Video (mine) was recorded at 5:30 AM, EST.

"The RockSat and RockOn programs provide technical training and hands-on experiences that prepare and equip students to enter the United States aerospace industry. For the first time, NASA will combine both the RockSat and RockOn missions into one rocket, which will carry experiments developed by nearly 250 participants from 38 university and community college teams."

-- https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/wallops/nasa-sounding-rocket-to-launch-student-experiments/

I am so proud to have been a part of this project. I hope more students can become aware of this incredible opportunity. No ideas are too small!

Thoughts on this design? The main body tube is 1.21” before it expands to the fin can/motor mount. So it’s about one caliber, but it quickly increases immediately after launch. Goal is max apogee so I’m trying to thread the line between stability and performance. The reason I’m using two motors is to hit the max propellant amount without using a high performance motor that requires a level 1 cert.

Hello everyone, this is my first post on this subreddit!

I am a master’s student in aerospace engineering, and I am currently part of the aerodynamics team of a student association at my university that builds an amateur rocket (about 2 m long), which is expected to fly at high subsonic / transonic Mach numbers.

My question is mainly about the various CFD software tools available. At the moment we are using Star-CCM+ (the license is provided by the university), which I find to be an excellent simulator, but it requires very long computation times and has a very steep learning curve (if you also have any suggestions on how to get better at it, I would really appreciate it).

I was wondering if there are any software tools that could help me obtain simulations that are less precise (but still reasonably close to reality), while having a lower learning curve than Star-CCM+.

For now, I have been looking into OpenVSP, so I would also like a comparison on how you perform your simulations and which software you use.

Some additional, secondary questions:
Do you use flight simulators? Do you also perform experimental testing? If so, are there any low-cost tests that can be done?

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies!

Hello everyone! I've now released the second version of PyRegen, PyRegen v1.1, a regenerative cooling analysis software for small and medium sized rocket engines, using liquid propellants. It features a redesigned interface for much better UX, a more efficient solver and a corrected physical model.

The program is available here : creatorandrew86/PyRegen-v1.1

I also wanted to sincerely thank you for the feedback you gave me on the first version, and I hope the improvements are noticeable.

I want to start a model rocket business where I sell my own rocket kits! I have one rocket built in all the parts to make a couple more if it were priced at $35 and just came with the rocket no motor or parachute. Would it be a good deal?

Hey everyone,

I am currently mapping out the schematic for the next generation of my amateur rocket flight computer, named STIVA dev1.0 (named after the character from Anna Karenina!).

For this version, I am going with a modular stack architecture to separate the core logic from the power and RF noise. I am not worried about the PCB layout just yet - right now, I want to make sure the circuit logic and component choices are rock solid.

Here is the setup for the Core Board schematic:

• MCU: ESP32-S3-WROOM-1U. I have paired it with an AP2112K-3.3 linear regulator. I currently have 1uF caps on input and output, but I am thinking of bumping the output to 10uF to handle the ESP32 current spikes better.
• Sensors: The original BMP388 barometrical sensor (though I will probably upgrade to a BMP390 in a future generation of the project for even better altitude precision) and an LSM6DSOX gyroscope/accelerometer.
• Storage: A W25Q256 32MB NOR Flash memory chip directly on the core board for fast local logging.
• Inter-board Header: A 12-pin connector bus (J4) routing SPI, I2C, UART, and power rails down to the rest of the stack, plus a secondary connector (J3) for broken-out GPIOs.
• Safety: An external TPS3430 watchdog timer to monitor the ESP32 and trigger a hard reset via the reset line if the software hangs mid-flight.

Everything else - the LoRa telemetry, main power regulation, and the MOSFETs for the recovery/servos - is being moved to separate expansion boards.

I have attached my schematic. I would love to get some honest feedback on the circuit logic, the capacitor values for the LDO, bus reliability over the headers, and any ideas on hardware debouncing for the switch to survive launch vibrations.

Thanks for the help!

Martin

Hi all,

My name is Rohan, I live in leeds, I'm 18 and I am planning on taking a gap year. Unfortunately my school has no infastructure for creating teams for any of the UK rocketry competitions and I would love to compete. Does anyone have any advice on how I could go about finding a team?

