Saturn Explorer Post 1010
Engineering Exploring Program
Launch - January 2, 2017
Cassini Spacecraft 

Project Home

Team 2 On Monday, January 2, members from both teams traveled to the Walkersville park launch site for test flights. The day was cloudy with light rain, but little wind (around 5mph). We got off 4 flights.

Objectives

  • Test a weighted down Red rocket with E30 and then E20 motors.
  • Test the Pink rocket with E9-6 Estes black powder motors.
  • Get more data on streamer and parachute sizes descent times.

Lessons

  • It was very wet, with a little rain by the end of the launch, but it did not seem to effect the flights. Could not see deployment in mist.
  • The Red rocket went too high at 365g. The E30 went higher than the E20 at the same weight. It may be possible to add enough weight to bring the Red rocket down to 775ft by adding about 40g with the E20.
  • The igniter for the E20 sputtered.
  • The E9s seemed to fly straight because of little wind.
  • The Red rocket had tangled chute and streamer in the first flight.
  • The Pink rocket had its streamer rip off - perhaps a DQ. We need to tape the edges of the Mylar streamers.
  • Descents were way too long, try 12 inch chute.
  • No eggs broke, and we recovered all rockets.
  Pink Rocket  Red Rocket   

Launches

Team Rocket Flight Motor Weight Alt Recovery Altitude Time Comment
2661 Pink  (video) 1 E9-6 292g 11 15/2", 4x56" 811ft 62sec nice flight, too long descent
2661 Pink  (video) 2 E9-6 300g 11 15/2", 4x56" 797ft 24sec lost streamer, chute didn't fill
2662 Red  (video) 1 E30-7T 365g 10 15", 6x60" 948ft 52sec chute/streamer tangled
2662 Red  (video) 2 E20-7W 365g 10 15", 6x60" 882ft 67sec way too long descent

Altimeter Data (Excel format)
Altimeter Data Chart

Pictures

 Preparing                                                                                 Team 2661
 Preparing    Team 2661

Copyright 2016 Explorer Post 1010
Updated: January 10, 2017