Hey everyone!
I'm working on some flight hardware. Specifically, i'm working on a custom Flight Computer and some separation gear (I'll post about those when I get some flight time). Anyways, rapidly iterating prototypes involves a lot of testing, and for that I need a reliable test bed that can do 1km flights all the way to 10km+ Flights and safely, reliably and quickly recover and reuse. That being said, if you're looking for a crazy, out there rocket design, this isn't it. This was designed purely to test hardware, most of the time 1 of 1 models, so any unnecessary risks were avoided, such as multiple deployment events or separation events. This also means the recovery system has to be extremely reliable and redundant.
Introducing Fusion:
Overview:
Fusion is a 98mm Minimum Diameter Rocket. It stands just over 6.4 feet (1.9 Meters), and can reach over 10km. It is a full fiberglass airframe construction, with G10 Sheet Fins.
Motor/Retention:
Fusion can fly on any 98mm Motor 1010mm in length or less that can adapt to a 1/4-20 thread (Aeropack Minimum Diameter Retainer). This gives us a healthy motor range of K-N.
As stated before, the motor will be held in place by a 98mm Minimum Diameter from Aeropack, I chose to omit the included eye bolt as this rocket won't utilize dual-deployment.
Fusion will mostly fly on commercial motors for reliability and repeatability reasons, but it was designed to accept 98mm single use EMK's for future projects.
Airframe/Nose Cone/Fins:
Fusion is based on a 4" G12 Filament Wound Fiberglass Tube, 0.12" in thickness. The Airframe is a solid piece (no fin can or switch bands), optimized for a peak thrust of 15kn. It will be sanded finely, painted over and finally enameled and polished. The nose cone is a 4.5-1 VK with a stepped aluminum tip from Wildman. The fins are of my own design, built on G-10 stock, nothing special, just built to be low drag and sturdy. The vehicle can reach up to mach 2.4, so it took a lot of redesigns to get the fins semi-optimized. Here is the data from open rocket:
Electronics/E-Bay:
The E-Bay is one of the most important parts of this build, as it needs to protect things I really don't want broken. It's a fully custom bay, using a 9 inch fiberglass coupler, two 1/4 inch threaded rods, a 3 1/2 inch by 7 inch balsa plate, and two aluminum bulkheads with rubber gaskets. The Main Flight Computer will be a Raven Altimeter, along with a Featherweight for tracking. The bay is designed to carry multiple Boards for testing as well, so the Raven may act as a redundant computer in cases where pyro events need to be tested on a custom board. In any case, there will always be a redundant computer with separate redundant charges.
Recovery:
The main chute is a 36" Iris Ultra HP. It is deployed with a BP charge, and sits in between the nose cone coupler bulkhead and main airframe. Recovering the payload in-tact is much more important than the booster, so in case of main deployment failure, a "small" bit of code on the flight computer can detect a too rapid or erratic decent, and fire a charge in between the aft bulkhead and motor retainer, shredding the airframe at that section and separating the payload from the nose cone. The reduced weight and jolt of this separation will (in theory) help to untangle the chute or allow it to catch some air. Even if it doesn't fully open, the newly reduced weight will allow it touch down at a safe-ish speed. The booster has a 24 inch plastic chute attached to the retainer wrapped in a nomex blanket, this will unfurl and keep the booster from going ballistic.
Parachute Specs:
Future Upgrade Ideas:
Cesaroni N2501 (Selected for high Altitude Flights)
Cesaroni N5600 (selected for high speed/mach flights)
Anyways, that's all I got. Let me know if you have any ideas for improving the design.
-Sam
I'm working on some flight hardware. Specifically, i'm working on a custom Flight Computer and some separation gear (I'll post about those when I get some flight time). Anyways, rapidly iterating prototypes involves a lot of testing, and for that I need a reliable test bed that can do 1km flights all the way to 10km+ Flights and safely, reliably and quickly recover and reuse. That being said, if you're looking for a crazy, out there rocket design, this isn't it. This was designed purely to test hardware, most of the time 1 of 1 models, so any unnecessary risks were avoided, such as multiple deployment events or separation events. This also means the recovery system has to be extremely reliable and redundant.
Introducing Fusion:
Overview: Fusion is a 98mm Minimum Diameter Rocket. It stands just over 6.4 feet (1.9 Meters), and can reach over 10km. It is a full fiberglass airframe construction, with G10 Sheet Fins.
Motor/Retention:
Fusion can fly on any 98mm Motor 1010mm in length or less that can adapt to a 1/4-20 thread (Aeropack Minimum Diameter Retainer). This gives us a healthy motor range of K-N.
As stated before, the motor will be held in place by a 98mm Minimum Diameter from Aeropack, I chose to omit the included eye bolt as this rocket won't utilize dual-deployment.
Fusion will mostly fly on commercial motors for reliability and repeatability reasons, but it was designed to accept 98mm single use EMK's for future projects.
Airframe/Nose Cone/Fins:
Fusion is based on a 4" G12 Filament Wound Fiberglass Tube, 0.12" in thickness. The Airframe is a solid piece (no fin can or switch bands), optimized for a peak thrust of 15kn. It will be sanded finely, painted over and finally enameled and polished. The nose cone is a 4.5-1 VK with a stepped aluminum tip from Wildman. The fins are of my own design, built on G-10 stock, nothing special, just built to be low drag and sturdy. The vehicle can reach up to mach 2.4, so it took a lot of redesigns to get the fins semi-optimized. Here is the data from open rocket:
Electronics/E-Bay:
The E-Bay is one of the most important parts of this build, as it needs to protect things I really don't want broken. It's a fully custom bay, using a 9 inch fiberglass coupler, two 1/4 inch threaded rods, a 3 1/2 inch by 7 inch balsa plate, and two aluminum bulkheads with rubber gaskets. The Main Flight Computer will be a Raven Altimeter, along with a Featherweight for tracking. The bay is designed to carry multiple Boards for testing as well, so the Raven may act as a redundant computer in cases where pyro events need to be tested on a custom board. In any case, there will always be a redundant computer with separate redundant charges.
Recovery:
The main chute is a 36" Iris Ultra HP. It is deployed with a BP charge, and sits in between the nose cone coupler bulkhead and main airframe. Recovering the payload in-tact is much more important than the booster, so in case of main deployment failure, a "small" bit of code on the flight computer can detect a too rapid or erratic decent, and fire a charge in between the aft bulkhead and motor retainer, shredding the airframe at that section and separating the payload from the nose cone. The reduced weight and jolt of this separation will (in theory) help to untangle the chute or allow it to catch some air. Even if it doesn't fully open, the newly reduced weight will allow it touch down at a safe-ish speed. The booster has a 24 inch plastic chute attached to the retainer wrapped in a nomex blanket, this will unfurl and keep the booster from going ballistic.
Parachute Specs:
Future Upgrade Ideas:
- Line Cutter/Reserve Parachute for Payload Bay
- Piston Deployment
Cesaroni N2501 (Selected for high Altitude Flights)
Cesaroni N5600 (selected for high speed/mach flights)
Anyways, that's all I got. Let me know if you have any ideas for improving the design.
-Sam
