Chaos Rodeo

10 responses to “Chaos Rodeo”

1. 

   jurvetson

   Jun 13, 2012 at 5:17 am

   It all started at launch. With two angled motors, you really want them both to come up to pressure before you leave the rail:
   

   This aimed to Rob
   

   Parachute. So, everything is cool, he thinks…
   

   Then the onboard computer ignites the second stage:
   

   Whip it good
   

   Finally, it cools off… Then the third stage ignites!
   

   And another tight spiral begins
   

   This prepared them for my son’s cluster launch, which came next. =)

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2. 

   Astrocatou

   Jun 13, 2012 at 9:59 am

   Wow…three stages…that was (potentially) going places…
   What was the theoretical performance of it all?

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3. 

   seatonsnet

   Jun 13, 2012 at 10:21 am

   Wow. I keep asking this question and nobody answers me. Do these things ever blow up when being manipulated, or shoot off into the spectators or shower people with fragments when they blow up in the air? I ask because a childhood friend of mine blew most of the fingers off his right hand with a "pencil rocket" way back in the Sputnik panic days.

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4. 

   Airobert

   Jun 13, 2012 at 3:37 pm

   Seatonsnet, "Ever" is a long time… I haven’t seen anybody get hurt who was behind the "Flight safety line." We did have a bad incident where a rocket motor ignited while the people were still getting it ready for launch (Second stage lit because the computer thought it had launched.) There have been some crash landings near people and a few cars have been dinged. One of the things to realize it that if the rocket goes fast it just about has to go straight up (Just because of stability) if the rocket is unstable it will not go fast because it is spinning around (Like this one.) This rocket, if it was stable should have gone two miles up at 700MPH, instead because of its instability it only went 200 feet or so at 50MPH. This would give you lots more time to get out of the way. One other thing is Steve’s amazing skills as a photographer-these pictures were taken from 200+ feet away, other are from farther away. He makes it look like the rockets are in the living room with you. Another thing is just like the News-you hear more about the few exciting events than you hear about the million normal events. So while you are more likely to get injured from a rocket than a meteorite, you are still much more likely to get injured in a car accident.

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5. 

   jurvetson

   Jun 13, 2012 at 4:18 pm

   Or playing golf in Florida… =)

   Nice discussion of rocket risks in the comments here

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6. 

   solerena

   Jun 13, 2012 at 4:29 pm

   Pretty:)

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7. 

   seatonsnet

   Jun 13, 2012 at 5:35 pm

   [http://www.flickr.com/photos/38701753@N02] Perhaps the metaphor should be "you are much more likely to get injured racing cars. I say that because most of us have use cars in order to work etc, but few us have to launch rockets. Could we say that it is safer to attend an amateur rocket launch than a car rally or an air show?

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8. 

   Ahansom

   Jun 13, 2012 at 6:42 pm

   Great pictures Steve, I missed most of it because my eyes were closed. Ive flown this rocket several times before with out a such a delay on the 2nd motor but a quarter second delay seems to be more than enough to put things out of ballance. This was the first time I tried the Metalstorms maybe they are a little less sensitive to the ignitors and harder to get going. Anyway heres a video to show how it should have worked

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=248ZLdN4Gis

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9. 

   scleroplex

   Jun 13, 2012 at 11:43 pm

   hope the components are fine and reusable

   Reply
10. 

    Ahansom

    Jun 14, 2012 at 12:56 am

    Luckily most of the damage was scuffed paint from a little dragging around in the dirt after landing. Could have flown again same day. Maybe October Skies will be the next attempt

    Reply