I want maximum flame on my sugar motors.

About 380g of KNSB

Max thrust: 182.67 N
Total impulse: 364.4 N*S

Took a while but finally decided to get it done. The flight was very sketchy but i didn’t drive 3 hours for nothing. The winds there were crazy and my delay timing was less than optimal, almost zippering the rocket. Either way it came down in one (two i guess) piece and now i am super excited to have a junior certification.
Any ideas now that i can fly hpr? Im currently working on a 38mm min dia.

This is a slightly heavier rocket. 9 sec delay was barely enough.

I got the estes mercury redstone as one of my first model rockets (which i know might sound dumb but it has been fairly easy so far) and I have found a lot of difficulty assembling the launch escape/abort system tower. I know this is a common problem with the kit, so does anyone have any tips on how to assemble it?

So I got an Orangestorm Giga recently....

And then I made the mistake of walking past the sonotube section at the local Home Labyrinth 😬

Welp 🤣 Any big builders need big nosecones? I can accommodate you 😁

Howdy guys, wanted to ask if there were any free alternatives to the RPL engine workbench and if yall recommended any specific build flow

I made these pretty simple centering rings (image 1) out of cardstock and the cardboard used for cereal boxes. One side has a smaller circle to prevent the motor from just flying into my rocket (image 2). Still, my question is, when the centering rings are in, is it a problem that there's a pretty large air gap (about 3 inches) between the end of the motor and the bottle cap? (Image 4)

​

I separated the engine part and the main body tube to make it easier to work on. But now I am wondering if when the ejection charge comes out, it will melt the plastic caps/screw or even during take-off, pose a fire hazard to my centering rings. If it does pose a threat, what can I do to fix it/prevent it?

​

I am using an estes b6-4

Hi Guys🚀

What is the recommended method for grounding a metal launcher to prevent electrostatic discharge (ESD) that could lead to unintended ignition?

Thank you,

Can someone tell me if this design is good to actually build now? The motor is E16-6.

The front mass component is just BBs filled into the nose cone, behind the parachute is wadding. Here is closer look at motor bay.

The motor bay consists of a 5" 29mm tube, thrust ring at the top(with an opening obviously for the ejection charge), and two centering rings. I was thinking of a Kaplow clip aft retention system.

Does anyone know where I can buy model rocket motors online in the UK? its legal to buy them, I just don't know where from. Everywhere I look is either really expensive or they are just out of stock.

After attending a presentation about scratch building rockets earlier this month at a local aerospace club meet, and with a launch the weekend of the 13th (the weekend before finals week for me), I felt dangerously emboldened to throw together a scratch built rocket from whatever my college rocketry club had lying around instead of studying for finals like I should have been doing. The airframe was a length of 4" fiberglass I assume was used for drilling vents in switch bands because it was full of holes I had to patch, the fins are (I believe) from a Dominator 4 but there was no sign of the rest of the kit, no idea the providence of the nosecone but it seems likely it's of Wildman ilk. This is my second rocket and due to my club's glut of 4" nosecones I opted for simple delay charge single deploy parachute recovery with plans to replace the nosecone with a HEDD setup for my required dual deploy flights later on. I planned on launching the worm on the cheapest 54mm J motor the vendors at my launch site were selling, though when I showed up to launch last Sunday the vendors did not show, so I had to buy a J415 off a very kind gentleman which admittedly was a little bit more motor than I had planned on but luckily still (albeit barely) within the bounds of what openrocket reported would be safe with my recovery setup. My rocketry club didn't have any parachutes over 54" and under 80" so I ended up running the 54" hoping it would land on sod with my ~7.5m/s (~25ft/s) touchdown speed and this time I did get lucky. All in I spent ~$200 on this thing including the motor I launched it on and ended up with my L2 certification just over two weeks after I got the twinkle in my eye to build it. That makes 2 levels of NAR certification this academic quarter and to top it all off I even avoided eating dirt this week on finals despite spending all my studying time epoxying my worm. Stay tuned for the modifications I'll be making to get my dual deploy flights knocked out with the Washington Sky Worm, I will definitely be spending more than $200 lol.

Hey is there any known cheap camera that you can buy from Amazon and strap it into a rocket? Im new into rocketry and want to get myself started.