Rocket Preliminary Design: The rocket motor we chose is "The Trident Missile", which is the motor Phillippe and I designed. The reason we chose the trident missile is because we liked the thrust curve, and our max thrust was very powerful, allowing many rocket body design options. The big T was 3.16 grams, and the little t was 5 seconds. Our ideal rocket weight is 323 grams. The way we got that number was from dividing our average thrust by 5. Our average thrust was 1615 grams divided by 5 which got us the 323 grams. We have several designs that we thought of, but they did not match our rocket motor design. Our ideal rocket design would be long and have a slightly bigger diameter than our rocket motor. The Planning Stage: What is it going to look like: Phillippe and I have an idea of what we want our rocket to look like, but we are fully ready to sacrifice good looks for functionality. Our rocket body will be just slightly wider than the width of our rocket motor, eliminating the problem of building a custom motor mount. We will however, have to build a rocket stopper so that the motor does not just fly out the front of our rocket body. Rocket motor mounts are important because they keep the motor in place while it generates generates tons of pressure and thrust. Ideas on paper: After we had our ideas on paper, it was much easier to visualize what our final rocket would look like. This also allowed us to start thinking about where we would come up with our materials to build our rocket body. Phillippe and I are currently assigning who's gonna get which materials.
How are we gonna make this happen: Phillippe has some background history on building rockets and knowing what makes a successful one, and off of that I felt that I was able to experiment with this project. I experimented with different materials for a nose cone and various parachutes and knew if I was making any rookie mistakes Phillippe would most likely notice and correct my mistake. Phillippe and I are going to make this project happen by team work, communication and dedication. Phillippe has gone to a friend of his' house where his friend's dad builds rockets. I have gotten glue and also the balsa wood for the nose cone, but I ended up finding a perfect nose cone out of a pvc end cap. For our fins, we used the balsa wood, and we plan to have our scratch built rocket started by November 18, so we can have it all done by December 1st. The reason why it is going to take us a few weeks, is because of Thanksgiving break in the middle of this section. Process of Construction:
0 Comments
This section will be a little different and harder because it is the last section before the next semester. Being the last section, it is more difficult than the others to get points. Each of our classes are in crunch time for presentations and due dates.
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ8so-ld-l0
I extremely enjoyed this video. Alan Watts has successfully put into words what I have pondered and realized since childhood. The subject of life having any meaning at all is one of the only things I truly have a desire for. The video focuses on the standard of the average human: to continue on living. To live and to survive is our "duty". Our instincts all point to go on living, that we must. And, to the average person, that is all they need. No further investigation is required. The people that accept live as is are usually more shallow thinkers, they don't dig deep into the everyday things that happen. But I am the exact opposite, in fact from a young age I have wondered why we so desperately try to stay alive. This thing we call life should not be viewed as work or survival. There's an unrealistic fear of death that exists in everyone, and you must obey it. But when you're dead, you've got nothing to worry about... you're ok. So life, as we know it, should not be viewed as some kind of job or necessity, but as play. Life is truly, play. Video Link: https://vimeo.com/68855377
This video focused on how people are more than just things in our way of everyday life. We go about our lives not realizing the everyday things around us, like water. Stopping for a second in our everyday life and realize that a chunk of our stress and opinion on everything around us is a choice. If you choose to look positively on your everyday life, you might realize that some may have much worse lives than you. Its up to you to view life positively. In conclusion, I really wish everyone in the world could see this video. So many people go about their day and don't ever stop to think about what is around them. I think this video could be a great wake-up call to everyone. Now more than ever, the world needs to reflect on what is really happening. Notes - The earth is many layers on top of each other - Lots of heat and pressure in the center - Electronegativity Guided activity: Earth Science - Making Rocks Silicates: Combination of silicon(s;) and oxygen(o) 95% of earths crust and 97% of the earths mantle is made of silicates. Earth 1.Core: made of iron and nickel 2.Outer Core: Made of liquid iron and nickel. 3.Mantle: Made of molten rocks (silicates) 4.Crust: Outer is solidified mantle Na2 SiO3 : Sodium silicate Calcium Sodium Sodium Calcium Chloride Silicate Chloride Silicate Ca Cl2 + Na2 SiO3 --> 2 NaCl + Ca SiO3 Sodium is further apart than calcium meaning it is more reactive. Will KCl + ZnO React? No. Furthest chemicals have the most reaction and will kick any others out or not react at all. What Happened: After all of our equipment and materials were ready, Andrew mixed in distilled water with a strong chemical that would help a lot with the experiment. We needed distilled water because it contains zero salts. We needed a clean additive, and then our mixture of 1.5/1 was mixed in a beaker and distributed into multiple test tubes. We were then ready to proceed. Details: We first put calcium chloride into a test tube, and the reaction was fairly quick. It immediately started to slowly climb to the top of the test tube. Next was cobalt chloride, and it wasn't long before this one changed into purple and blueish colors. This substance also shot its way to the top of the tube. Finally was copper chloride, and this substance seemed to be lazy. It had very little movements towards the top. It was very slow to react, meaning it was closer than the rest to our clear liquid on the periodic table than the rest. Moving forward: What's next?
