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Thu, 10 Feb 2022 14:11:01 -0500

jason@hub.inktada.com

I promised this video back in December. It's finally complete & I'm quite proud of it. While technical in nature, I tried to create a video where anyone can follow.

If you like it, please post a comment. If you really like it, please share.

#^Smart High Powered Rocket (Construction, Development, Prep, Launch!)

This is a smart high powered rocket and is powered by a motor 256 times the strength of a model rocket motor. The motor and is capable of propelling the high...

NEXT High Powered Rocketry

show all 22 comments

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 16:47:54 -0500

Haakon Meland Eriksen (Parlementum)

parlehaakon@hub.volse.no

Very cool, @Jason Cook ! 8-) So cool with the 3D path of the rocket in the air.

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 16:55:36 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

Thanks @Haakon Meland Eriksen (Parlementum), I appreciate it. The 3D path is really handy. Some years ago, we flew a weather balloon to just over 98,000 feet (29.8 km) and that 3D path is quite impressive (and detailed) for that one too.

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 17:02:57 -0500

Haakon Meland Eriksen (Parlementum)

parlehaakon@hub.volse.no

Wow! :-) I still remember the awesome realization I had when I understood how thin our athmosphere really is, and there is no "lid" above this amorphous layer of gas. I tried to explain it to my students. I think I used a wet apple and then added a drop of ink and asked if they wanted to eat it. They said no to air pollution.

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 08:07:53 -0500

RockyIII

rocky3@im.allmendenetz.de

@Jason Cook Whooo... impressive - Congrats!!!
I donÂ´t think we have a local rocket club around here :-)

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 08:20:43 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

There is a club, "Tripoli Germany" with a contact of denis@banovic.com, I don't know anything else about it.
There is also, #^http://www.tripoli.nl/ and looks active.

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 09:32:57 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

@Haakon Meland Eriksen (Parlementum) , you may be interested in the weather balloon launch I did with my friends Eric Zsolczai and @Freddy WILLEMS in 2017. I'm hoping at some point to repeat the launch with more data and detail.

#^FEJ Weather Balloon to 98k 4K UHD Video

Don't forget to tap the gear icon and up the resolution to the max your device and bandwidth can handle.FEJFreddy WillemsEric ZsolczaiJason CookLaunched: Mac...

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 10:08:46 -0500

Freddy WILLEMS

frewi80@hub.inktada.com

Now that was a real excited and fun day !!!!

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 10:15:28 -0500

Freddy WILLEMS

frewi80@hub.inktada.com

Love the video and the music !!!

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 11:01:25 -0500

Haakon Meland Eriksen (Parlementum)

parlehaakon@hub.volse.no

AWESOME! Thank you, @Jason Cook ! \o/

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 11:18:19 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Did the balloon expand to bursting at the top or was a release triggered by other means?

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 11:24:18 -0500 last edited: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 11:24:58 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

Did the balloon expand to bursting at the top or was a release triggered by other means?

The balloon expands larger and larger with the lack of pressure around it (98,100 is ~1% of sea level air pressure). Eventually, it expands so much that it burst.

In rare cases, it will not burst and that is called a "floater." This usually occurs when there is not enough helium so it doesn't get to high enough altitude.

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 11:56:03 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Did you plan the timing according to wind forecasts to avoid having it travel 200 miles downrange instead of 20? Or is that not really a problem? I suppose the jet stream isn't an issue in Florida.

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 11:59:47 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

Did you plan the timing according to wind forecasts to avoid having it travel 200 miles downrange instead of 20?

That is a HUGE problem and varies depending on the time of year (especially for Florida surrounded on 3 sides with water). We had to wait for ideal conditions and ran many predictions for better insurance that we could recover.

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 14:42:06 -0500

Freddy WILLEMS

frewi80@hub.inktada.com

Let's do this again, Eric has a huge property in sorrento, middle of Florida.

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 17:07:52 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

Let's do this again

Sounds fun! I'm tied up for the next three or four months, after that I'd love to start getting ready for another balloon launch.

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 18:08:53 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Was there anything in the box besides the phone? I suppose maybe a main parachute? Was that a drogue chute below the balloon? What was the round thing lower on the line? A radar reflector?

Sat, 12 Feb 2022 18:24:02 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

We had two or three cameras in there, the phone, & a GRMS radio relaying analog the GPS location from the voice in the phone. Everything was insulated to help fight the cold, but I believe at least one instrument fogged up due to the cold, which we will combat next time.

There's a single parachute attached between the balloon and the electronics box, which with the balloon pulling up, is collapsed vertically. Once popped, at high altitude your descent rate is high simply because there is not much air even though the chute fills with air.

So in this case, the drift while going fairly slowly up outweighs the drift of not having a drogue chute - so there's no point in a drogue. In addition, the lack of (much) air at these altitudes makes the descent rate fairly high until it gets to the altitude planes fly at.

Yes, the bottom round thing is a radar reflector. We also called the local airport tower filing a NOTAM #^https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOTAM

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 08:17:04 -0500 last edited: Sun, 13 Feb 2022 08:39:12 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

This is my most epic rocket flight to date. It occurred in June, 2014 and the tech (and video resolution) is definitely eons different now.

There is nowhere on the east coast of the US to launch a rocket this high, so I traveled 3600 miles round trip to northern Colorado for this launch.

On an N motor, the rocket flew to an altitude of 27,771 feet (8464m) above ground level.
#^The flight of the Mighty Nutcracker

We drove approximately 3600 miles round trip for the launch of the Mighty Nutcracker using a Cesaroni N1100 Moonburner.The flight was a success and launched ...

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 11:39:51 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

Was there a sonic boom that I couldn't make out because of the wind noise?

How much of a difference does the lower starting air resistance make? That is, had this been launched from sea level, would there have been a significant reduction in final altitude above ground level?

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 12:04:12 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

You can't hear the sonic boom because we are inside to cone. Had we been further away from the rocket as it was going up, we would have heard the boom.

Had the motor had more punch at the beginning, we would have been inside the cone and heard the boom.

Yes, if it would have launched at sea level, it would have gone about 3k less altitude. That said, there was a fair amount of wind, so it could have easily gone to over 30k had there been less wind.

It was an awesome launch.

I'm planning a two stage launch to hopefully 100+k, but I don't think it will happen this year, just too much going on now.

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 12:43:43 -0500

Marshall Sutherland

dwatney@hub.farthinghalearms.com

I had to go look up sonic booms to better understand what you mean.

A sonic boom doesn't occur the moment an object crosses the sound barrier; and neither is it heard in all directions emanating from the supersonic object. Rather the boom is a continuous effect that occurs while the object is travelling at supersonic speeds. But it affects only observers that are positioned at a point that intersects a region in the shape of a geometrical cone behind the object. As the object moves, this conical region also moves behind it and when the cone passes over the observer, they will briefly experience the boom.

I've misunderstood them all my life. It is rather counter-intuitive to the way we typically experience sound. As I'm thinking about it, it seems easier to imagine if I think about a hollow cone of light passing by me. Now I have to alter the memories of all the times I've been woken up by Space Shuttle booms to mean something different.

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 12:55:48 -0500

Jason Cook

jason@hub.inktada.com

It's bizarre for sure, I'm not sure even with all the reading that I fully grasp it.

I only know from experience of actually hearing the boom on a launch (rapid acceleration rocket where Mach occurs very close to the ground), vs a slower take off, and not hearing the boom.