply
Erik Charlton

Aug 26, 2006 at 5:12 am

Hi TheAlieness►GiselaGiardino…Great to meet you…and everyone else. I am really enjoying getting to know the Flickr community. Very cool.

You got it. That is the same image…and I have another one from a fraction of a second after. Steve was taking a rapid succession on images…and I snagged a few of the ones I enjoyed most =) It was a amazing launch!

Reply
angry shock

Aug 27, 2006 at 5:08 am

Hi there Erik!!! Cool, I couldn´t see the originals for when jur-v sent it to me he had already made the black bar disappear. I just had to re-arrange the sky. 😉

Stev, I got an idea ( !!! )… after Resurrection, I was listening to the other Oakenfold songs and I got a very special feeling with Zoo York (from Bunkka) I thought of a challenge then: "Picture the song".

I tell you a song, and you gotta find one in your album or upload one, or go take a picture to illustrate the song, as you feel it.

How ´bout it? Accept the callenge? How would you picture Zoo York?

Reply
jurvetson

Aug 28, 2006 at 5:36 am

strange creatures they keep in that zoo…

Reply
angry shock

Aug 28, 2006 at 6:11 am

Oh, come on, don´t be lazy, j! go listen to the song! you will see -well, hear-, it can´t have anything to do with spiderman! with newyork, yes, more probable… 😛

jurvey w/headphones —-> (=D

Reply
picturebikes

Feb 3, 2008 at 6:05 pm

you want some more owesome hot stuff just click the link!!!!!!

Reply
Max Perrini alias IK7TOE

Apr 9, 2008 at 5:38 pm

Reply
forno grande

Sep 17, 2009 at 3:40 am

Hi, I’m an admin for a group called Forno: ovens, kilns, furnaces & heaters, and we’d love to have this added to the group!

Reply
schrislloyd

Sep 18, 2009 at 12:50 am

Hi, I’m an admin for a group called Its Summertime!, and we’d love to have this added to the group!

Reply
alxflickrrr

Nov 12, 2009 at 7:12 am

Nice shot! Thanks for photo!

Reply
arbib106

Jul 28, 2012 at 6:09 pm

photo fiction
thanks
maroc

Reply
اسماءمنصور

Nov 11, 2013 at 4:03 pm

best site for online videos
fast-videos.blogspot.com

Reply
starstatuesmarketing

Mar 28, 2022 at 1:21 pm

Thanks for mentioning "LOC Precision"
Want the same, just visit us at http://www.locprecision.com

Reply

Wireless Video Rocket

20 responses to “Wireless Video Rocket”

Leave a Reply to schrislloyd Cancel reply