Amateur Rocket Sees Space

24 responses to “Amateur Rocket Sees Space”

1. 

   jurvetson

   Oct 8, 2011 at 2:33 pm

   Diagram, with Q18000 solid rocket engine inside:
   

   I took this frame from the side-facing Flip cam on the way up:
   

   And here’s a little video I took of the post-flight airframe separation, and Derek’s photos.

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2. 

   Scott C (sec611)

   Oct 8, 2011 at 3:12 pm

   Amazing cannot even begin to describe how impressive that video was. Wow!!

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3. 

   Sunnyvaledave

   Oct 8, 2011 at 3:16 pm

   thanks, wonderful.

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4. 

   rocketmavericks

   Oct 8, 2011 at 4:14 pm

   A better HD video gives perspective from Derick’s flight as the fish-eye lens exagerates the curvature of the earth. A great flight!!!!

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvDqoxMUroA&feature=feedf

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5. 

   Ramones Karaoke

   Oct 8, 2011 at 4:19 pm

   There’s no denying it, that puppy’s in space. It’s a small world after all. It was what, 16 seconds to leave the high-altitude clouds behind? Less atmosphere than an inner-city pub.

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6. 

   rocketmavericks

   Oct 8, 2011 at 4:33 pm

   Actually its only 1/3 of the way there, as space is somewhere between 320,000 and 360,000 feet, but still a tremendous accomplishment and it sure looks like space. Another 200,000 feet and he is golden.

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7. 

   jurvetson

   Oct 8, 2011 at 4:47 pm

   Of course, that is an arbitrary breakpoint for space but has become the common standard. =)

   Video links are all to the same youtube. The flip cam is outward facing; the GoPro is downward facing and has more of a wide-angle lens (with a much more pleasing image to the eye, IMHO). I wonder what happened to the other GoPro cam footage.

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8. 

   Astrocatou

   Oct 8, 2011 at 7:19 pm

   THAT is cool….!

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9. 

   DixonTJ

   Oct 9, 2011 at 1:33 am

   I aspire to doing this someday. For now I’ll just keep playing with my M and N motors.

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10. 

    rocketmavericks

    Oct 9, 2011 at 3:56 am

    Derek has a lot of experience. He designed developed and tested the SpaceShipOne hybrid motor that Rutan used to win the Xprize while at EAC a military rocket contractor. He also developed Ky’s GoFast rocket with EAC as well as worked on the Hyperion with NASA and a whole bunch of other defense contracts with USAF and ONR. He’s a pro. Casting a finocyl case bonded single grain motor takes vacuum mix and casting equipment that only defense contractors have. A very sophisticated rocket that performed flawlessly. We all can dream to be here one day. This vehicle looked like an 8 inch version of Ky’s GoFast 10" vehicle. Motor was almost identical only smaller.

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11. 

    solerena

    Oct 9, 2011 at 4:18 am

    Shooting for the stars! hobby=profession. great shots and video! yep, congrats!!!

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12. 

    Kevin Baird

    Oct 9, 2011 at 5:22 am

    Wow. "Amateur" belongs in quotation marks.

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13. 

    Pieces of Eye

    Oct 9, 2011 at 6:47 am

    Amazing. What temp did the rocket experience from frictional heating?

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14. 

    nhr

    Oct 9, 2011 at 3:21 pm

    > The black squiggle down the middle is molten polymer residue from the
    > camera shield that melted from the intense heat of breaking Mach 3.

    An ablative shield, I gather  

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15. 

    karl.simpson

    Oct 9, 2011 at 10:19 pm

    Incredible, just incredible.

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16. 

    jurvetson

    Oct 9, 2011 at 10:28 pm

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/nhr] – bingo! Just not by design.

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/physicsman] – not sure. On Gene’s flight to 100K+ the nose peaked at 425°F (he had sensors for that). He also got a cool snap:

    

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17. 

    nhr

    Oct 9, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    > On Gene’s flight to 100K+ the nose peaked at 425°F (he had sensors for that).

    100K+ reminds me of that joke from pilot lore:

    Nellis AFB. Rookie air traffic controller takes a call from an aircraft requesting clearance to FL800 (80,000 feet)…
    Rookie controller (dripping with sarcasm): "Okay, hotshot — if you think you can take her to that altitude, go for it!!"
    Pilot of the SR-71 on the other end of the radio: "Roger Control; now descending from FL 1000 to FL 800…"

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18. 

    jurvetson

    Oct 9, 2011 at 11:58 pm

    I have this dream of further flyboy jockeying… with an SR-71 roaring flat out at its top speed… like the Nissan Z twin turbo ad… and then the X15A-2 comes screaming by…

    The relative passing speed would be Mach 3.5 beyond the SR-71’s top speed of Mach 3.2… an even greater passing speed than the SR-71 buzzing the stationary tower.

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19. 

    heet_myser

    Oct 10, 2011 at 1:18 am

    See also http://www.space.com/13210-draconid-meteor-shower-student-balloo...

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20. 

    Pieces of Eye

    Oct 10, 2011 at 2:59 am

    I want to see the RS-71 just above the hard deck at mach 3+
    

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21. 

    samfineberg

    Oct 10, 2011 at 8:34 pm

    I still can’t believe he landed on the playa. It looked like it was only single deploy, but the parachute wasn’t very big. It probably hit pretty hard.

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22. 

    jurvetson

    Oct 10, 2011 at 9:48 pm

    Yup…. 613MPH peak return

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23. 

    sbove

    Oct 12, 2011 at 5:24 pm

    This was completely sick…I watched twice, then came back for another look a day later…the silent hang time at apogee was priceless…burned into my memory…really hard to believe this is possible on a "hobbyist" scale and with retrieval only a few miles down range. Giant congrats to the team.

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24. 

    TrombaMarina

    Oct 22, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    Awesome. It’s mind bending what a hobbyist can do today.

    Reply