The Future of Manned Space flight: My twisted Vision

OK, due to circumstances, distractions, life, liberty and the pursuit of snack crackers I haven't been posting much of anything lately. So, when I got the word that I could participate in the TRF "Future of Manned Space Flight" (https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=10387) contest last month I squealed like a little grrl and started the wheels turning.
Well, a month and a half later I realized I hadn't planned or built anything yet.

:y:

So, Wednesday I strode out to my shop determined to create my vision of the future. I was also determined not to do a lot of sanding, or sealing or anything that would take over a month to do. Scratching the hair on my chinny chin chin I pondered what would the future look like? What would it be like when we, as a species, become unfettered by gravity wells and orbital mechanics?
What would our ancestors build if they could construct any craft that strikes their fancy without the burden of practicality or common sense?

The answer was simple....
The spaceships would be 50's Retro!!!
(Who didn't see that coming?)

So here is what I did....

Starting with the idea of a tin toy type of craft I finally settled on a WW1 caterpillar tank type of shape.
Ok, half way there.
WHat to build it out of so I won't have to sand and seal for days on end?
Why not cardstock?
Ok, three quarters of the way there...

With a quick web search a free cardstock tin toy tank model turned up, which could be modified to my twisted needs.



The bit of receipt paper was the measured distance I would have to extend the airframe pattern.



There ended up being two versions, one that was pretty much a straight build of the Tin Toy model and the second with an extended fore airframe that molds around the front "treads".

The airframe is cut out then scored to ease folding the paper.

All bent and ready to glue.

The airframe folded and curved in preparation for gluing. The long flap was rolled using an ink pen across the palm of my hand, then gently curved to shape with my fingers.




A little thick CA along the inside of the seams and a little patience to get a good joint.

You're nuts.

But I think I like it.

More, please?

Jordan_RochellaSpace said:

You're nuts.

But I think I like it.

More, please?

Click to expand...

Thank you....
Yes, more is to come, but first a link to the TRF Future of Manned Space Contest.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=10387

Less than 15 days left in the competition, so hurry with those entries!
:eyepop:

Continuing the madness....

Here the upper side of both halves of the fore airframe are CA'd together.



This was the easy part, as you will see in the following steps.
:bangbang:

Should be a Hoot Pem-Tech!
A cardstock WW-1 Caterpillar Tank on MMX-II motors LOL!!! gotta love it.
I'm sure it'll go as well as my M85 vampire tank that flys on A10's. It's a great little PMC flyer LOL!!!

Can't wait to see were you install the motor mount. and the completed model. Should be a very interesting model.

Gluing proceeds around the airframe being careful not to crease the rounded portion. As was suggested in another thread, tabs would have made this step much easier. Live and learn.

Here is one of the two 1/4" lugs used as MM tubes. The thrust rings were cut from 3/16" launch lugs.

Before we go on to the next spellbinding step, I must explain a bit. MicroMax is a new experience for me, and being used to measuring rockets in pounds and ounces, the concept of dealing with 10 gram rockets was a bit of a shock. Having no idea if this project could fly on a single MMX motor or need three MMX motors (given it's draggy airframe), or if it could fly at all, I settled on a dual motor mount, the logic being, try one, if it ain't enough go for two.

So here is how I made the motor mount.
I cut two 1/4" LL's to a little over minimum length for the motor and thrust ring, with an overhang of aboot 0.2 inches. Two thrust rings of an arbitrary length were cut from 3/16" LL and a MMX motor was used to seat them to the proper depth. A toothpick was then used to CA them in place from the fore end of the motor tubes. After the CA had set I laid the MM tubes side by side and squared them up with a motor. Thick CA was dropped between the two, to join them.



And yes, you heard me right, I used thrust rings.
Yes Thrust rings!!
After all my preaching unto the evil of thrust rings I end up using them.
:shock:

The Universe will never be the same....

Pem Tech said:

Gluing proceeds around the airframe being careful not to crease the rounded portion. As was suggested in another thread, tabs would have made this step much easier. Live and learn.

