All Carbon

23 responses to “All Carbon”

1. 

   drona

   Aug 19, 2010 at 3:49 am

   Going to space, eh! 🙂

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2. 

   born1945

   Aug 19, 2010 at 3:57 am

   Nice size reverence there.

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3. 

   msamaclean ©

   Aug 19, 2010 at 4:42 am

   The carbon fiber is really good looking & Keeper sure has grown!
   Beautiful rocket body & cat!…;-)

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4. 

   Astrocatou

   Aug 19, 2010 at 4:56 am

   Keeper says go for it…!
   NOW you are getting me excited…? recall my interest in altitude etc…
   Must be other tricks to anchor those fins than just filets/adhesive…no ?
   OK…NOW I read the note

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5. 

   Astrocatou

   Aug 19, 2010 at 4:59 am

   you want a LONG burn engine I suppose ?
   Or at 10 (? 20) K feet maybe drag is less important…?
   its Vsquared as far as its effect…but maybe you can comment on air pressure /altitude impact on drag….

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6. 

   : Nils

   Aug 19, 2010 at 5:35 am

   Ahhh, sweet, sweet carbon-y goodness. What kind of jig do you have for lining up the fins?

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7. 

   jurvetson

   Aug 19, 2010 at 5:44 am

   Hope to borrow Erik’s HPR-1

   

   Dave: I’ll start with a Cesaroni N1100 with a 12.5 second burn. Good altitude, and should stay under Mach 2.

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8. 

   rocketmavericks

   Aug 19, 2010 at 5:49 am

   Yes we can!

   Does the cat get attached somewhere? Probably Leif’s contribution, no doubt.

   We can help with fin attachment if you need it. Key will be fillets and tip to tip glass with cure in oven. You can borrow mine or we can make your own. Should be "Piece of cake".

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9. 

   obskura

   Aug 19, 2010 at 9:10 am

   I was wondering, considering how high-tech these bigger rockets are, is anyone using gyro-controlled fins, or thrust vectoring for stability? Or is this thing just too fast to control mechanically?
   I started putting microcontrollers and inertial sensors on my airplanes to do attitude stabilisation, and it works really well. Turns a crappy plane into a super-accurate neutral acro machine…

   PS: that’s some awesome looking carbon tubes…

   Reply
10. 

    Dr DAD (Daniel A D’Auria MD)

    Aug 19, 2010 at 11:33 am

    And it even comes with it’s own furry astronaut =)
    Did you have to pay extra for that option or was it standard issue purrrchase?

    Reply
11. 

    Dr DAD (Daniel A D’Auria MD)

    Aug 19, 2010 at 11:34 am

    You are right, though, it does look great unpainted.

    Reply
12. 

    becklectic

    Aug 19, 2010 at 11:35 am

    That is one awesome hobby you have. A couple of questions. What’s the cost to buy, build and launch a rocket? Are the rockets reusable, or are they toast after one launch? Do you need special permits and approved launch sites?

    Reply
13. 

    DixonTJ

    Aug 19, 2010 at 8:00 pm

    Is that a Mongoose 98? Looks like one, but I thought they had conical nosecones; while the picture looks like a Von Karman? BTW, do you think they gave you enough CF cloth–jeez!

    Reply
14. 

    PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE

    Aug 19, 2010 at 9:58 pm

    Naked is often best =)
    "La beauté d une femme se dessine parfois à la simplicité de ses courbes" O=)

    Steve have you seen this video !! must see !! Jump a 1’55. Best view 3’45 ; )

    A shuttle launch like you’ve never seen it before

    "The following video shows the perspective of a launch from a small camera attached to the booster which faces the middle part of the external tank. It was shot during STS-124 two summers ago. The first two minutes of the video are quite slow except for the sound of the tank draining. After that — wow. Take note at about 4:37 into the video where you can see the shuttle still rising and the other booster falling back to Earth." source

    Reply
15. 

    BWJones

    Aug 19, 2010 at 10:24 pm

    Oooooohhhh naked carbon fiber looks so sweet.

    Reply
16. 

    jurvetson

    Sep 20, 2010 at 9:35 pm

    I agree! Just finished:

    

    DixtonTJ: yes. I will want to switch to conical for the Mach 3 attempt.

    becklectic: Yes reusable, unless something goes wrong. =) Yes on permits… getting started

    Dr Dad – fur would fly

    obskura: active guidance is forbidden. Using feedback for stabilization is a tough design challenge… The attempts I have seen lost the fins. And we’d need liquid fuels for thrust control…

    Reply
17. 

    Todd Baker

    Sep 20, 2010 at 10:28 pm

    Raw carbon is sexy.

    Reply
18. 

    solerena

    Sep 21, 2010 at 1:28 am

    Sounds like fun, for you and for your kitty:)

    Reply
19. 

    RumpledElf

    Oct 9, 2011 at 6:45 am

    Did the cat fly it? wordsbycat.com/r/rocket

    Reply
20. 

    jurvetson

    Oct 9, 2011 at 5:24 pm

    Oh that’s funny. You always wonder what dem felines are thinking. And she did not get a ride. The rocketry code actually has a rule against vertebrates as payload.

    So we figure a lobster is the biggest "cosmonaut" we could fly.

    The rocket had four great flights. Here are a couple:

    

    But on a huge motor last Sunday, we lost the fins at about Mach 2.4 and she rapidly disassembled overhead into essentially the same subcomponents as above!

    

    I added the clear fiberglass tubing for an RF-transparent bay for streaming GPS data down from the rocket for real-time tracking. More to come on that flight later. She’ll need a little work to fly again… =)

    Kitty would not have liked that flight.

    Reply
21. 

    Astrocatou

    Oct 9, 2011 at 6:27 pm

    Kat a strophic…

    Reply
22. 

    anneirenej

    Mar 30, 2012 at 3:06 pm

    hi just wanted to tell you that both your kitty and rocket ended up on cuteoverload.
    See the post here

    cuteoverload.com/2012/03/28/wait-what-was-step-three-agai…

    Both the kittyk and the rocket are cute!

    Reply
23. 

    jurvetson

    Mar 31, 2012 at 4:02 pm

    fantastique. Our little catmausnaut is very proud.

    Reply