Water Rocket Forum

We've launched the bare bottle to about 100' and are wondering how it will do with fins and a nose cone. Right now it weighs over 2800 grams. This is for fun only and we are not expecting to set any records. The nose cone is paper mache that we made on a styrofoam core. The fuselage is gift wrap taped to a wooden frame and then shrunk with water and then lacquer.

The launcher is visible on the wall in the upper right corner of the photo. It is an o-ring launch tube with Clark release.

LOL that's awesome! I found a 3 gallon bottle that is round with no handle indent. Hope to launch it one day...

Any launch video?

There will be. Working on the deployment mechanism. Plan on using a ladies push-button umbrella shaft for the ejection force. Hopefully we will be ready to launch by next weekend.

Hows the rocket going? Do you have any footage of the launch?

Just finished the altimeter/deployment electronics package a few weeks ago. Still need to finish the deployment mechanism. It's been c-o-l-d and rainy. Looks like a late winter/early spring launch. I will definitely post video/launch data.

Thanks for your interest!

Just following up on your launch? How did it go or are you still working on the deployment mech.

Al

Sorry for the delays. Our fins did not stick well with PL. Two of them came off. Today we re-attached them with West System epoxy. Also having problems skinning the fuselage frame. Tried cling-wrap but it curved in excessively. Gift wrap worked okay, but was easily damaged.

This is going to be a HEAVY rocket for now. The fuselage weighs more than the pressure vessel.

The parachute and electronics are complete(USWR Launchpad Altimeter). We still need to build the deployment mechanism.

EDIT:

Just re-weighed the components. The wood fuselage frame is over 1200 grams. Just realized I have some large pieces of styrofoam I can make into a fuselage section and nose cone for a huge weight savings.

Styrofoam would be excellent! Would you still have to weight the nose section for stability?

addstogether2 wrote:Styrofoam would be excellent! Would you still have to weight the nose section for stability?

Our launcher for that rocket has a launch tube and the HUGE fins should keep it upright. We shall see...

Cool, Please keep us all informed how it goes and any video / pics of the launch

Al

Sorry I've been dragging my feet on this one. I just couldn't live with the fuselage frame that weighed over 1200 grams! The new fuselage is a hollow-core styrofoam cylinder with a wall thickness of about 1 centimeter and weighs a little over 100 grams. The nose cone weighs a little over 300 grams but I plan on hollowing it out as well. The rocket is about 69 inches tall. My goal for this project is to get the entire rocket in launch condition under 1500 grams.

It is definitely coming along. Are you going to paint it?

1 cm that's quite thin, will it handle the re entry?

Al

And how many astronauts can fit inside the capsule?

With the launcher what is the hold down method?

I just came into some bottles similar.

Al

Good ,Happy.
Try it.

My picture.