Click to expand...

Do you have any flying animals Micromeister? I wouldn't be surprised. lol.


Cool Idea! I like the flying tanks. Although the size tanks I have in mind probably weigh to much to get off the pad on any motors I'm enabled to fly.

Pem Tech said:

Before we go on to the next spellbinding step, I must explain a bit. MicroMax is a new experience for me, and being used to measuring rockets in pounds and ounces, the concept of dealing with 10 gram rockets was a bit of a shock. Having no idea if this project could fly on a single MMX motor or need three MMX motors (given it's draggy airframe), or if it could fly at all, I settled on a dual motor mount, the logic being, try one, if it ain't enough go for two.

So here is how I made the motor mount.
I cut two 1/4" LL's to a little over minimum length for the motor and thrust ring, with an overhang of aboot 0.2 inches. Two thrust rings of an arbitrary length were cut from 3/16" LL and a MMX motor was used to seat them to the proper depth. A toothpick was then used to CA them in place from the fore end of the motor tubes. After the CA had set I laid the MM tubes side by side and squared them up with a motor. Thick CA was dropped between the two, to join them.

And yes, you heard me right, I used thrust rings.
Yes Thrust rings!!
After all my preaching unto the evil of thrust rings I end up using them.
:shock:

The Universe will never be the same....

Click to expand...

GOOD LORD:eyepop:

Now what are you going to do when CTI brings out their 6mm G's?

The next obstacle was to mount the motor mount. OK, rings won't work, it is a box. How about card stock bulkheads of some sort?
Well, then it occurred to me, will there be a need for MM support at all?
The back of the airframe has two overlapping flaps, and that should be sufficient to support a few grams once it is CA'ed.

This was all guess work folks, workin' without a net here.....
Once you see the finished airframe you will understand why I gave Rocksim a miss on this one.

The decision was made, cut a slot for the MM in the aft flap and install the MM TTW. But how do I keep the MM square with the airframe?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm..
How about putting a sleeve on the interior side of the MM to mate up with the aft flap.

Luckily I had kept the bits of 1/4" LL cut from the MM tubes. I cut them in half and split the four sleeves down the side.


Slip two sleeves over the aft of each MM tube, CA in place and we have a complete MM.

UPscaler said:

GOOD LORD:eyepop:

Now what are you going to do when CTI brings out their 6mm G's?

Click to expand...

Yes, I know....
Much shame is heaped upon me head.

On to the mounting!
After a bit of cyphering I came up with something close to center on the aft flap/MM mount.



You will notice that the airframe hasn't been glued in this photo. That is because this was the third build and learned my lesson the second time.
But this is the order the original build is in, so for the sake of transparency I present the steps as they happened.

TaDa!



Once the opening is cut, and a relief cut is made in the second flap you drop in the MM to check the fit. See how sloppy this version was? The pics in the contest thread are of the prettier sister.

This is what we have up to now.



A lumpy box with holes in it.

woooooo.....

Now we get to the beauty part.
The aft flap/MM is not square to the centerline of the airframe. It is angled.


So, how do you mount a botched together MM into this ugly box so that the MM is along the centerline and not square with the flap it is attached to?
Simple, you squirt in a blob of thick CA onto the MM, glue the final flaps together, hold the ugly box upright and try to eyeball the MM straight till the glue sets.

Right?


Here is a beautiful shot of the CA bottles on the bench with a blurred airframe in the foreground while I do just that.

As I was patting myself on the back for my ingenuity I realized I had forgotten to install the nose ballast.

DOH!!!
:y:

But the first question was, "How much ballast do I need to make sure this madness is stable?"
I have no idea.
On a whim I snagged a few pellets of lead from the pile and threw them on the scale. This is what I got.


So, here is a blurry shot of one of the sister ships with the 4.5g of ballast CA'd in the nose BEFORE gluing the airframe closed.


Tell ya' what, my skills for photography and building were off that day.

