just add water is a simple 16oz water rocket that can carry water for ballast. During the apogee and descent stages of flight, the water ballast is released to slow the rate of descent. The change to the COG causes the rocket to fall sideways, slowing it even more.
[youtube][/youtube]
Launch freeze frame:
just add water.JPG (154.93 KiB) Viewed 66 times
Bugwubber
Re: just add water
Posted: Sat May 25, 2013 10:58 pm
by U.S. Water Rockets1
Getting the ballast out of the rocket in free fall where you cannot count on gravity is a challenge! Nice to see it working for you!
Re: just add water
Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 12:32 pm
by bugwubber
U.S. Water Rockets1 wrote:Getting the ballast out of the rocket in free fall where you cannot count on gravity is a challenge! Nice to see it working for you!
Thanks! Looking at the slow motion replays, a lot of the water appears to be expelled by centrifugal force as the bottle spins to a nose down attitude. Then, with the mass gone, there's nothing to keep the nose pointed at the ground.
There are limits..too much ballast water resulted in some water remaining in the rocket.