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- Aug 27, 2011
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Interesting idea.I guess you just want to get the rocket to come down smoothly and not spin like crazy so you get a good stable camera during the descent. This will be interesting to see how that works. Looks promising so far!
I have not tried, but thought that maybe a small streamer on a long external shock cord from the tip of one fin would help keep the rocket from spinning around under a single chute. Kind of like a tail on a kite. The main chute does all the heavy lifting but the streamer just keeps the rocket oriented.
I wonder if you were to build a rocket that is large enough (and powerful enough) to have an onboard gyroscope, would that give a stable camera platform on the up and down?
Great thought.This sounds like a great project!
I remember the demonstration where the professor would sit in a swivel chair while holding a spinning bicycle wheel in front. When the prof tilted the wheel to one side the gyroscopic force from the spinning bicycle wheel would rotate him one way in the swivel chair. When he tilted the wheel to the other side, the force would reverse his rotation on the swivel chair.
Couldn't a similar idea be applied to a rocket? If the onboard gyro sensed the rocket starting to spin one direction, the flight computer would command a servo to tilt the onboard spinning flywheel to stop the spinning.
Would this work? Or are there other, easier ways to absolutely stop a rocket from spinning?
I certainly may be wrong, but I think on most descending rockets with a single shock cord MOST of the spinning is because there is minimal INITIAL resistance to asymmetric rotational forces, so it starts spinning faster and faster one way, winds up the single cord up to a point that it can’t rotate any more, gets asymmetric the other way and unspools the coiled cord, kind of a vicious cycle.The motor needs to go fast with non-trivial torque, and that needs a fairly beefy battery. So motor and battery are large in both volume and weight. So, as BABAR says, not an LP project. Well, that's my guess, anyway.
Anyway, BABAR, what do you plan to do about spining, i.e. around the virticle axis? The three anchor points shoud reduce rocking, I would think, but what about spinning?
I believe gyros would work, but probably not practical for LPR (or my budget!)
And it makes spotting the rocket in the sky easier if there's any sun to glint off the tape.I like the mylar for Recovery purposes as if it lands in the grass any bit of shininess can always help make it easier to find. It also makes a contrasting color.
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