Payload ideas

Basically I’m building a list of payload project that can be suitable for low and middle power rockets. I’m sure similar subject has been discussed here, but there may be some new ideas floating around, especial taking into account progress of the modern electronics. I’m interested in challenging educational projects exploring a physical effect or gathering some data or requiring some specific launch conditions etc , rather than just launching up a dead weight. So far my list is:

• Egg lofter
• Mechanical accelerometer
• Video/still cameras
• Beacon light
• Audio beacon
• RF beacon
• Electronic accelerometer/ altimeter

Any other ideas?
Thank you.

a few years back I recall reading/hearing about one group that were launching temprature sensors as part of an air quality study(looking for inversions), they got their data while the rocket was under the chute descending(slow response time on the sensor)

A GPS unit is not on your list. The fun or challenge of it is trying to fit it in a BT and see how many Gs it will take to make it fail. Your imagination and ingenuity are the only limit. It is very cool how all the science fiction gizmos have gotten so small and user friendly. I think there are way to many unused spaces on a LP and MP rockets. From the Nose Cone to E-bay to Voids with access covers on the BT. There is lots of potential. I am trying to secure a LZ on a local turf farm for E,F,G impulse motors. But if I can,t fly em high, I'll fly em loaded. :clap: I am always impressed with the ways I see people in the Rocket Hobby Make It Work and will share photos, plans, and info.

-Scott

NAR# 91379
L-0

The club "SEARS572' took a hint from the 'high power guys'. They're flying bowling balls, but we have more mid power flyers and wanted something to interest more people. We're flying billiard balls on E impulse motors once a year. Now, we can fly them anytime but, I think, next Saturday is 'the' day. Who's gonna keep it up the longest???

Gary
SEARS572.com
search the gallery for 'billiard ball'

A variation on the mechanical accelerometer is to replacement the weight arrangement with a piston arrangement that is glued to the nosecone. In this way you can measure air drag.

Bob

Two experiments I did back in the '70's went like this:

Taking air samples at different altitudes:

• Used vacuum sealed test tubes (my mom worked for the Red Cross)
• Had a cam device that would drive a sharp needle into the rubber stopper.
• This would allow the ambient air to push into the test tube.
• Then the cam would pull the needle out, sealing up the test tube.
• The rocket would return with an air sample that I could then have analyzed
• My experiment was to analyze air sample from the air near a manufacturing facility.
• Never got that much data as I couldn't afford the detailed testing, but the experiment was sound.

Create a working satellite:

• Take 4 incredibly cheap walkie talkies (that only work line of site) set to the same channel so all 4 can talk to each other
• Gut two of them to remove any unwanted bulk and weight
• Set one of them to receive only and the other in transmit mode
• Place the speaker from the RX talkie near the microphone of the TX talkie. This pair of talkies becomes your rocket payload.
• Give your partner one of the other talkies and have him walk through a convenient grove of trees until you loose contact with him
• Launch your rocket and as long as both parties are in line-of-sight of the rocket, party A can talk to party B as it would be relayed through the pair of talkies in the rocket.

Didn't work *great*, but it worked

This isn't scientific, but it turned out kind of cool. We found some small Christmas ornaments that were shaped like stars and fit in the payload of our Hi-Jaxx. The liftoff picture was our Christmas card and we fit enough ornaments in the payload bay that all my friends who have kids got a "shooting star" of their very own to put on their tree. The ornaments didn't cost much, we were going to shoot off rockets anyway, and -who knows? - some of the kids might get interested enough to try LPR on their own. Win-Win-Win.

In a similar vein, we're thinking about sending up some little American flags before the 4th of July this year to celebrate the "rocket's red glare".

Here's an extensive list of links that has plenty of ideas:

https://www.apogeerockets.com/education/rocket_payloads.asp

Thank you very much everyone. I hope there will be other suggestions, but for now the updated list as follows:

• Egg lofter
• Dispersed payload. I like the idea of “shooting stars” and little flags. Could be good project for kids. The challenge could be to disperse the payload over the required patch of land, which is especially challenging in windy conditions.

• Mechanical accelerometer
• Mechanical pressure meter to measure drag.

• Video/still cameras

• Beacon light
• Audio beacon
• RF beacon

• Electronic accelerometer/ altimeter
• Magnetometer. Magnetic apogee detector

• Sun seeking rocket

• GPS tracking

• Temperature/ humidity sensors
• Air sample collector

• Radio relay or “telecom satellite”. Very nice project. I can see several interesting possibilities here.

One from me:

• Tracking rocket using Doppler effect. I came across Chuck McConaghy’s report (https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=14116) for RF based experiment. And I did similar project myself (https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=14116) using audio frequencies. Despite similarities between RF and audio Doppler tracking, there are some significant differences I am planning to report about at some point this year.

I had a similar thread back when I first joined up with TRF. Some other mechanical payload ideas were mentioned. Can't seem to find it now...

Found it.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=8179&highlight=payload

Someone at a club launch loaded a large diameter rocket with 8-10 of those little parachute men toys. They came out on ejection and floated gracefully to the ground (in some instances, gracefully away and out of site). It was definitely a pretty cool site watching those little parachutes pop open in a line like that.

I remember a simple mechanical accelerometer that appeared in the Apogee newsletter about 2 years ago. It actually measures the maximum acceleration. If it is modified, it could measure the maximum air drag. It would be interesting to estimate the average acceleration by simply taking 1/2 the maximum acceleration. Then multiply it by the motor burn-time to estimate the burn-out velocity.

Then estimate the cross-sectional area of the nose cone drag device and a drag coefficient. Knowing the air density and the maximum air drag, one can estimate the burn-out velocity from the drag law. It would be interesting to compare the two burn-out velocity measurements.

Bob

How advanced do you want to get and how much do you want to spend?

Have you ever seen the thermal effects of mach busting rockets?

You could outfit a rocket with carefully placed (fast reading) thermocouples with an onboard data recorder (and a flight computer). Afterward the temperature logs of each surface could be graphed with the speed and altitude of the flight.

Yeah, probably more than you wanted but there really is a lot that can be done.

Peartree said:

How advanced do you want to get and how much do you want to spend?

Have you ever seen the thermal effects of mach busting rockets?

You could outfit a rocket with carefully placed (fast reading) thermocouples with an onboard data recorder (and a flight computer). Afterward the temperature logs of each surface could be graphed with the speed and altitude of the flight.

Yeah, probably more than you wanted but there really is a lot that can be done.

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In the first post I mentioned low and middle power rockets. I guess these are not exactly mach busting classes. Especially the low power ones. But still linking any measurements to altitude/speed is an interesting idea.

The main challenge I see in these classes is their limited lifting capabilities. We are talking about payload of 50...100 g max. Still a lot can be done within this mass limit subject to cost of course.

I’m interested in any kind of ideas. Before the next season there is time to be open minded and free thinking.

A standard streamer is a cheap way to hold an altitude contest.

Zack Lau said:

A standard streamer is a cheap way to hold an altitude contest.

Click to expand...

I mentioned above experiments with audio doppler effect I've been doing. In one of them I dropped a buzzer on a strimmer and measured its descent speed.