just an FYI
I bought a house with suitable land for building a rocket shop capable of building full scale redstones, although i probably will be starting with the smaller joes as I've stated before. hence the reason you guys have not seen me ranting here much since july.
yes i've been busy, clearing yards overgrown with 3 ft tall weeds tends to kill off free time for rocketry, and now with the arctic winds blowing, i finally have time to start unpacking all the stuff that was in the house i rented and start putting into some type of order.
house was an old farmhouse. old barn foundation still exists, but unsuitable for rocket shed, but maybe a good spot for a large engine test stand.
oh PAGING MR COX. he's been there, and he's afarid, ask him
*******************************************
ok, I think I mentioned this before, but my brain is re-hashing it again.
one of our club members asked if we could do a manned rocket program. I of course could not find any reason to think it impossible, hence it is possible.
ok, so our club could repeat NASAs early space program, I mean we got a
30 year advance in technology from what they did, and I think I found enough manuals to give us an idea of what we need here
Mercury Familiarization Manual Dec 20 1962 Mercury Familiarization Manual May 1962) Mercury Maintenance Manual 1959 Mercury Tracking Sites
with this, we should be able to start making mockups and designing what
equipment is needed and where to put it. hopefully this will get us a capsule lighter than the original (remember we got composites, they didn't)
also, as moderls go, we build a small rocket then upscale it. so we start with the redstone. Hmmmm, a little to much to chew in one bite, so we'll try the little joe (never said it would go suborbital it's first flights) and try a 2 stage unit later.
build a scrawny model outa BT-80 with a 8 engine cluster, 4 13mm, 4
18mm. Yikes its CG is waaaay aft. put more noseweight in. then more. then more.
this is where our club is right now. got one club member staring at a couple of quilly's jpegs of the capsule and a pile of cardboard, and me with a bt80 model that is too tail heavy.
In the future we plan on a 1/18th scale model (action figure size) and then a 1/6 model (G I Joe size) and then 1/2 and finally full. Yes I know there is a guy building a GI Joe rocket. we'll be keeping tabs on him :)
comments? where did I cross the line into madness? wanna get on the waiting list for a ride?