Dollar Store Rocket
Summer/Fall 2018
Summer/Fall 2018
A week before junior year classes started, I woke up one morning and Josh Richman asked if I wanted to go on a hike or build a rocket. The hike sounded pretty good, but after we watched a video by The King of Random, we set out to build our own rocket instead! We scoured Ithaca for items we could find to build the airframe and recovery system, buying most parts from Dollar Stores.
For the rocket motor, we started with an Estes E class motor to test out the airframe, and decided to build our own solid motors later on. The body was made out of a squirt gun tube, with a plastic champagne flute sanded down as the nosecone, corrugated plastic sheets as the fins, and some PVC fittings rigged together to fit the motor. The payload was a bouncy ball, fondly named O-ball-ma, and we intended to recover him with a plastic tablecloth parachute system. We had issues stabilizing the rocket, but discovered a novel way to measure the aerodynamic center. This let us add enough mass to balance the rocket and it was stable. After some rocket calculations, we realized the apogee reached would require launch from a remote location.
About a week in to school, we drove a couple of hours towards Canada to find a field safe to launch in, and even built a little reusable launch system. Hiding from farmers, we launched the rocket and recovered it successfully! We noticed it rolled more than expected in flight, but we suspect the fins weren’t completely centered. Our next project is to make our own motor, and build a second stage. Check out the pictures and launch video below.
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For the rocket motor, we started with an Estes E class motor to test out the airframe, and decided to build our own solid motors later on. The body was made out of a squirt gun tube, with a plastic champagne flute sanded down as the nosecone, corrugated plastic sheets as the fins, and some PVC fittings rigged together to fit the motor. The payload was a bouncy ball, fondly named O-ball-ma, and we intended to recover him with a plastic tablecloth parachute system. We had issues stabilizing the rocket, but discovered a novel way to measure the aerodynamic center. This let us add enough mass to balance the rocket and it was stable. After some rocket calculations, we realized the apogee reached would require launch from a remote location.
About a week in to school, we drove a couple of hours towards Canada to find a field safe to launch in, and even built a little reusable launch system. Hiding from farmers, we launched the rocket and recovered it successfully! We noticed it rolled more than expected in flight, but we suspect the fins weren’t completely centered. Our next project is to make our own motor, and build a second stage. Check out the pictures and launch video below.
To comply with ITAR regulations and NDAs, all Astranis, Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman and SpaceX pictures shown are available publicly online