I'm toying with the idea of having an interesting payload challenge:
A little module (maybe 40mm diameter or so) with a LEGO astronaut and some supporting electronics including a data logger, an altimeter and an accelerometer.
It would have some pretty strict rules about how it can fly, something like Can't exceed 6 Gs for more than 1 second, and Can't exceed 10 Gs ever.
The electronics would keep a permanent log and would declare the astronaut deceased if the limits are exceeded.
Then it might be fun to run a little toy space program with a few astronauts, competing for maximum altitude, flight duration etc. while trying not to kill any of them.
I was originally thinking this would be mostly a reliability engineering challenge, trying to figure out how to reduce the rate of rocket failures to the point where I wouldn't be worried for the safely or the model crew. But now I've realized that flying a payload with limited G tolerance is actually an interesting design challenge, with typical model rockets experiencing much higher G forces than would be OK for a crew mission.
Does anyone have any thoughts about how you would design a rocket for maximum altitude but with a tight limit on maximum acceleration?
A little module (maybe 40mm diameter or so) with a LEGO astronaut and some supporting electronics including a data logger, an altimeter and an accelerometer.
It would have some pretty strict rules about how it can fly, something like Can't exceed 6 Gs for more than 1 second, and Can't exceed 10 Gs ever.
The electronics would keep a permanent log and would declare the astronaut deceased if the limits are exceeded.
Then it might be fun to run a little toy space program with a few astronauts, competing for maximum altitude, flight duration etc. while trying not to kill any of them.
I was originally thinking this would be mostly a reliability engineering challenge, trying to figure out how to reduce the rate of rocket failures to the point where I wouldn't be worried for the safely or the model crew. But now I've realized that flying a payload with limited G tolerance is actually an interesting design challenge, with typical model rockets experiencing much higher G forces than would be OK for a crew mission.
Does anyone have any thoughts about how you would design a rocket for maximum altitude but with a tight limit on maximum acceleration?