Jumpin’ Jack Flash

8 responses to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”

1. 

   The Sage of Shadowdale

   Sep 19, 2007 at 5:52 am

   Man, that nose cone didn’t land too far from where they were standing. Dangerous stuff.

   I’ve been curious about this for a while – each time one of these rockets disintegrates, which seems to be pretty often, how much does it cost the owner (on average)?
   —
   Discovered using FlickrFox. (?)

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2. 

   schoschie

   Sep 19, 2007 at 9:07 am

   I dig the black smoke.

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3. 

   konoctipirate

   Sep 19, 2007 at 3:55 pm

   Hard to compute an average cost to owner.

   There are really 3 elements involved in a high power rocket:

   1. The basic rocket parts (sometimes kit, sometimes from scratch).
   Figure $50-$500 depending on size/complexity although there are kits that cost several times more than that.

   2. The time (2 – 200 hrs with exceptions above that for design/build/ground testing). You can put a figure on the value of that time or not.

   3. The on-board hardware (electronics (altimeters, trackers, gps, video etc) and motor casings (contains the propellant). Typically $75-several hundred dollars.

   In my case, the Callisto had an on board tracker. It got wedged in the end of the nose cone when it hit the ground but seems to still work. May need some soldering. I recovered the motor casing which didn’t have any damage.

   So cost to me of this terminal flight was the rocket and time. This kit cost about $60.

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4. 

   xouroborus

   Sep 19, 2007 at 5:53 pm

   Arrr! It be a fine ship indeed 🙂

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5. 

   The Sage of Shadowdale

   Sep 19, 2007 at 11:57 pm

   konoctipirate, well that’s much less than I thought it would be – I was expecting $500 to a few thousand with all the on-board gadgets. Although I confess I didn’t have a clue how much motor parts & propellant would cost.

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6. 

   msamaclean ©

   Sep 20, 2007 at 4:05 am

   The video with the (muted) sound was great! I would love to be there to hear the real scream!

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7. 

   S.J.I.

   Oct 1, 2007 at 4:23 pm

   Would have LOVED to have been there to see the blast off.
   What makes the smoke so dark? Obviously, we non-scientist types are used to seeing the shuttle and all its white smoke at lift-off. Is the smoke black because the fuel isn’t super-cooled gas of some sort?

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8. 

   schoschie

   Oct 1, 2007 at 5:39 pm

   It could be soot from incompletely burnt charcoal (carbon), but that would only make sense if the rocket motors used classical black powder and the mixture wasn’t correct, which i doubt.

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