Canon EOS 40D
180 mm
1/3,999
250
Other perspectives on the largest rocket motor I have launched so far, this one by Tom Rouse using Erik’s camera as Erik was adding another feed to the video. And my pad cam video frames are below.
7 responses to “my Warped Reality on a O3400”
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well, funny you should ask. I have a Q motor case… and it’s a big Q, so it would be about 5x the total thrust of this baby O-motor… And Tom has been nudging me to try a very cool new propellant casting technique. Before it cures, the propellant is thixotropic (a non-Newtonian fluid like that weird solid-liquid goop that kids play with called Oobleck (video)). So you can case bond a huge motor like that using vibration to make sure no major air bubbles remain (I imagine the motor standing vertically on a vibration stand liquifying the propellant). A bubble in the center grain was the culprit in the last big flight Tom undertook:
That’s a 60-ft. tall launch rail… with guide wires to hold it steady……and that was a mighty big project… Here is some of the night prep for scale…
Then there is the challenge of removing the mandrel from the center (this can be very tricky for an ICBM for example). This is the object that keeps the propellant from filling the inner core as it needs to be hollow so the motor burns from the inside out providing much more surface area for the burn than an end-burner, and the propellant serves as a thermal insulation layer along the way. But for a 8-ft. tall motor case, that’s near impossible to extract, especially if it has a complex geometry (like a star pattern) to increase the initial burn surface area (to help the rocket get to a stable speed quickly while still on the launch rail). So Tom 3D-prints the mandrel with a material that can be dissolved later with a solvent that will not harm the propellant or binders. So you can case a complex, asymmetric core up the full length of the motor and just dissolve the mold away at the end. So cool.
When my Q motor arrived…
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Steve thanks – http://www.flickr.com/photos/26274943@N02/9488659943/. I will follow up on your write up – more questions.
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