I enjoyed this experiment in particular, I think it would be fun to learn about different substances on the periodic table and see which ones are more reactive than the others. There's a whole world of chemistry that we haven't explored yet. Looking Back: What happened? Phillippe and I were finally able to launch our rocket, with fantastic success. Because many of our rocket motors exploded on ignition, we needed to use an E-Match, an electric match that at the press of a button flares up to light anything combustable next to it. Our rocket hit a "high" of around 2900g of thrust! This means our rocket body we build can be much bigger than most, because of the thrust at launch is enough to get a bigger rocket in the air.. Looking Beyond: What do you think has happened? What’s the science? From what I can tell, the science behind our rocket launches would be combustion, pressure, and thrust. First, the E-match lights the end of either an end burner or core burner, and the combustable material lights up and starts to create great pressure. As it burns, because the energy has no where to go, it exits the end of the motor giving it energy to fly in the opposite direction of the energy release if it is able to (without a scale in the way). Looking outward: Collaboration and Impact I think my partner and I did really well coming up with a rough draft and getting our rocket labeled with the right statistics for fuel and core details. One thing I would improve on would have been to ask more details of how each motor is made, as we are not old enough to create our own. Looking Forward: What next? The next time we come to Andrew's for chemistry, it will be to build our final rocket body and motor from scratch, combining each of the rocket sections into one launch. Take aways: What I took away from this motor launch is the seriousness of safety when it comes to motors of this size. At first, I didn't think much of them. But when I saw the power of them exploding my opinion changed. It makes sense why they have so much power, because of the amount of fuel to surface area we added. These motors should not be used lightly. Thrust Curve: Interpretation + Choosing a Motor:
I liked our thrust curve a lot. We have plenty of power and for a fair amount of time. At first, because our motor was cored, Andrew and the rest of us were thinking it would explode. However we were pleasantly surprised, as our rocket gave out the most thrust in the whole class, allowing our rocket body build to be full of possibilities and have less limits compared to another rocket with half the thrust. We want to choose our motor because our thrust curve looked the best to Phillippe and I. Forming a group: Phillippe and I have been friends this year, and I could tell he put a lot of work into his projects, as do I, which is why I thought we would work well together. I do not have much background on rockets, so working with Phillippe would help educate me on rockets quicker and easier. I have a strong feeling Phillippe and I will work very well together because we both have the drive for a good grade. Model Rocket Motors: There are two general types of model rocket motors, end burner motors and core burner motors. In the next section, end burner and core burner model rocket motors will be explained to my best ability. End Burner Motor: First off, an end burner engine is an engine that is known in amateur rocketry. A end burner rocket engine is an engine that has a cylindrical stick of fuel, with no gaps between the casing wall, which in this case is a round piece of cardboard, that can withstand lots of pressure. These engines have a bit of room between the fuel and the igniter, just enough so the motor can accept the igniter (in our case, an E-Match). The purpose of an igniter (or E-Match) is so that the rocket engine can be swiftly ignited from a safe distance. With our type of rocket engine, there is much more surface area for fuel to burn than an end burner, creating more pressure and ideally more thrust. These engines are used widely, and worth making if they are properly made. Some people want a small initial thrust and a long burn time after, and some want all the fuel to pretty much blow out of the bottom end. Core Burner Motor: The second motor that will be described is a core burning motor. These have a bored out hole, or also known as a core, running through the exact center of the fuel of the motor. These motors are much more dangerous than end burning motors. They are much more likely of exploding before launch due to the surface area and fuel ratio. When the E-Match is lit, the burn travels quickly all throughout the motor, giving it an intense inertia (initial thrust). There are multiple ways of coring a rocket motor. Our method was after the rocket and its fuel had been compacted using a modified press, a holder and a drill press were used to core our motors at the exact size we chose. Below and above this paragraph, are both the end burner (top) and the core burner) from before being lit and after the fuel runs dry. The Two Types Of Rocket Fuels: There are two types of fuels, and these mixtures can very. The two types of fuels are, potassium nitrate/sugar or black powder.
