RC parachute??

Post by **october sky** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:10 pm

hey has anyone ever got the idea of a RC controled parachute decent???

Post by **da-water** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 11:58 am

what does "RC" mean?

Post by **Tim Chen** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:05 pm

da-water wrote:what does "RC" mean?

I think that October Sky's asking if anyone has done a "Radio Control" parachute deploy.

I've never seen it done before but I remember a while back on one of the defunct wrocket mailing lists that someone had suggested it. I've since come to believe that R/C is as good as any other deploy and that you could also do the same thing with a timer circuit or an altimeter signal. The real difficulty is taking a small electrical impulse and transferring it into a large mechanical force needed to push a parachute out. Once you work out how to push out the chute when a signal turns ON, then you can pick whatever controlling method you like. R/C would be a nice option for this.

Post by **october sky** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:31 pm

No, i'm not talking about using RC to deploy the parachute(though that is a good idea) i'm talking about having it so you can turn the parachute, thus making the rocket run(where you go get your rocket) uneeded

Post by **Tim Chen** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 12:49 pm

october sky wrote:No, i'm not talking about using RC to deploy the parachute(though that is a good idea) i'm talking about having it so you can turn the parachute, thus making the rocket run(where you go get your rocket) uneeded

That's an interesting concept...

I think you would need to get plans for making a "parafoil", which is a parachute that's shaped like a wing. If you made a small scale parafoil then you could guide it with a single servo that pulled on the left or right side control lines just like a human parafoil does.

I think Burt Rutan did some tests for NASA a while back when he was doing concept work for a "Escape Pod" for the space station. It looked like a miniature space shuttle only it deployed a parafoil just before landing and they could "steer" it to a landing pad.

Post by **october sky** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 5:25 pm

i know you have to have a parafoil to steer the chute. here is site that has just that! http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepage ... chute3.htm

Post by **Mark Chen** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:53 pm

october sky wrote:i know you have to have a parafoil to steer the chute. here is site that has just that! http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepage ... chute3.htm

That's quite interesting. I may not have to learn how to sew a parafoil such as this!

I like the way in which one can make the parafoil steer, as this would allow us to make it fly in a gentle circular path all the way to the ground. With an onboard camera we would have a super view of the raide all the way down!

Post by **october sky** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:52 pm

so i'm guessing that this is a new idea? all you would need is two RC seros, and 2 way controler, and some other rc stuff

Post by **Tim Chen** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:22 pm

october sky wrote:so i'm guessing that this is a new idea? all you would need is two RC seros, and 2 way controler, and some other rc stuff

I think it's never been done on a rocket before!