Our Children's Future: An LDRS34 Teen Group Project

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conman13

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Hello Everyone,

This will be the build thread for “Our Children’s Future” (Henceforth called OCF).

Some quick stats:

Diameter: 10.75 inches
Height: 195 inches
Estimated empty weight: 95 Lbs.



Mason Hazzard came up with the idea for this rocket while talking about how cool it would be to do a group project together. Mason Hazzard noticed that AMW had some tubes on sale for a dirt cheap price. We threw these into an Openrocket file, played around with some things, and Our Children’s Future was born.


Who is working on what on the project?

Matt Fletcher (blackbrandt) will be working on the altimeter bay.

Cody Smith (codysmith) and David Nagy (littlemisterbig) will be in charge of “laminating” each airframe with a coat of epoxy. Cody and David will also be in charge of assembling the motor mount into the airframe, attaching the fins and making the fillets.

Connor McGrath (Conman13) Is responsible for the construction of the motor mount and overviewing the “lamination” of the airframe. He will also be painting a large portion of the rocket.

Jim Scarpine (jimzcatz) is the man who made this project possible. He volunteered to be our mentor for this project, and will also be donating the motor that this will be flying on. Thank you Jim!








Airframe: The tubes will be from AMW. They are cardboard with an OD of 10.75” and ID of 10”. We will be “laminating” each tube by it a thin coat of epoxy. We will joining the tubes together to form 2 lengths that are 76.5” long. The rocket will have 2 separation points.

Nose Cone: We have contacted Python Rocketry to build a nose cone for us. It will be a 4:1 ogive cone coming in at 40”. It will have space that will be made into a electronics bay for our tracker.

Fins, Bulkheads and Centering rings: Connor will be designing all of these on
CAD and Matt will use a CNC machine that he has access to for cutting them out. All of these will be ½” plywood and be given either a layer of fiberglass or epoxy.

Couplers: We are purchasing 4 body tubes. 3 will be used for the body of the rocket and the fourth will be cut down to make our couplers and Electronics bays. Because the body tube has a wall of .375” it will work perfectly for the use as couplers.

Charge Wells and Thrust Plate: Christopher Nilsen contacted us through facebook asking to be part of the project. He sent us some pictures of rocketry parts he machined out of aluminum and he can be called a professional. His work was amazing! He will be machining the charge wells and thrust plate out of aluminum for this project. Some of his work is attached below.

1525621_682051605225963_713368303190964082_n.jpg10397291_682051478559309_1980398600954684682_o.jpg10494935_682051475225976_1176837527136547568_o.jpg

Electronics: We will have Full redundancy for deployment. We will be using an RRC3 and either an RRC2, Eggtimer flight computer or a Telemetrum. An Eggfinder or Derek's mini GPS tracker will be mounted in the nose cone for tracking Purposes.

Motor: Jim Scarpine has donated a motor for us to fly this rocket on. It is an EX motor cast by Burl Finkelstein. The motor is classified as a N2961. This is a very baby N, However it will bring this rocket quite high. It s a gorgeous bright Blue propellant.



The Open Rocket design file will continue to change throughout the project as we tweak weights and change small aspects of the design. The new File will always be kept updated below.

View attachment Our Children's Future 1.1.ork
 
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Epoxy, by itself, adds little or no structural value. Please explain your rationale for painting the tube with it.

This is not a flame. You are a bunch of younger folks working well outside your experience level - a good thing to grow ability. So this (and other questions) will be part of the learning curve.
 
Epoxy, by itself, adds little or no structural value. Please explain your rationale for painting the tube with it.

This is not a flame. You are a bunch of younger folks working well outside your experience level - a good thing to grow ability. So this (and other questions) will be part of the learning curve.


Our reasoning was that the thin epoxy will soak into the cardboard tubing and when the epoxy cures it will stiffen up the tube adding some extra strength. This was our best option as far as strengthening the tubes goes because we cannot afford to glass the entire rocket and doing the epoxy coat will be better then leaving the tubes untouched.
 
we cannot afford to glass the entire rocket
If you find yourself making semi-necessary substitutions because of the size of the rocket, you might want to scale it down a notch.

$20 for 4 yards of 6oz glass at US composites. For the tube that's all you'll need. Another 2 yards for the fins and you're at $25. I hope your pockets are deeper then that!

:pop:

Alex
 
If you find yourself making semi-necessary substitutions because of the size of the rocket, you might want to scale it down a notch.

$20 for 4 yards of 6oz glass at US composites. For the tube that's all you'll need. Another 2 yards for the fins and you're at $25. I hope your pockets are deeper then that!

:pop:

Alex


Dang thanks Alex hadn't seen fiberglass cloth that cheap anywhere. We most likely will glass it now :)
 
I would think that all of these decisions have to be agreed to by Jim (Scarpine) because he is not only your mentor but will be flyer of record for this flight. It should be his call not yours alone right? He will be assuming all responsibility and liability for this flight.

As far as I understand the Tripoli Research Rules some of you (all of you?) will not even be able to be on the field during setup and turning on the altimeters unless you have completed the TRA mentoring program.
 
I would think that all of these decisions have to be agreed to by Jim (Scarpine) because he is not only your mentor but will be flyer of record for this flight. It should be his call not yours alone right? He will be assuming all responsibility and liability for this flight.