Potassium Nitrate/Sugar: The first rocket fuel is potassium nitrate/sugar mix. This propellant consists of 3 groups; the fuel, the oxidizer and the additive(s). In this case, the fuel is sugar. You can use all types of sugar(s) but the most used sugar is sucrose. And as an oxidizer, what is used is KNO3, which is potassium nitrate. With rocket candy the average ratio for the fuel is 65% KNO3, and 35% sugar mix. Sometimes people add 1% iron oxide, which makes the thrust rate amazingly higher. These engines can been melted down to a paste, or can be pressed with 1,000's of pounds. The reason for it needing to be packed with thousands pounds of pressure, is you cannot have any air pockets in the motor. If you do, your thrust will go down and your engine will not work that great. Black Powder: The second rocket fuel is a black powder rocket motor mixture. Black powder is usually used in model rocket motors. What these motors consist of is charcoal, sulfur and potassium nitrate. Everyone has there own ratio opinion, including us, but the most used one is 75:15:10. When people are making these engines, the amount of each component can be adjusted, which will change how the black powder burns. Most of the time these black powder rocket motors are only produced in small sizes, due to these being extremely explosive, ESPECIALLY when cored. Today, we took a closer look at combustion reactions. This was important to look into because our big project for this chemistry section is on making rocket motors from scratch; also known as a combustion reaction. Here's what we did: First, we took a look at the fundamentals of atoms and the things that would be involved. Next, Andrew took multiple volumetric flasks filled 30% of water an mixed in a powdered form of citric acid. Then, we took small strips magnesium and coiled them. After dropping the pieces in, we quickly put a small balloon over the top of the flask. What I took away from this was how atoms react to different things. Up until now, I did not know any of the concepts behind atoms and what they do when meeting other atoms with the same and different energy levels and electron count.
1)
a. I chose a time lapse of a beach sunset because it is something that happens every single night, and at times goes un-noticed. There is beauty and science to every sunset. What most people don't usually think about is how the sun isn't actually going to sleep, rather stays on 24/7 as WE circle IT. b. I used the internet to further investigate the track that our earth takes for sunsets to happen at all. c. n/a d. I thought about how even though the sun and clouds are 92 million miles away from each other, the sunset we immediately can see with our eyes looks like they're side by side. e. I wonder if the planets we aren't able to travel to see our sun? Or possibly to sustain life, have their own sun? Is there some kind of probe we can send out that can sense another sun, or find presence of another one? 2) a. I learned that the sun is much bigger than I had originally thought, something to think about when I watch the sunset of the days to come. b. Almost everyone knows that our planets circle the sun. So, what makes the sun so special? How is it self sustaining since the beginning? Could we make our own sun on a small scale, that is self sustaining, to create infinite power? Will we advance far enough to do so before we run out of resources to live? How about something simpler: Are there planet(s) hiding behind the sun in a constant orbit that makes it to where we never see it? No, in fact if there were planets that we didn't know about, we would inevitably orbit close to that planet. And as far as our self sustaining sun goes, what we do know is that there are two forces at work; gravitational collapse and thermal expansion. Gravitational collapse requires no energy, and would reduce the sun to about the size of the earth if unchecked. But as the sun contracts, it heats up enough for nuclear fusion to start, producing even more heat. Heat causes the sun to expand, counterbalancing the gravitational force that causes it to contract. The result is a self-sustained balance between contraction and expansion. The more it collapses, the more heat is generated to make it expand. The more it expands, the less heat is generated, allowing it to collapse again. c. If I were to continue research on the sun, I would want to talk to a genius on the subject, since you can't really trust anything on the internet (INCLUDING THIS POST). d. My main take away from this would be to work on not taking sunsets for granite, not seeing it as something visually pleasing but something incredible happening million miles away. Today was launch day for our rocket. My partners were Bijan S. and Trent. Our goal was to build a working model rocket that after launch, would come down with it's own parachute. Build Notes: To build our model rocket we had to first assemble the engine mount. To build the engine mount, we had to hold different pieces together for the gorilla glue to dry. Once fully hardened over night, we were able to move on to the next step of assembling the fins. This was more difficult than the motor mount because the fins had much less surface area for the glue to grab. After some trial and error we were able to mount all three fins on very solid. Final step was to make the parachute device. We did this by tying the parachute to the nose piece, and then a thick rubber band from the nose piece to the body of the rocket. Now that our rocket was built, we were able to pack our parachute and rubber band into the rocket itself. Trent then went to Fiesta island with some other students launching rockets and launched our model rocket.
Performance Notes: I think our rocket performed very well. We got our desired results and learned lots of useful information on rocketry and the chemistry behind it. When the motor is launched, it spits off power to the rocket, and since the rocket is guided by the launch pad, the rocket has more of a tendency to go straight up. And as shown in the video, ours did just that. Once it started to descend, the nose piece comes off and lets the parachute open up instantly, safely gliding it down back to earth. |
AuthorGabriel M. Archives
December 2015
Categories |