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Author Topic: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet  (Read 1763 times)

RocketMan

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BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« on: September 25, 2014, 06:42:14 PM »
At the BALLS launch that was held earlier this month, an amateur two-stage rocket flies to over 118,000 feet.  Launch site was the Black Rock Desert dry lake bed in northern Nevada.
"Kate" narrates the flight.


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cassandra and sara's daddy

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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2014, 06:59:29 PM »
Holy smoke I am in awe and amazement


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Ben

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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2014, 07:13:22 PM »
That was totally awesome! Thanks for posting Rocketman!

Any info on size of the rocket? I couldn't tell scale at all from the video.
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Hawkmoon

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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2014, 07:54:55 PM »
That's 22 miles -- I guess not quite enough to achieve low earth orbit, but impressive nonetheless.
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RocketMan

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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2014, 07:57:44 PM »
Sorry, no design info as yet.  The builders are supposed to report on that at the next OROC meeting in Beaverton, OR this weekend.  Too bad I now live 2800 miles away on the other side of the country, otherwise I would attend and report back on the rocket specs.
If I come across anything on another venue, I will update the post.

eta:  Link to info on the electronics packages used on the flight.  Scroll down the page a bit.  Images don't load, unfortunately.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2014, 08:04:43 PM by RocketMan »
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If there really was intelligent life on other planets, we'd be sending them foreign aid.

Conservatives see George Orwell's "1984" as a cautionary tale.  Progressives view it as a "how to" manual.

My wife often says to me, "You are evil and must be destroyed." She may be right.

Liberals believe one should never let reason, logic and facts get in the way of a good emotional argument.

230RN

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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #5 on: September 25, 2014, 08:40:46 PM »
Amazing.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2014, 08:48:53 PM by 230RN »
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RoadKingLarry

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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #6 on: September 25, 2014, 09:07:21 PM »
Rocket surgery! Cool!
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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2014, 03:41:37 PM »
Before my FlisKits Corona 2 was damaged in the post-divorce moving, I had thought about scrollsawing progressively larger fin kits to see how many stages it could handle without getting hopelessly unstable.  Unfortunately, even a simple 2-stage requires pretty careful wind watching and a fast parachute for a good recovery where I usually launch.  (~1000ft N-S dimension, right at a mile E-W, but I usually launch from the west end of it.  Not that hard to recover from neighboring properties, but the intermittent tree cover can make it hard to figure out where one actually landed.  Found a single stage over 200 yards form where I was sure it should have been.)
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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2014, 03:58:27 PM »
Holy Cow....   Researching the booster (N5800) rocket they used for the first stage.....    Now I know why that thing was able to climb so friggin' fast....    And why it topped out at Mach 2.88....    Depending on the propellant, that thing generates over 1000 lbs peak thrust....

And I also rediscovered why I never got into high power rocketry...   DAMN but those things get spendy.....
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Hutch

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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #9 on: September 26, 2014, 10:22:26 PM »
Daaaaaaaamn.  That's some piss-poor real estate, right there.

Can one of our whiz-kids tell me how far the horizon is at 118k feet altitude?  My math skillz have left the building with Elvis.
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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #10 on: September 26, 2014, 11:39:30 PM »
Quote from: Hutch on September 26, 2014, 10:22:26 PM
Can one of our whiz-kids tell me how far the horizon is at 118k feet altitude?  My math skillz have left the building with Elvis.

WolframAlpha puts it at 421.5 miles.
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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #11 on: September 27, 2014, 03:00:10 AM »
Quote from: Marnoot on September 26, 2014, 11:39:30 PM
WolframAlpha puts it at 421.5 miles.


