After a few weeks of hard work repairing and refining the rocket, we were ready to fly again, this time in Camden, SC. The field was smaller than what we were used to with our NC site, so we chose to fly on a slightly less powerful motor: the K805G. This propelled us to an altitude of 3373 feet. Both payloads worked, although the ILD was not completely successful. Videos of the launch and more payload information is below.
The RAD payload was pre-programmed to do a 90 degree turn to face the crowd. As you can see in this chart, it was pretty much perfect. The error that the previous flight experienced was due to outdated programming that told the RAD to look for a battery of the wrong voltage, which created many problems. The ILD payload almost worked perfectly, but led us to the conclusion that it was too unstable a design for practical use. The balloons were unable to float due to their necessary shrinking down to fit in the nose cone. This could be fixed by having a larger rocket or changing the location of the balloons. After they deployed, the balloons got tangled around the bulkhead. This could be fixed by changing the position of the balloons or their lines, but it has proven that there are better ways to find a rocket.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThis blog will be updated once a week over the course of the 2018-2019 school year, detailing our progress. It will be signed at the end by a member of the team. Archives
September 2018
Categories |