MMX Orbital Transport

[user 13]

I haven't built a rocket in almost a decade, But seeing the anniversary of Carls passing I thought it might be time. To honor him I wanted it to be a Semroc kit.

I went over to erockets and saw the Micro Orbital Transport! Very cool! I know Carl did not bring this kit to market, but it's a Semroc.

Lots of parts for such a small kit!

Simple motor mount is done, but the assembly jig is a work of art by itself!

A simple nosecone attach. Jam 1/4 of a toothpick into the nosecone trapping the kevlar cord with white glue.

The fins are laser cut, very nice. The wings go together well.

The jig makes things easy, important with the small size of the parts. Wings on.

The bottom/end fins are on, with the original late '60s OT.

More in a few days.

 

[Mugs914]

That is really cool! Is the orbiter meant to glide?

 

[user 13]

It is, and it's tiny! I'm not sure how well or how far, I think it will be lucky to make it to 75ft.

EDIT:

The Erockets page list the altitude as approximately 220 ft!
I find that surprising and daunting. The glider can travel far from that altitude.

 

[kitbasher99]

I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the performance of this kit. If you have any questions about the kit, drop me a line. I worked on the development of the kit.

 

[Antares JS]

I have one and have flown it a couple of times. It is lucky to make it to 75 feet. I remember it said 80 feet on the package. It definitely is not going anywhere near 220.

 

[user 13]

I think you will be pleasantly surprised with the performance of this kit. If you have any questions about the kit, drop me a line. I worked on the development of the kit.

Very nice!

You did a good job on the engineering of the kit.

How does the glider glide? The original kits glider stayed up a while, I would hate to lose this little gem!

 

[Antares JS]

Very nice!

You did a good job on the engineering of the kit.

How does the glider glide? The original kits glider stayed up a while, I would hate to lose this little gem!

It glides just fine. I haven't had it go high enough for the glider recovery to be a problem.

 

[kitbasher99]

We originally painted the first glider completely red just to make it easier to see, but didn't have any problems with it at all. It behaves just like the original does, only on a smaller scale of course. We felt the assembly jigs would be a great help with such a small kit. we were so impressed with them that we have started including jigs in our original sized version also.

When you go to trim out the glider, don't glue on the nose cone, or the motor shroud, untill you have it trimmed out to make it easier to add weight at either end.

 

[Rktman]

I haven't built a rocket in almost a decade, But seeing the anniversary of Carls passing I thought it might be time. To honor him I wanted it to be a Semroc kit.

I went over to erockets and saw the Micro Orbital Transport! Very cool! I know Carl did not bring this kit to market, but it's a Semroc.

Lots of parts for such a small kit!

Simple motor mount is done, but the assembly jig is a work of art by itself!

A simple nosecone attach. Jam 1/4 of a toothpick into the nosecone trapping the kevlar cord with white glue.

The fins are laser cut, very nice. The wings go together well.

The jig makes things easy, important with the small size of the parts. Wings on.

The bottom/end fins are on, with the original late '60s OT.

More in a few days.

Very cool kit and build!

 

[user 13]

We originally painted the first glider completely red just to make it easier to see, but didn't have any problems with it at all. It behaves just like the original does, only on a smaller scale of course. We felt the assembly jigs would be a great help with such a small kit. we were so impressed with them that we have started including jigs in our original sized version also.

When you go to trim out the glider, don't glue on the nose cone, or the motor shroud, untill you have it trimmed out to make it easier to add weight at either end.

Thanks kitbasher, great info!

Well, you did the Orbital Transport and the Mars Lander. Any chance that a MMX Starship Vega or Mars Snooper are in the works?
I'm guessing that a micro Centuri Space Shuttle would be way to complex but maybe a micro Mach 10 or a Flying Jenny?

 

[DeWain]

Ditto to what mach 7 said. I micro Interceptor would be great (another company made one years ago, and I should have picked one up when they were available). I'm looking forward to Semroc's upscale Orbital Transport as well, and an upscale Centuri Space Shuttle would be great.

Fantastic engineering kitbasher99!

 

[user 13]

Yes! A MMX Interceptor!

I got some work done on the OT today.

The ventral strakes mount with the nice fin guild:

Next up is the scramjets, 6 parts each:

Mounted:

The booster assembly is done, glider guilds and mount. The glider wings are started:

One tip. After removing the laser cut parts, run a sanding stick along the tabs. It will make installation nice in easy.

 

[user 13]

Major construction is complete.

The Glider:

The glider mount is a bit more complicated than the old dowel/tub system.
The fit is much more firm than the old one, but I'm guessing that the glider will separate just fine.

The booster needed some filling of the laser cut slots opposite of where the fins/scramjets mount. Some putty made short work of that. Getting a sanding stick in the small spaces was interesting, but it all worked.

The whole system together:

Still to come sealing the nosecones. I used to use sanding sealer, but thats not available anymore.
I guess I'll try thin CA glue unless anyone has another suggestion.
Painting/decals
Paint/mount the scramjet tubes
Trimming the glider

EDIT:

The engineering/quality of this kit is so well done, I went and bought one of the "new" full sized OT's from eRockets.

