Pennywise Rocket Recovery/Locator

[Blast it Tom!]

Ok, this is a really notional "idear" I came up with. There was a thread about finding your rocket on the ground and people were saying how difficult it can be - pick a distant object and keep walking straight, etc. And sometimes you still lose'em in the tall grass/crops/brush. So I thought, "These high-power guys have all kinds of fancy tricks for getting recovery systems deployed, how about a system that would inflate a small helium balloon (NOT RED! Who'd go near it?!), so that it would stick up as a marker? Like I said, it's really just an off-the-top-of my head thing, and there's a pretty thick layer of concrete up there, but it may even be possible to bring it back on the balloon. Keeping the balloon un-holey would be a big issue, then sizing, then how to inflate to a controllable bouyancy...

 

[dhbarr]

Ok, this is a really notional "idear" I came up with. There was a thread about finding your rocket on the ground and people were saying how difficult it can be - pick a distant object and keep walking straight, etc. And sometimes you still lose'em in the tall grass/crops/brush. So I thought, "These high-power guys have all kinds of fancy tricks for getting recovery systems deployed, how about a system that would inflate a small helium balloon (NOT RED! Who'd go near it?!), so that it would stick up as a marker? Like I said, it's really just an off-the-top-of my head thing, and there's a pretty thick layer of concrete up there, but it may even be possible to bring it back on the balloon. Keeping the balloon un-holey would be a big issue, then sizing, then how to inflate to a controllable bouyancy...

Simple, just make the rocket big enough to hold the fully inflated balloon and use it as a drogue :-D

 

[Blast it Tom!]

Ha! If the rocket was that big I wouldn't need the balloon to find it! But then you gave me this crazy visual of a rocket with a fairly skinny airframe and a balloon for a nose cone... yeah, that'd work!

 

[manixFan]

Not being a fan of the movies, when I read the title, I thought you meant Pennywise to mean inexpensive, which this system could hardly be. But after reading the comments, I now get it.

Cue scary movie music: "Several young teens are searching for a rocket in a dark and mysterious corn field, when suddenly, a red balloon pops up in front of them..."


Tony

 

[Blast it Tom!]

I'm no fan of the movies either, particularly that one. But the reference was hard to pass up, and I thought might attract a lot technical talent to the thread. Perhaps it is just a little too nutty an idea!

 

[blackjack2564]

Nope.....
too much to put inside to make operational and too many things to go wrong to list. Old idea comes to light every few years.
Be smart and just buy a tracker. If your gonna be in the game for years to come. If not ...oh well come up with more Rub Goldfarbs

 

[Kelly]

I've thought of putting a small, pre-inflated shiny Mylar balloon on a short string into a rocket for this purpose (locating, not recovery). But finding a small enough balloon has been a problem, and not sure if I could keep the ejection charge from pinholing it.

 

[BSNW]

Get a Marco Polo drone tracker, you won't be disappointed