What new things does the hobby want to see?

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SpaceBound2020

SpaceBound2020

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Low, mid, and high power, what new and exciting things would you like to see in the hobby? Kits, motors, launch rail designs, motor performance, etc. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and it would be really cool to see some new things and I'm curious what ideas everyone else has.
 
I want to see a new way to print waterslide decals that include colors plus white / gold / silver etc.. The old way was to have someone with an ALPS printer do it, but that printing process/hardware was discontinued and now they are hard to find and prohibitively expensive to maintain. Gordy at Excelsior used to do mine.

Not being able to print white really took a lot of steam out of my upscale/downscale interests.
 
SpaceBound2020 said:
Low, mid, and high power, what new and exciting things would you like to see in the hobby? Kits, motors, launch rail designs, motor performance, etc. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and it would be really cool to see some new things and I'm curious what ideas everyone else has.
Click to expand...
What do *you* want to see?
Marc_G said:
I want to see a new way to print waterslide decals that include colors plus white / gold / silver etc.. The old way was to have someone with an ALPS printer do it, but that printing process/hardware was discontinued and now they are hard to find and prohibitively expensive to maintain. Gordy at Excelsior used to do mine.
Click to expand...
I hadn't thought of this at all, but man you are right: some new decal technology would be very much welcome. It's wonderful that we can print our own decals at all, but the limitations are very frustrating.
 
A cheap, self homing guided recovery system for LPR.
I know about the Apogee development, they've been working on it for a long time.
And I don't think it's going to be cheap.
Love my JLCR, but it's always good to have alternatives and competition in the market.
 
Better rocket friendly onboard video cameras. A BT-50 (even better BT-20) stand alonenose cone based camera with a shroud with a rear pointed lens would be great. You could build it extra long if required for room for the battery and electronics.
 
neil_w said:
That's an interesting one. Why would you need this, and when are existing apogee-detection technologies (baro, especially) not good enough?
Click to expand...

At some point the atmosphere is too thin for baro sensors or the flight lasts too long for accelerometers to be very accurate.

GPS could solve that, but it has its limits as well.

I'd like to know more.

kuririn said:
I thought there are products out already.
Let me check.
Click to expand...

Maybe!

The Entacore AIM XTRA might have just added it as a feature. More research is required.
 
I have a rocketry specific inventory smartphone app idea that I’d love to get made. But I don’t have the funds to have it done or knowledge to do it myself. I’d really love to have a way to track all my rocketry things in one place. Excel works but it’s just not very elegant.
 
watheyak said:
At some point the atmosphere is too thin for baro sensors or the flight lasts too long for accelerometers to be very accurate.
Click to expand...

If you're looking for apogee detection and reasonable accuracy, baro is good up to at least 60K. If you have the funds to go higher than that, I'd recommend looking at some of the units with a GPS and a full IMU... they're not cheap, but neither is an "O" motor.
 
Manufacturers making parts like common nose cones available in bulk packs at a reasonable price. For example, I have a hard time finding enough Big Bertha cones for even a small kit run, and I have a number of designs that need that NC. Frustrating, but not insurmountable.

Estes to start shipping outside the US. For the local cost of a Saturn V and Saturn 1B I can buy a black market kidney.

Someone in Oz to import Q-Jets. It's disappointing to not be able to recommend them for our kits.

I'm sure I'll think of others...
 
More Sci-fi, fantasy, odd rock - maybe upscales of old designs
Things like what Q-Model or K&S produced
New kits to expand selection from companies like Fliskits, Squirrel Works, Shrox
 
Walter Longburn said:
A 10 second burn C motor with a neutral thrustcurve would accelerate an Estes Big Bertha at less than ½G. It would be fun to just glue some fins to a motor like that though.
Click to expand...
It would be near optimal sustain thrust for a 1.8 Oz, rocket, including the motor, assuming you got it up to optimal speed first.
 
kuririn said:
A cheap, self homing guided recovery system for LPR.
I know about the Apogee development, they've been working on it for a long time.
And I don't think it's going to be cheap.
Love my JLCR, but it's always good to have alternatives and competition in the market.
Click to expand...
Just curious what is the Apogee one in development? I don’t think I’m aware...
 

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