My Massive Moonburner Rocket Launch

12 responses to “My Massive Moonburner Rocket Launch”

1. 

   jurvetson

   Jun 1, 2013 at 12:59 am

   for a sense of scale…
   Ignition!
   
   Deflecting off the angled blast-plate:
   
   Climbing
   
   The upward-facing pad cam was a bit too close to the pad… Oops!
   Arcing over…
   Popping the nose cone
   
   and out comes the laundry…
   The descent… seasonal creek and canal
   Cool shadow moments before impact
   Impact!
   Without the RF tracker and beacon we would never have found it. It was much, much farther away than we estimated from watching it descend…
   As found in the vineyard…
   Thanks Ashlee for the help in setup and recovery!

   Here is the flight video compilation from the three cameras on the rocket and two on the ground (non-HD version)

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2. 

   KryptonHeidt

   Jun 1, 2013 at 2:02 am

   Wow. That’s way too cool. Is this something you do as a hobby?

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3. 

   AndrewNZ

   Jun 1, 2013 at 4:30 am

   @KryptonHeidt – it is – take a look at the ‘rockets’ set this is part of.

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4. 

   Broken Toy Shop

   Jun 1, 2013 at 6:28 am

   Probably one of the more interesting things to have ever happened in a vineyard.

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5. 

   obskura

   Jun 1, 2013 at 8:25 am

   I noticed this round glow around the shadow of my FPV aircraft as well. I believe it is due to the reflectivity profile of the ground, particularly that water droplets and possibly other things reflect light back to where it came from. Around its own shadow, the sunlight that passes the airplane gets reflected back to its origin more than in other directions, so the observer on the aircraft sees a glow around that location that moves with the shadow.

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6. 

   KaR]V[aN

   Jun 1, 2013 at 11:25 am

   I wish there were more people interested in rocketing here in spain 🙁

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7. 

   gsikich1

   Jun 1, 2013 at 3:30 pm

   The smoke trail makes it look like a fissure in the earth – nice shot

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8. 

   jurvetson

   Jun 2, 2013 at 3:54 am

   [http://www.flickr.com/photos/obskura] – Bingo! The texture of the ground is key, but I don’t think there were any dew drops in the heat. I have never seen this effect with a rocket before, but an "opposition glow" was seen by Cernan on the moon. Here is a description of the phenomenon…

   And here is the G-Wiz HCX flight computer log:
   

   The blue parabola shows a very late deployment of the chute. I am downloading data from the other computer, but it seems that either this pyro channel failed (and the other computer deployed the chute), or it took an unusually long 12 seconds for this chute to unfurl (it was the first flight of this new parachute, as I shredded the GLR TAC-9B stalwart that I used on the prior 7 flights on a different airframe that disintegrated at Mach 2.5).

   Details:
   

   Looking at the first 9 seconds of this moon burner, the red acceleration curve…
   

   …matches the thrust curve
   

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9. 

   Mr Fruitychutes

   Jun 4, 2013 at 5:33 pm

   Steve, I think that downward spike in altitude about 6800 the pressure spike from the first deployment charge. Then the chute delays opening some some time. Kind of strange really. It could be the first charge did not kick it out. Then a very late backup did. In one of the pics the rocket man chute risers are seriously twisted, which is not good. That can cause serious opening issues.

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10. 

    jurvetson

    Jun 4, 2013 at 6:36 pm

    Very good catch! The photo above labeled "out comes the laundry" shows the shroud lines twisted together tightly, which retards inflation of the parachute. And in subsequent frames, I can see the parachute ball handing out there for a while before finally inflating with a powerful yank. This would explain everything. (And yes, zooming in, the baro-sensor caught the BP-charge spike at 18 seconds precisely at the "pyro-on" white triangle on the graph. I normally look for that.)

    So, how did they get twisted like that? It was a first flight of the chute, and so I’m pretty sure I remember each of the lines being nicely separate, and I aired it out in advance to make sure it did not stick to itself. (My son did play with the chute in the heavy winds and could have induced a twisting, but I think that was after the flight).

    If it was packed OK, perhaps it stayed wadded up for some reason post-deployment (with a horizontal velocity component due to weather cocking into high winds aloft), and since it has its own swivel, it may have quickly spun itself tight…

    So I should count my blessings that it unfurled at all! And better packing next time.

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11. 

    the_other_ben

    Jun 8, 2013 at 6:44 am

    I like the term heiligenschein over "opposition glow", German words make everything more fun. I’ve seen it on rocket flights above 100kft, it’s a neat phenomenon.

    Reply
12. 

    Jim Rees

    Jun 8, 2013 at 12:20 pm

    I thought opposition glow had more to do with the fact that you can’t see any shadows when looking opposite the sun rather than anything about ground reflectivity. I know you have to be at a high enough altitude that your own aircraft (or rocket) covers a smaller arc than the sun as seen from the ground.

    Reply