31–40 of 78 posts
There's no "practical" reason to make it land vertically. Model rockets can land safely using parachutes.
The software is written by one guy in his freetime. Pretty amazing feat, considering how difficult it is, and that he has no way of testing it before the actual launch. It worked flawlessly the first time.
Here's a video of the Nexø 1 launch that uses the system to control the rocket on its ascent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iTg55Ktkn4
This video shows some technical data streamed live from the rocket that gives a good overview of what the jetvanes are doing. Notice the graphic in the lower left corner; The H in the middle is the floating launch platform (12x14 meters) and the moving red dot is the position of the rocket in the X-Y plane. On the whole trip it never moves more than a few meters from the center. Really impressive stuff...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km7-2Ds6_Xs
I know it's not exactly what you're asking, but it's close, so I thought it might have some value.
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
I wonder what scale you would need to get the rocket into space/orbit? SpaceX should fund this guy to find out, could prove to be a valuable bootcamp for real SpaceX employees in the future?
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.
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.
I agree, that looking - though very carefully! - into hydrogen peroxide could be a good approach. However, "hypergolic monopropellant" is like clapping with one hand. "Hypergolic" means "self-igniting by the contact with the other component", it's a property of a component of a pair, not of a single substance. For example (see J. Clark, Ignition!) nitric acid is hypergolic with turpentine, but not hypergolic with ker…
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.
Trying to buy high test hydrogen peroxide (high concentration) might well get you flagged by the police as its used in bombmaking
A bottle that large of TATP could blow up a plane but you'd be lucky to make it to the airport with it before it explodes.
The 90%+ stuff used in rocketry is hard to get because it is dangerous to handle.
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.
https://duckduckgo.com/l/?kh=-1&uddg=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.engine... [PDF]
Be really careful. Adding guidance to a hobby rocket may classify it as a missile, and you will need to start looking into ITAR.