Pelon Pelo Rico Rocket -- Umbrella frame w/ 16 Streamers?

[BigMacDaddy]

So I have 12x orange streamers left-over from a 12 pack of Viking kits. This inspired me to try to make a Pelon Pelo Rico rocket. Pelo Rico = delicious hair since you push up on the bottom to push out a bunch of sweet + spicy + tart tamarind-flavored candy hairs (it is kinda like a Playdoh barber shop set). Mexican sweets have lots of tamarind + chili pepper.



So the idea is to try to have 16 orange streamers all fluttering spaced out around the top as a recovery device - was tempted to post in the half-baked thread or what I 3D printed today but would like to capture my concept / build / testing all in one place. I started on the prototype late last night. Made version 1 of the umbrella frame that I am thinking could work to deploy the streamers. Planning to use a large Pelon plastic candy dispenser as the nose cone and a BT60 tube for the body. Have not figured out the fin arrangement or anything else yet.



So I am thinking about attaching a parachute to the top of the umbrella mechanism and attach the nose cone and body to the bottom so that the weight of the rocket and the drag of the parachute creates the force to open up the umbrella mechanism. Would like to then attach 16 or so orange streamers to the skewers so they are separated. I think I will have enough room inside the BT60 tube to more or less put the parachute around the umbrella mechanism and skewers with the streamers inside. Something like this:



I am a little worried about the nose cone getting tangled up in things as well as general tangling issues. Any feedback or thoughts?

 

[jqavins]

Umm, wow, OK, weird idea, weird is good, OK, well, umm...

As I read, my first thought was to wonder if the parachute would end up taking the bulk of the rocket's weight and leave the streamers hanging loose. Spring loading might work better, but it would certainly add considerable complexity.

I agree that tangling of the nose cone and other stuff has a big potential for trouble. Testing will be vital, and difficult. Ejection you can test on the ground in the usual way and make sure that the umbrella is pushed out. Opening the umbrella you might be able to test on the ground on a windy day. Tangling issues can only be tested in flight.

Here's an idea I had while typing the above. Instead of the usual mechanism of pushing a recovery device out the top of the body tube, what about making a split section of body tube that's held together (by something) for launch and coast, then falls away exposing the umbrella. It's like the payload fairing on the big space launch vehicles.

I'm thinking along these lines:

• The nose cone shoulder and a coupler each have a sort of circular pocket that that tube sections can fit into.
• Two tube halves are inserted in the pocket on the coupler, and one of them is glued into the nose cone shoulder.
• Each half tube has it's own string attachment to the main body tube below.
• On the pad and during flight, the circular pockets hold the tube halves together. Ejection pushed the nose cone off with it's tube half, releasing the other tube half, and both halves fall away, leaving the umbrella exposed.
• The umbrella could even be attached to the rest of the rocket directly, no shock chord needed.

 

[BigMacDaddy]

Here's an idea I had while typing the above. Instead of the usual mechanism of pushing a recovery device out the top of the body tube, what about making a split section of body tube that's held together (by something) for launch and coast, then falls away exposing the umbrella. It's like the payload fairing on the big space launch vehicles.

That is a great idea. I wrapped the parachute around the mechanism this weekend and it was a tight fit in the BT60 tube so I was thinking I needed to modify the design of the umbrella. But this would work very well -- I have made a few of these before but never launched any so do not have test results yet.

I am not totally worried about the parachute taking up all the drag. If the parachute is attached to the bottom of the umbrella mechanism and the rocket is attached to the top (with strings sliding past each other) than this will force the umbrella open and as long as it is moving downwards I think the streamers would stand up and flutter. I basically just need to undersize the parachute substantially so the streamers contribute to slowing things down.

By the way -- I could test this by dropping it 100' from a drone... Not full test of ejection but of parachute and streamers with weight hanging below comparable to rocket.