As far as I understand the Tripoli Research Rules some of you (all of you?) will not even be able to be on the field during setup and turning on the altimeters unless you have completed the TRA mentoring program.

What you can't see is that we have talked to Jim about every single detail of the rocket on Facebook so he is well aware of what is going on and being done. We are all TMP and will be able to be at the away pad to setup everything.
 
What you can't see is that we have talked to Jim about every single detail of the rocket on Facebook so he is well aware of what is going on and being done. We are all TMP and will be able to be at the away pad to setup everything.

That is good. Best of luck to ya.
 
Very cool project . That is some heavy tube at 14lbs for 51" .3.29lbs /ft and sono is 1.5lbs/ft . Just an fyi and you can get a 12' section of sono for that price and no shipping
 
Very cool project . That is some heavy tube at 14lbs for 51" .3.29lbs /ft and sono is 1.5lbs/ft . Just an fyi and you can get a 12' section of sono for that price and no shipping


It is some heavy tubing! However the sono tube would definitely have to be glasses and the nosecone would be much more expensive. David or Cody is picking the tubes up as the live in new Hampshire.
 
My 10" sono tube rocket as built will be about 50lbs unless I calculated something wrong . But that is what the SIM said. As of now inputting weight of everything and adding the weight of the glass
 
Here's what Whitney Houston had to say about rocketry:

I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them launch away
Show them all the motors they can stuff inside
Give them an N class one to make it easier
Let the children's launches remind us how we used to be
 
Here's what Whitney Houston had to say about rocketry:

I believe the children are our future
Teach them well and let them launch away
Show them all the motors they can stuff inside
Give them an N class one to make it easier
Let the children's launches remind us how we used to be

:):):):):):)
 
Epoxy, by itself, adds little or no structural value. Please explain your rationale for painting the tube with it.

This is not a flame. You are a bunch of younger folks working well outside your experience level - a good thing to grow ability. So this (and other questions) will be part of the learning curve.

Sealing the tube for paint. No extra strength is really needed when built right, as it will be.
 
Just an FYI to everyone following this. The group has full reign on this build. I have come to find out they are alot smarter than I am about some things. Don't read anything into that. I am a LONG time flyer and a Tripoli TAP. I have never built an unsafe, unstable rocket. We have all done stupid things (brainfarts), but we won't go there. EVERYTIME they change the design, or even think about it they seek my input. They will build this as they (as a group) decide to. I also seek any advice from the forum, after all thats why we are all here. I was flying unglassed paper rockets on large clusters and M motors for years, if built right it works. If they want to glass it, that is their call. I wish them all luck and I am proud to be a part of it.
 
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Conman , Blackbrandt , I have a Rocketman R19 plus D'bag you can use for the flight . I also have a 17 foot military cargo chute ( plus tons of smaller chutes ) and a 40 foot length of 9/16 tubular kevlar I will donate for the flight ( as long as I get the back ) if you need / want them. Also if you need glass , I have a 40 yard roll of 7 oz ( I beleive ) satin Sglass for sale real cheap to you. Contact me for more info or any questions you have.

Eric
 
Conman , Blackbrandt , I have a Rocketman R19 plus D'bag you can use for the flight . I also have a 17 foot military cargo chute ( plus tons of smaller chutes ) and a 40 foot length of 9/16 tubular kevlar I will donate for the flight ( as long as I get the back ) if you need / want them. Also if you need glass , I have a 40 yard roll of 7 oz ( I beleive ) satin Sglass for sale real cheap to you. Contact me for more info or any questions you have.

Eric
Hi Eric, Thank you for volunteering to donate the recovery components. We however have already secured recovery equipment. I will however, talk to the group about the fiberglass,
Thanks again,
 
Well we heard back from Python Rocketry and are glad to announce that he will be donating one of his amazing hand crafted pieces of art to use on this rocket! We can't thank you enough Dan :) We are having professional decals made up of your logo by Mark at Stickershock to cover our rocket in;)
 
I may get Crap for this , but I really don't care . I think it's great that four kid and I say that with respect . That your coming up with a project and doing it . Good thinking out of the box . You have a good mentor ( he is one of my taps ) . Also think it's great that others are donating parts needed for this very big build . Keep focused and plan everything out and ask questions . Some answers will be hard but in the best interest to the hobby . Have fun . Maybe one day we can drag race these two monsters mine 10.5 ft tall 10" tube fin. . And put the biggest motor mount in . One day you will thank me
 
I may get Crap for this , but I really don't care . I think it's great that four kid and I say that with respect . That your coming up with a project and doing it . Good thinking out of the box . You have a good mentor ( he is one of my taps ) . Also think it's great that others are donating parts needed for this very big build . Keep focused and plan everything out and ask questions . Some answers will be hard but in the best interest to the hobby . Have fun . Maybe one day we can drag race these two monsters mine 10.5 ft tall 10" tube fin. . And put the biggest motor mount in . One day you will thank me


Thanks Chris. We are looking for all the constructive Criticism we can get on this build so we can learn more about the techniques of building these enormous rockets. Were glad that we can have people like you supporting us and willing to listen instead of immediately telling us were too young and this is out of our reach. I have been silently following your build and we are using it to help with some parts of our build. Who knows maybe someday we will be able to drag race them ;)
 
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Ugh... Connor... I think you meant Someday... This WILL NOT be ready by Monday :p
 
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