Greetings, everyone! I'm still pretty new around the forum here. Just getting back into rocketry after quite a dry spell. I first got into it about 20 year ago and even that recently, people were building strange things, launching them with all manner of motors. Anything you could think of got a motor strapped to it and would be launched. Little stuff, big stuff... We used to do stuff that would be considered "dangerous" by todays standards. I see a lot of cautionary remarks floating around. Anyone with enough sense is going to have a reasonable amount of caution when sticking the equivalent of an e-match in a tube of black powder and setting it off.
I used to see fins shredded, recovery failures, catos, etc. at every big launch I went to. It was part of the learning process. I understand that the internet is spreading a lot of knowledge around, but nothing compares to first hand experience when building something with your own hands, especially when it's something you've modified or built yourself. There's always that "will it work?" factor.
So I ask of you, where has the experimental and adventurous spirit gone? Is everyone really worried about what might happen? Are there still people out there who don't see a failure as a bad thing, but an opportunity to learn? And I'm not talking about you experimental motor guys.
It's a matter of risk versus reward... and the unavoidable fact that we DO live in a more litigious, more scrutinized society nowadays...
The "adventurous spirit" is still there, if you know where to look for it, and depending on how you define it. If you define it as "shoving a bigger motor in it and seeing what happens" or other such stuff that smells of the "hey Bubba, hold my beer and watch this" kind of a$$-grabber-y that some folks seem to equate to doing something "experimental", then yeah, that's pretty well frowned upon by the "rocket hobbyist community". Unfortunately, the internet and YouTube and even the so-called "science-y channels" coverage of rocket activities is full of that stuff (regular and responsible "scientific experimentation" forms of rocketry are "too mundane" for their purposes) and unfortunately, the pro-nanny-state ambulance-chasing news media and lawyers and regulators are always splashing some story or other on the news about some *idiot* somewhere that managed to blow his hands off, or burn himself to death, or blow his house up, or burn down his house, or the authorities did some huge SWAT-type bomb-squad operation to prevent it because "Bubba had 'huge' amounts of 'dangerous chemicals, rocket fuels, and explosives" in his basement or garage or whatever, and therefore was some sort of menace to society...
In short, we don't need that kind of "experimentation". That's not a "spirit of adventure", it's a$$-grabbing stunts.
There's outlets for experimentation, as you pointed out, with the amateur motor makers the most obvious... and approved methods, materials, and procedures to participate in those activities... There's also plenty of "adventures" that occur on the rocket range, regardless of power level, that occurs simply because "you can't anticipate everything". The unexpected can and does happen, sometimes for good, or ill. The internet is a wonderful tool to dispense knowledge, information, and experience, and like any other tool can be used for good or bad. There's also the fact that we DO have a LOT more knowledge, understanding, and tools, methods, materials, and designs widely available now than were commonly available in the past, and thus less "true innovation" or 'stuff that's never been tried before' now than in the past, when LOTS of things were 'untested territory' or had "never been done" before...
There's also less tolerance of having "not done your homework" and taking advantage of such tools, information, knowledge, experience, etc... IOW, if you do something stupid or dangerous that pretty much everyone knows (or reasonably SHOULD know) is stupid or dangerous, it's probably going to be and frankly SHOULD be called stupid or dangerous... very little truly "new" stupid or dangerous stuff is actually done-- most of the time something that nearly turned out VERY bad was either 1) poor judgment from the get-go, usually at several levels or by several people and/or 2) could have been avoided by following established rules, procedures, practices, design, etc...
I'd say there's PLENTY of room for true experimentation-- "heads up" flights or test flights done in private with limited spectators to minimize risk of truly "innovative" or "highly experimental" designs, methods, materials, etc. can be a very good thing, providing one has done their homework and gathered all available information beforehand and objectively weighed their approach and expectations and have a reasonable assurance of succeeding at the desired goal in a safe manner... OTOH, I don't think a$$-grabber-y can be too strongly discouraged, censured, or opposed...
Later! OL JR
