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Here are the Thunderstruck pictures that Jackson took:

https://picasaweb.google.com/108029437614875368057/ThunderStruck4?authkey=Gv1sRgCICtysTcydugXA&feat=email

Lots of pictures of other...

Jackson's rebuilt and repainted Ultimate Darkstar on an M 1790 Skidmark.

So sorry to be missing all the fun. Sounds like a great launch.

Au revoir!

Some quotes from educater Jean Piaget:

"Each time one prematurely teaches a child something he could have discovered himself, that child is kept from inventing it and consequently from...

Eric, your son is as cute as it gets! Sorry I missed chatting with him, but I did see the flight as I was pulling up. Looked awesome. Congrats.

The other issue here is heat. Commercial motor cases can get up to 200 degrees F on the outside, and still meet certification restrictions. Electronics don't like this level of heat. Adrian from...

I have two files, both with dates that are different from the December 2008 date of the file that Lucas uploaded to google docs. I have a first edition, which is dated October 10, 2009 and a Part 2,...

Gosh, its so nice to see how concerned you are with our motor box. I’m getting the warm fuzzies here. But, we’re not ready to P in the box just yet. Gotta do an O first. Walking up the alphabet...

Got mine, too.

But in this case, I have a feeling that Tim might be more nervous than me that I might miss the sale, at least if last year’s results mean anything. IIRC, I had newtons for the...

Thanks, Jeroen. And thanks to Gary for testing it out in the first place. This has the potential to be another beast of a motor. I am looking forward to coming to face to face with it.

It does happen. Here’s a picture taken by Neil McGilvray at Rockets magazine of our Darkstar after an N5800 cato. Less dramatic than Gary’s because the action happened higher and further from the...

Yes, it is a non-trivial calculation. That is why he did it recursively. Remember, he’s only a sophomore in high school. He hasn’t yet had calculus, much less differential equations. But, the...

No sure what vent hole size to use? Jackson made the attached vent hole size calculator for his minimum diameter N5800 project. The spreadsheet uses pressure data from RockSim to calculate the...

Chris,
Sorry to hear about the shred. Great try, and I hope you do try again. The rocket looked awesome coming off the pad.

Your deployment system sounds very innovative. Nice way to handle...

Mike Dybul was at Bong today, so I doubt the flight was his. I believe he is planning for next year. I'm wondering if the successful flight was made by Mike Passaretti. He posted his project on...

Chris,
I'm sorry to hear about the shred. It was a great attempt. When you are able, please post the flight analysis. Your project has already taught us all a great deal. I appreciate your...

My apologies – that was semantics. What I meant was: the fins look great. Its too bad that the effort as a whole failed. Ex post, it is easy to find the one small thing that led to a downfall. ...

I know I will too, Bryce. Thank you for sharing what you learned with us. Precisely because we all approached this from the perspective of starting with a N motor build and working up, instead of...

Thanks for the pictures. Those fins look awesome! Its too bad it didn't work. This was a valiant attempt.

Jared,
Thanks for posting the failure analysis. I agree that there is lot to be learned from each of these projects, and from the summation of all them.

Can you post before-flight pictures of...

Good luck Chris! We're rooting for you. The rocket looks great.

Word from the Aeropac virtual classroom on the Harvey Mudd team is:

N5800 failed. We are guessing separation at end of motor burn

Landed in flat spin. Could be shear pin entering...

Assuming that quals are similar everywhere, that was probably the point. *Either the writers of qualifying exams want to make sure that future PhDs have at least some common sense, or they're just...

It's not hijacking. This is a fine place to discuss min diameter N5800 projects in general. We like the discussion.

An all metal design might be the answer. That was suggested more than a time or two when we took the remains to a joint TWA/Woosh launch this past weekend for show and tell.

We started to...

Our home club Woosh (Wisconsin Organization Of Space-modeling Hobbyists) gave Jackson an award for his valiant efforts on this project. Sather Ranum presented the trophy to Jackson at a launch...

This article does a good job of explaining the basic physics, and lays out the calculations in a way that is easy to follow and compute. http://www.apogeerockets.com/downloads/Newsletter291.pdf
...

Thanks Greg! We will be at Bong this Saturday.

Thanks to everyone for such great information and ideas. Even if we don’t respond to everyone’s questions and suggestions, please know that we appreciate them.

The one question that we have to...

Thanks for the video Ryan! We didn't know that anyone had filmed it. It was good meeting you out in the Black Rock.

Its Lubin.

Great idea! Unfortunately, we don't have any of the original material, so we can't do this test. Is there another way to determine if the recovered fins have experienced excessive aero heating?