Would this motor work for what I'm doing?

[blackbrandt]

If I could upvote posts I totally would have upvoted that.

 

[ActingLikeAKid]

I'm late to the party and I'm pretty sure this horse is long-expired, but I brought a really nice stick, so....

This is really the same sort of thing that everyone's been saying, but I'll try to distill it: You can't just build a rocket that goes to space. Period. With basic skills and some research online, you could probably get close to a mile up, which would absolutely give you some cool video - hell, going 1000 feet up looks really cool. But to get to space - black-sky space - is something that people spend years and tens of thousands of dollars working towards.

Assuming your maverick attitude and your experience so far, you would need to:

First build and fly a rocket to get your Level 1 and Level 2 certification. I've seen these combined, but only for people who have been building for a while. So spend a couple of months building an L1 rocket, fly it at a local club, then spend a few months building an L2 rocket, fly it at a local club, then start the L3 process. You will need an experienced advisor for this - someone to make sure that your build is going along the right track and you're going to be successful. You'll need experience soldering and you'll need to draw out your schematics for your altimeter and deployment controls.

And after you get L3, which you could theoretically get up to 10,000 feet or so, you can start planning for your space launch. And you will need deep, deep, deep pockets. To get that sort of altitude, you're talking about a single-use motor that will costs thousands of dollars. You'll need to buy or fabricate a launch tower. You'll need a launch site in the middle of nowhere - like "Nevada desert" middle of nowhere.

With buckets of resources, a group of highly-skilled folks tried to do this on a fast track and (spoiler alert!) failed spectacularly.
[video=youtube;BJppeRWSD94]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJppeRWSD94[/video]

One final note - and an explanation for some of the friction you may be seeing: This is something that some folks here have been working toward for YEARS, and coming in saying "hey, I'd like to do this" like it's no big deal .... It's a bit like coming into a running forum and saying "Hey, I want to win the Boston Marathon. It sounds like fun, I've never been to Boston, and it would be a cool picture"....where simply qualifying to run Boston is a life goal for a lot of runners.

TL;DR: If you really want to do this, start small. Find a local club. Don't reinvent the wheel.

 

[tomsteve]

heres a thought,rain:
how about starting smaller than a 100k foot attempt? theres people strapping them 808 keychain cameras on rockets and getting pretty good video. with a g80( or maybe even a g75) you could get some pretty good altitude and good footage. you can learn building techniques and what rocket design will gain the most altitude, plus you could get into some electronics and learn how they work,too.

back when I got into HPR in the late 90's( I didn't know anything above estes engines existed until attending an RC show and a couple guys had a tent set up with some really wicked rockets) I was in a Tripoli club. between others in that club and the folks at the store I purchased supplies from, they all helped me tremendously in both construction techniques and learning about motor thrust and how all that works, CG and CG importance, and pointed me to good reading material to learn and understand more.i would have had a lot more "accidents" if it wasn't for those people sharing their knowledge.
I got out of the addiction.....errr....HOBBY for a few years but somehow got bit by the AP bug back in the spring of this year. I forgot a lot of what I learned back then. I haven't joined a club yet but will be soon so I can get back to L1 and possibly L2 in the future, but this site has really helped me remember old stuff and learn new stuff,too!

I had a LOT of fun with those guys out launchin. I haven't been to near as many launches as the folks here, but something that blew me away is, me being in Michigan, drove out to airfest in Kansas in 2000, and felt like I was with family. very welcoming and helpful. I wanted to launch a THOY nighthawk I had on all 7 29mm motors but wasn't sure what combination to use- maiden flight and I was going big!. idk who the vendor was, but he took the time to tell me what would be a good combination,why, which ignitors to use, and even wrote up a sketch of how to hook at the ignitors together so they would all light on the pad.
THAT is what you can experience by joining a club.

plus, if ya check out the different build here alone of high altitude rockets, they worked their way up.

have you seen the movie "October sky?"

 

[mccordmw]

If you want a simple start, try an Apogee Aspire kit for about $20.

https://www.apogeerockets.com/index.php?main_page=product_motor_info&products_id=707

Launch that on an Apogee Medalist F10-8 for about $30. You might have to search around for F10-8 motors in stock. They seem hard to come by.

That combo will hit a mile high or more. Put a cheap 808 camera on it for some beautiful video. It's a good start in mid-power rockets to see if you can build it well enough to take the rigors of mid-power flight. Also, a good build will get a clean flight with little rotation. It takes attention to detail and practice. If you can't do that and get a good, stable flight, you won't ever be able to step up to L1 flights let alone L2 to L3.

That Aspire, if built well, can also break mach with higher thrust motors.

This video shows an Aspire on an F10-8. The fin alignment probably isn't ideal, so there was a lot of rotation. That robs you of altitude and give a dizzying video.

[video=youtube;6kYl9rxHTlc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kYl9rxHTlc[/video]

If you get that result, you need to hone your building skills. I've built a ton of low and mid power rockets and I still get a spinner every once in a great while.

This launch on a G80 likely broke mach since it seemed to fly straight and true. That was an excellent build by whoever did it.

[video=youtube;m0P--6VEW6I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0P--6VEW6I[/video]

For reference, here's my Trajector on an F15-8 with a cheap, $9, 808 camera. Only goes about 1200', but the flight has no rotation, so it's a clean vid.

[video=youtube;aHIybHO6ZQk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHIybHO6ZQk&list=PLATTzdsvVjzeMmxXeitTfg1V KkxiuZnoj[/video]

 

[bclark989]

Brian, this is one of the best replies I have EVER read on this forum!

I think you just earned an H410VM!

Haha, thanks! Although I don't think I have anything that can handle one of those at the moment. I have two PSII rockets but I built them like...PSII rockets =/

 

[ttabbal]

I thought about posting that "How hard can it be" video, I thought it was a pretty interesting look at what some of the challenges are even with a big budget.

TL;DR: They made some pretty expensive mistakes trying to do it themselves, then asked for help and got a decent launch, with a recovery failure destroying everything. Worth the watch if you haven't seen it, even with the spoilers.

 

[rAiN_Twist]

I thought about posting that "How hard can it be" video, I thought it was a pretty interesting look at what some of the challenges are even with a big budget.

TL;DR: They made some pretty expensive mistakes trying to do it themselves, then asked for help and got a decent launch, with a recovery failure destroying everything. Worth the watch if you haven't seen it, even with the spoilers.

That's a good idea. Do you know the absolute lowest height where you can see black?


rAiN Twist - YouTube

 

[bclark989]

That's a good idea. Do you know the absolute lowest height where you can see black?


rAiN Twist - YouTube

I had that in my first post:

After a quick internet search, seeing the black of space during the day seems to require an altitude of anywhere from 50k' to 70k' depending on conditions and location. For the purposes of this (for lack of a better word) conversation, the troposphere is where weather takes place, and its boundary with the stratosphere (the next layer up) is called the tropopause. The elevation of the tropopause varies according to Wikipedia from 30k' at the poles to 56k' at the equator. If you want a GoPro to capture an image with black and some curvature of the earth, sticking one on a fairly optimized single stage N or O rocket would probably get you there. But that is still not a simple or cheap project by any means.

 

[rAiN_Twist]

I had that in my first post:

After a quick internet search, seeing the black of space during the day seems to require an altitude of anywhere from 50k' to 70k' depending

Oh yeah, sorry I forgot. Thanks.



rAiN Twist - YouTube