Mars Lander

[snuggles]

Sandman has a slick idea for the lander legs, look for the thread.
You gotta add nose weight to the thing, I found out the hard way, I launched mine in DEAD calm winds and it worked fine. The next time it was probably under 10 MPH and it went squirrelly and crashed. I added weight to it but I'm almost scared to launch it again, cuz it looks so good. There's a little "battle damage" but that's OK.
Hope this helps
Mark T

 

[user 13]

As I said in the other thread, I think the lander is best built stock. I think Semrocs Carl said that nose weight will not solve all the problems. The leg sweep is important, as is leg wobble. I could be wrong, but I think that the upgraded centering rings in the semroc kit might be moving the CG aft just enought.

A couple of questions Mark.

Did you seal the balsa legs? How many coats of paint did you put on? Did you use white/yellow glue or epoxy.
I'm assuming you made the leg mod.

Mine balances out 7/8 in below the top of the BT-100, about the RCS motor with a new C6-3.
My leg span is 13 in free. It weighs in at 4.7 OZ.

Hope this helps.

Oh yeah, please post a photo! I love to see MarsLanders!

Mark

 

[SanRocketMan]

My current build is the SEMROC Mars Lander. On my Mars Lander, I upgraded the Motor mount from (A-B-C size motors) to (D-E size motors) incorporating Estes's twist on engine cap assembly, and fitted the twist-on cap with a plastic thrust bell (Estes Part #3165-one of six piece, the bell shape). I also made swivel U/I - connections at the foot pads so the pads would swivel with some friction to be perpendicular to the landing/display surface. As designed, they were not realistic just glued directly to the struts fixed at an angle. I also (Against Code = No Metal Parts) used (4) identical ball point pen springs imbedded into the struts where the rubber bands were to go. Worked very well. Weight (4 sinkers) were added to the nose cone to achieve stable flight.

 

[BABAR]

I also (Against Code = No Metal Parts) used (4) identical ball point pen springs imbedded into the struts where the rubber bands were to go. Worked very well.

What a great idea!

Thanks for sharing it!