FINS!!!!!!
This is one of the best parts for me. What kind of ridiculous fin shape and arrangement would look most absurd?
The airframe looked vaguely aquatic at that very moment, for some strange reason, and shark fins came to mind. Using a set of french curves I snagged a few months ago I traced out a cool looking pattern.




The line at the base of the fin is the mounting tab. Fold the tab and glue to the airframe. Learned that one the hard way on the first build.
Here they are all cut out with bent tabs.



The tabs were aligned so that the outside fin tabs faced inwards and the middle fin tab was cut and folded in both directions.

As it will happen with my stream of consciousness building techniques the fins were not measured against the airframe until after they had been cut out. But it all worked out. The fins were shifted back on the airframe as far as they would go and glued into place.



And here she is with all six fins in place and the 3/16" LL attached.

I love it! That's awesome looking!

and did i see some hobbytown USA brand CA in there?

UPscaler said:

I love it! That's awesome looking!

and did i see some hobbytown USA brand CA in there?

Click to expand...

Not sure, but I know the Pink bottle CyA (odorless) cost him $5.49 And the blue one (Regular thin I believe) cost you $4.99, now Layne, didn't your mom teach you to remove the price tags before you took the picture for the Internet? :roll:

Anyway, Great Build!

UPscaler said:

I love it! That's awesome looking!

and did i see some hobbytown USA brand CA in there?

Click to expand...

*In my best Wizards voice*

Pay no attention the the CA behind the curtain.

Now for the moment of truth.....
Will this untested, unsimmed, ungainly, improvised creature fly?
Here he is on the pad, loaded with two MMX motors. This wasn't the first flight but I liked the picture better.

Lift Off!!!!!!
We have lift off on a single MMX motor and there was no fiery death involved.


A close-up of him in flight.


You may notice that the flight path is a bit of an arc, but it isn't what you would assume it to be. More with the next post.

Here is the second flight on a single motor. I got lucky on this one and caught six frames during the entire flight. Since the rocket is so small any attempt to use the "action" setting on the Nikon fails miserably. To circumvent this problem I set the shutter speed on 1/800th, continuous shooting and allowed the camera to select the f-stop. The result of which is you get more shots of the flight but the camera doesn't refocus between frames to keep the subject sharp.



The arc we noted previously wasn't the arch over and go cruise missile behavior one would expect. Instead he flies in a tight corkscrew. At this point I wasn't sure if this was caused by the angle he left the rod, asymmetrical thrust from a single motor, a fin alignment issue or his general flight characteristics or possibly some unknown and horrible result from tampering in Gods domain.

The close up.


Note that you can see the MMX motor still burning.

Pem:
If I were building this Odd-Roc there are several things I'd likely approach in a much different way then what you've done so far.

First; I'd use a stuffer tube running through the entire length of the tank body. We have a number of different size tubing for such work. in this case T3 would make everything very easy to work with. Might even have offset it into another sized to what I hope will be the cannon barrel and use it to stuff in the recovery streamer (Likely 1/2" x 10" Teflon tape. Yeap...Micro need a recovery system also. Tumbling Tanks just doesn't sound right now does it? LOL!!!!!

Second: splice the dual motors into a manifold leading to the stuffer. I used a similar system to power an in-line 6 motor cluster 1/170th XB-70 PMC. Photo below.

Lastly; i'd go with clear .010 clear lexan fins just to keep the overall outline of the model clean.

Micro Odd-Rocs are tons of fun, and with just a little gathering of materials can be an easy way to make some outstanding flying machines.

Oh yes...Of coarse of got a bunch of flying critters but back to this Great little Tank build. I may have to try to locate this cardstock printout to give one a try myself.


Edit:
Very Nifty Flight pic PEM LOL!!! see these mighty little motors can surprise and delight can't they

Continuing the same flight:


Note the the tight spiral of the exhaust trail.

The close-up.

And up we go...


The close-up.


Can't really tell, but I believe the motor has burnt out and the delay is burning.

Micro, can you clarify?