 

[Antares JS]

Sanding sealer is harder to find than it used to be, but it's still out there. Erockets also carries little tubs of it.

https://www.erockets.biz/erockets-sanding-sealer-3oz-erk-9110/

 

[kitbasher99]

We have a prototype MMX Starship Vega built and it has been flown, but we didn't want to flood the market with too many MMX kit at one time. We also wanted to bring out a Scale kit and we now have that with our Jayhawk kit. We'll keep these other suggestions under advisement for future releases. Feel free to let us know what else you would like to see. Drop us an e-mail with your suggestions at [email protected].

 

[neil_w]

Still to come sealing the nosecones. I used to use sanding sealer, but thats not available anymore.
I guess I'll try thin CA glue unless anyone has another suggestion.

I use thin CA. I appreciate the hard shell it creates in addition to the sealing.

I apply thinned CWF *after* the CA if needed for final smoothing.

 

[user 13]

I used the thin CA on the nosecones. They were sanded and are ready for paint. I hope to get paint on tomorrow.

I trimmed the glider. This is very scientific, But I used this much clay:

It seems to glide well. It will get a light coat of white primer. Then I'll recheck the trim.

The booster will get a coat of white primer also. Both will need to be gloss coated for the decals.

Here it is all up again:

One interesting thing is the new glider mount has a much firmer hold, causing the glider to not rest on the glider strakes.

I hope it does not put too much stress on the mount during launch.

Kitbasher, Can you post any photo's of the MMX Starship Vega? Do you know when it will come to market?

 

[user 13]

Primed, sanded, more puttying.

The attachment hook needed much sanding. Just the layer of paint made the glider attach very stiff.
I'll mask it for the top coat.

 

[LW Bercini]

Feel free to let us know what else you would like to see. Drop us an e-mail with your suggestions at [email protected].

I took you up on that offer. Look for the e-mail I sent this morning.

 

[user 13]

What did you ask for?

The OT is painted. I should get the decals on tomorrow.

 

[kitbasher99]

The attachment hook needed much sanding. Just the layer of paint made the glider attach very stiff.
I'll mask it for the top coat.

Yeah, I probably need to recommend that the hook on the booster be sanded to make it a little thinner so it doesn't do that. Thanks for the feedback. That's the only way we can make these kits better for everyone.

 

[kitbasher99]

I took you up on that offer. Look for the e-mail I sent this morning.

Thanks LW. We'll see what we can do. It may take a while before you see anything though. We have quite a few things in the works, but we are a small business and sometimes getting parts for some of the things we want to release takes a lot of time. Also you all may notice prices rising, as much as I hate to say it. We here at Semroc/eRockets are having a terrible time getting good Balsa. There is a shortage, and what we do get is almost unusable.

 

[user 13]

Done!

I'll probably seal the decals on the booster, but I don't want to add mass to the glider.

This was a real pleasure to build! A very high quality kit.

2 suggestions on building.

1. As I said be careful of paint on the glider mount. The fit is tight. No real big deal, just a bit of sanding to fix it.

2. The booster side stripes decals. The stripe needs to be snug against the canard. Cut it such before you wet the decals. They will cut with a sharp xacto when wet though. I speak from experience on this.

Here she is next to my 1960's kit:

The MMX booster fits on the "full" sized booster:

If the weather holds I might get to launch her tomorrow!

One final thought, You guys did Carls memory proud with this kit!
A modern classic.

Thanks

 

[kitbasher99]

Kitbasher, Can you post any photo's of the MMX Starship Vega? Do you know when it will come to market?

I'll post pictures when I can, unfortunately it will be at least a couple of weeks before I can do that. We are preparing to move into a larger location and things have already started getting boxed up prior to the move.

 

[user 13]

Thanks!

I can wait.

 

[user 13]

2 launches today of the OT!

My 1st launch in over a decade!

1st flight:

A perfect flight to about 100 ft! (Maybe less, it's small)

A good, steep glide by the orbiter. Landed about 15 ft from the launcher, the booster landed about 30 ft away. Such a recovery hike!

the 2nd flight I forgot to wrap tape around the motor so it kicked out without deploying the nosecone.
It came in ballistic with the orbiter riding it all the way down! Lawn dart!
No damage!

kitbasher99, Nice job on the rocket design!

EDIT:

I have video, but I don't know how to post them.

 

[neil_w]

I have video, but I don't know how to post them.

Youtube is very easy. If the video is small (size limit is unknown) you can actually upload it to the forum:

 

[user 13]

Thanks!

I tried that, but after it loaded 100% I got an error message. I've tried it a few times with different videos, sadly it still wont work.

 

[Wally Ferrer]

2 launches today of the OT!

My 1st launch in over a decade!

1st flight:

A perfect flight to about 100 ft! (Maybe less, it's small)

A good, steep glide by the orbiter. Landed about 15 ft from the launcher, the booster landed about 30 ft away. Such a recovery hike!

the 2nd flight I forgot to wrap tape around the motor so it kicked out without deploying the nosecone.
It came in ballistic with the orbiter riding it all the way down! Lawn dart!
No damage!

kitbasher99, Nice job on the rocket design!

EDIT:

I have video, but I don't know how to post them.

Vimeo is your friend for that...

 

[neil_w]

Vimeo is your friend for that...

Vimeo or Youtube, both work. It's really quite trivial to set up an account and post videos.