The 3D wire frame model for the LOC Precision V-2 rocket I am building, my heaviest project to date. With RockSim, I can test launch it with various amounts of rocket fuel, and predict stability margin, G forces, and max speed and altitude.
On the trip back from Miami, the flight attendant was curious about this thing I was fiddling around with on my computer.
She probably thought you were a rocket designer. I would be curious too. Fun way to pass the time on a long flight. Who knows, maybe one day a suspicious passenger could cause problems and complicate your life a bit.
This brought up some interesting thoughts later… two distinct ones which I’ll share.
You arent the first to copy the V-2… The Russians got hold of some of the German engineers… en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-1_(rocket) and produced the first ICBM en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-7_Semyorka. While you have the benefits of modern simulation software, I’ll bet it sure is nice to nab the designers!
Which reminded me of one of my favourite bar conversations…
(If the conversation is lagging lead into )
… the connection between the Treaty of Versailles and the US’s lead in the space race…
The Treaty of Versailles prevented the Germans from researching and producing new artillery war-stuff, and thus they dove into rockets, and then their smartest scientists jumped ship to the U.S. at the beginning of WWII.
Those nutty Germans!
(The weather has cleared up quite a bit, though it is supposed to start raining again… darn those Weather Gods!)
cool stuff. Benjiman…. heh… better than the WRONG TROUSERS…. Gosh, I gotta wonder how you could jazz up the Rocksim models…. =)
drona: Nah… She thought it looked cool when I did a 3D fly through the center of the airframe.
oddstick: Interesting…. In studying the "test launch" videos, I see that the joint I am most worried about, just above the fins at the cylinder-to-conical-tail transition (which I plan to fiberglas over for extra strength) was in fact a point of failure….
when i was a child i visited the V2-Museum in Peenemünde at the baltic sea where the V-1 and V-2 was assembled, i also played with some originals 😉 the think that stayed in my mind from there was the momentum wheel, which was first used in the V-2.
Maybe this momentum wheel was one of the first technical features i totally understood with 5 year 😉
cool. tell me more about the momentum wheel.
oddwick: a scaled down replica, fortunately for all… =) I don’t have the skills yet for fancy hybrid or liquid motors, so I am going with a big stick of solid AP…. K700 and K550 motors should give a good roar.
By the way, yesterday, Boeing Sea Launch suffered a dramatic CATO on the pad. "The Ukrainian/Russian booster was igniting its main engine when the 20-story vehicle inexplicably fell, triggering a hellish fireball that engulfed the floating Odyssey platform." (from Spaceflight news)
Hej,
maybe you can find some help in the biomechanics studies of Prof. Claus Mattheck:
http://www.mattheck.de/seiten/seminar5a.html
From studying tree trunk growth, bear claws and other natural structures, he developed an easy method to optimize joint angles.. should be working on rocket fins too, and is by far easier and faster (using only a ruler and a pair of compasses!) than "conventional" FEM, and performs nearly as well.. better, if you regard time, effort and tools involved 🙂 – but see for yourself. And fly a rocket to the stratosphere, please 😀
Hi, I’m an admin for a group called Outer Space & Beyond, and we’d love to have this added to the group!
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