21–30 of 78 posts
No, but that is what people will tell you about every idea from Facebook to a pet rock.
If you want to do it, good luck. It will not be easy.
If you want a simple project- Add your arduino, get GPS, accelerometer and a noise maker. (Edit: if you are really ambitious, get it to communicate live)
See if you can optimize anything. I would guess your goal is to play in embedded C++ anyway.
Scale matters. Bigger things are more stable.
It's likely to be difficult. I heard a good analogy once: imagine balancing a broom, handle pointed straight down, on one fingertip. It's not that hard. Now imagine balancing a toothpick. Impossible. Scale matters. Bigger things are more stable.
The same effect makes walking robots harder at small scale, unless they cheat by having large feet and stiff ankles.
I’m pretty sure that your problem isn’t going to be the software but rather the engine and the rocket itself. Hobby rockets use simple solid fuel engines you’ll need to build an actual liquid rocket engine with controlled thrust that can be reignited the rocket it self also need to be large enough to be aerodynamically controlled and hobby rockets tend to be too light so they’ll simply tumble in the wind. While you d…
You will blow up several engines if you try to make a liquid fueled engine. Get yourself a copy of https://www.amazon.com/Rockets-Missiles-Men-Space-Definitive... which is the story of a German rocket club which first got shut down by the Nazis because "somebody could get hurt" and then the Nazis thought it over... Probably your best bet is a hypergolic monopropellant such as hydrogen peroxide.
For example (see J. Clark, Ignition!) nitric acid is hypergolic with turpentine, but not hypergolic with kerosene.
I’m pretty sure that your problem isn’t going to be the software but rather the engine and the rocket itself. Hobby rockets use simple solid fuel engines you’ll need to build an actual liquid rocket engine with controlled thrust that can be reignited the rocket it self also need to be large enough to be aerodynamically controlled and hobby rockets tend to be too light so they’ll simply tumble in the wind. While you d…
You don't necessarily need a liquid rocket engine if doing something like the hoverslam, because you'd just time the burn correctly and fire engine at full power.
Hybrid engines which use solid fuel and a liquid/gaseous oxidizer can be controlled better but these are often very hard to reignite.
So this means you'll have to have additional engines that are used just for the slam landing, technically possible but again might be harder to construct than a liquid engine since solid fuel engine ignition is also fairly inconsistent.
The Soyuz capsule uses rockets to soften the landing but these technically aren't propulsive landing and the landing forces tend to vary quite a bit between landings.
Overall when I think about this problem as a hobby the software isn't going to be the biggest blocker here especially considering the speeds/altitudes that we are talking about as well as the overall mass of the rocket, in fact since these rockets are going to be considerably smaller and would travel considerably slower you could absorb much more of their relative energy via hydraulics so the amount of precision needed for the slam/hover landing isn't as great.
I don't know whether he got shut down by the authorities or not.
BPS.space is attempting it. Test Launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQt-9SSJ51c Test Landing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXy-x6lkQvQ
This appears to be working with solid rocket motors, thrust vectoring, and a carefully timed ignition. How do they get accurate distance to ground? Is altitude just a constant for these tests?
Years ago, I remember reading this guy's website where he was building a homemade cruise missile: https://www.theage.com.au/world/diy-cruise-missile-20030604-... I don't know whether he got shut down by the authorities or not.
> “Missiles”. (All) Rocket systems (including ballistic missiles, space launch vehicles, and sounding rockets) and unmanned aerial vehicle systems (including cruise missiles, target drones, and reconnaissance drones) “capable of” delivering at least 500 kilograms payload to a range of at least 300 kilometers.