Yeah but that's with a parachute. I meant with actual rocket boosters.Apogee offers a kit with legs that extend for an upright landing.
https://www.apogeerockets.com/Rocket_Kits/Skill_Level_5_Kits/Star_Lift_Mega_Lander
Is it possible to make a model rocket land vertically like the spacex rockets?
Yeah but that's with a parachute. I meant with actual rocket boosters.
That's what i thought but assuming you had a lot of money and experince could it be done?Not easily, because there's no aerodynamic stability at very low velocity, plus going downward your Cp is now leading Cg, unless you do something to change configuration.
You'd probably need a gimballed motor with a controller to keep the rocket upright. Ideally your main engine for landing would be a cold thruster so you would not start a fire. If you had a reservoir of gas, compressed greatly, you might be able to use it for attitude control also, which might not require a gimbal on anything.
That's what i thought but assuming you had a lot of money and experince could it be done?
around 2000. I'm assuming that it would be done with MPR motors (but you would need alot of stabilizing equipment).Define "A lot of money"
around 2000. I'm assuming that it would be done with MPR motors (but you would need alot of stabilizing equipment).
I'm not saying that I'm going to do it, i was just asking if it could be done by someone with the nessicary funds and experience.$2000 is a lot of money to you, thats pretty insignificant to the cost of developing a vertical landing hobby rocket. As Steve said above the aerodynamics have their say, and a long burning, throttle-able, gimbaling motor is a must, a hybrid might work, but a liquid motor (which is outside our realm of rocketry) is the best for this application. A cold gas thruster as was mentioned might work as well, but the weight for this type of vehicle would probably make a cold gas thruster expensive (small vehicle, lots of specially made parts). Get with Jim Jarvis and George Gassaway and ask them how much they have spent on their various vertical flight (upward only) experiments, they had to develop the vehicle, the electronic controls, pretty much the only parts they used that are commercial are the motors, and commercial hobby rocket motors don't have many of the characteristics for vertical landings.
I'm not saying that I'm going to do it, i was just asking if it could be done by someone with the nessicary funds and experience.
Anything is possible with enough money sooner or later.....
As for if it could be done by any of us here, I don't know but several people are working on technologies that might be useful such as finless rockets with gimballed motors, stabilization, etc.
We have some very experienced and intellegent individuals that together could do some mind blowing things.
Damn! I stole your idea. Unknowningly at the timeSomething that might work, be less expensive, and be interesting, would be to convert the rocket to an electric drone for landing.
[...]Now, a vertical landing under thrust is not new, and can be done simpler than what Joe is trying to do. Dave Hein has.... as far as I'm concerned, DONE IT! He used unique "barstool" type of 4-legged design with the gimbaled engine at top. It was powered by an F10 motor. The rocket weighed more than the sustainer thrust of the F10, but the F10 thrust spike was good enough to power it into the sky a few dozen feet, then slow down and begin to descend vertically under gimbaled thrust. [...]
He removed some weight from it for flight #7, to fly higher and not be thrusting for so long after landing, but it flew too high and the engine burned out long before it could land. That shows a fine line for getting the thrust to weight just right for that kind of thing, so it needed to weigh somewhere in between.
Apogee offers a kit with legs that extend for an upright landing.
https://www.apogeerockets.com/Rocket_Kits/Skill_Level_5_Kits/Star_Lift_Mega_Lander
Nice,
I was planning to look at the Mars Lander mechanism, as well as those couple of Estes models that land as a tripod - I think one has an alien head? Ideally, or course, one would want to be able to build with three of these vertical landing boosters, but I think with the Apogee kits I'd be looking at $400 for parts (a little pricey) and three composite F's (a little powerful even for my winter field, and potentially over my Level 0 certification limit).
I wonder if the plastic parts of the Apogee model design could be scaled down a bit and built with wood for 24mm motors? Or two 18's and a 24. That would be nice.
I am guessing it's not feasible to develop and sell a Space-X model like the Falcon Heavy (though there is a version out there) without cooperation and licensing from Space-X? They are the only makers of a flying Falcon-9 model that I am aware of.
Although it might be nice to get cooperation from SpaceX, I doubt that creating a model of one of their rockets requires any kind of licensing. That’s not the market they’re concentrating on.
Steve Shannon
The plastic model industry has had licensing issues with military planes. So, if you didn't get official permission from SpaceX, you'd risk legal repercussions. Would SpaceX care? I kind of doubt it as all their images are public domain.
I was planning to look at the Mars Lander mechanism, as well as those couple of Estes models that land as a tripod - I think one has an alien head? Ideally, or course, one would want to be able to build with three of these vertical landing boosters, but I think with the Apogee kits I'd be looking at $400 for parts (a little pricey) and three composite F's (a little powerful even for my winter field, and potentially over my Level 0 certification limit).
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