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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #12 on: September 28, 2014, 12:09:24 PM »
And they're worried about us shooting down airliners with our 50 Cals! [ar15]

Cool video!
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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #13 on: September 28, 2014, 12:37:33 PM »
Hmmm . . . I wonder if they've been contacted by purchasing agents from North Korea or Iran yet . . .
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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #14 on: September 30, 2014, 08:52:32 AM »
Quote from: Hawkmoon on September 25, 2014, 07:54:55 PM
That's 22 miles -- I guess not quite enough to achieve low earth orbit, but impressive nonetheless.
My understanding is that the difficult part is achieving speed for orbit, not height.
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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #15 on: September 30, 2014, 10:29:59 AM »
They hit 2/3 of escape velocity roughly


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It is much more powerful to seek Truth for one's self.  Seeing and hearing that others seem to have found it can be a motivation.  With me, I was drawn because of much error and bad judgment on my part. Confronting one's own errors and bad judgment is a very life altering situation.  Confronting the errors and bad judgment of others is usually hypocrisy.


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AJ Dual

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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #16 on: September 30, 2014, 10:40:56 AM »
Quote from: drewtam on September 30, 2014, 08:52:32 AM
My understanding is that the difficult part is achieving speed for orbit, not height.

The other issue as I see it is guidance. The rocket needs the proper angle or flight path to start transitioning it's vertical climb to horizontal movement towards a circular orbit.

However, when you add guidance to high-powered rocketry, that's when the .gov gets really froggy.  Maybe it's different in the upper reaches of the high powered community, but IIRC, there was a part about NO GUIDANCE being really important in all the rules you got in the model kits.
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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #17 on: September 30, 2014, 08:38:02 PM »
AJ is correct, no guidance allowed, even among the Level III and the experimental folks.  There has been some experimentation with simple sun-seeking and gyroscopic flight correction, the idea being to keep the rocket on an upward trajectory.  But that is pushing the limits of what is allowed.
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If there really was intelligent life on other planets, we'd be sending them foreign aid.

Conservatives see George Orwell's "1984" as a cautionary tale.  Progressives view it as a "how to" manual.

My wife often says to me, "You are evil and must be destroyed." She may be right.

Liberals believe one should never let reason, logic and facts get in the way of a good emotional argument.

drewtam

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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #18 on: September 30, 2014, 10:41:40 PM »
Quote from: RocketMan on September 30, 2014, 08:38:02 PM
AJ is correct, no guidance allowed, even among the Level III and the experimental folks.  There has been some experimentation with simple sun-seeking and gyroscopic flight correction, the idea being to keep the rocket on an upward trajectory.  But that is pushing the limits of what is allowed.

Allowed by who? On what authority? BATFEIEIO?
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AJ Dual

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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #19 on: September 30, 2014, 11:15:07 PM »
Quote from: drewtam on September 30, 2014, 10:41:40 PM
Allowed by who? On what authority? BATFEIEIO?

My understanding, after being lucky enough to be bumped to first class on an overbooked flight, and sharing a seat with Elon Musk is that the paperwork is a real bitch...
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RocketMan

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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #20 on: October 01, 2014, 06:24:55 AM »
Quote from: drewtam on September 30, 2014, 10:41:40 PM
Allowed by who? On what authority? BATFEIEIO?

FAA.  It used to be somewhere in FAR 101, but things were updated a few years back.  I should look it up.
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If there really was intelligent life on other planets, we'd be sending them foreign aid.

Conservatives see George Orwell's "1984" as a cautionary tale.  Progressives view it as a "how to" manual.

My wife often says to me, "You are evil and must be destroyed." She may be right.

Liberals believe one should never let reason, logic and facts get in the way of a good emotional argument.

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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #21 on: October 01, 2014, 08:53:44 AM »
I hope some day I get to experience the transition from blue to black.
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Re: BALLS! Over 118,000 feet
« Reply #22 on: October 01, 2014, 09:08:13 AM »
Quote from: AJ Dual on September 30, 2014, 11:15:07 PM
My understanding, after being lucky enough to be bumped to first class on an overbooked flight, and sharing a seat with Elon Musk is that the paperwork is a real bitch...
Like a time share or were laps involved?
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