Another Model Rocket that Lands like SpaceX -- With a Great Description of the Flight Computer, Software, and Design

Wow, I have to give the devil his due:  this is NOT something that could be accomplished with my beloved discrete (not discreet!) transistors. 

As someone who spent a lot of time as a kid shooting Estes model rockets into the sky, this project really caught my attention.   (My simple rockets used parachutes, "streamers,"  or nothing at all to land.)  This guy uses onboard computers, software, and retractable landing gear.  Very cool.  

Thanks to Jenny List and Hack-A-Day for alerting us to this.  

Awesome Video of Perseverance's Landing on Mars

When we watched the landing on February 18, Elisa kind of complained that they were using simulations -- like the rest of us, she has come to expect actual video of important events.  Well, now we have it.  Actual video of the parachute deployment, the decent, heat shield separation, dust from the Sky Crane rockets, the whole thing.   Wonderful!   See above. 

The full press conference is worth watching:

Here we learn that the placement of these cameras was inspired by the sports camera that enabled one of the NASA/JPL guys to watch his daughter's gymnastic back flip from her perspective.  As they discussed the images from the spacecraft,  I found myself thinking of my little Astrocam Estes rocket in the Dominican Republic, our kite-camera adventures in the Azores, and the key-chain video camera that Billy and I flew on a rocket in the Shenandoah Valley. 

We also learn that the parachute color pattern contains a hidden message... (see below for the solution, worked out by a fellow in France.) 

One of the JPL guys noted that we've all had a tough year, and he hopes that these images will bring some joy to people.  Indeed. 

And wow, there are microphones!  They show the mic in the press conference video, and they play audio of the sound of Martian wind. 

There was a nice shout out to Sojourner from 1997 (the year my son Billy was born).  

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Someone cracked the code in the parachute coloration: 

"DARE MIGHTY THINGS"

and the JPL Coordinates

https://twitter.com/FrenchTech_paf/status/1363992051734478852

Perseverance gets to Mars with Parachute and Sky Crane

 

Perseverance under parachute canopy

Perseverance hanging from rocket-powered Sky Crane. 

We had another picture of a spacecraft parachuting to Mars: 

It was from the Phoenix lander in 2008: 

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2008/05/parachuting-on-mars.html

The Sky Crane picture is also awesome, but having spent some time under canopy, I am especially fond of the parachute photos. Dino KL0S and Kevin AA7YQ know what I'm talking about.  And Mike WA6ARA used to design and test parachutes for NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  

My affinity for parachutes probably predates my jumping.  My Estes rockets usually returned to earth by parachute (sometimes they used the more economical "streamers").  And my grandfather had a little kite contraption that would send a parachute up to a kite where the device  would hit a cork on the line and release the parachute.  He used to attach a dollar bill to the toy parachutist for the kids in the neighborhood.  Decades later, my dad got one of these, and we frequently flew it during beach vacations.  So I like parachutes.   

AIRBORNE! 

A Parachute that Flies Home Autonomously

 

Too often ham radio bloggers and podcasters tend to focus their efforts on the projects of, well, older guys like us.  I think it is a good idea to direct attention toward young innovators, the next generations of people who are working on interesting new projects using new technology.  

Yohan Hadji is definitely one of these young innovators.  He is 16 years-old and is working to develop a system that would guide the parachutes of descending balloon payloads to designated safe landing areas.  Having spent a lot of time chasing the parachutes of Estes rockets, and after having to PERSONALLY guide my own parachute to a safe landing area (sometimes without success),  Yohan's project caught my attention.  

The videos above describe the project.  

A Hack-A-Day article provides good background: 

https://hackaday.com/2021/01/07/gps-guided-parachutes-for-high-altitude-balloons/#more-454705

And finally, if you want to support Yohan's work, he has a GoFundMe site: 

https://gofund.me/c0ae8d1f

Rocket Key-Chain Camera Video!

This project started almost 5 years ago when Billy, his friend Ben and I built a nice BIG Estes Model Rocket that Elisa had bought me for my birthday.  Here is the original post about this:
http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2012/09/video-model-rocketry.html

Building the thing was no problem, but finding a place to launch it was.  Model rocket launches are prohibited inside the Washington DC beltway, and when you get outside the beltway it is hard to find a suitable open field. Out rocket camera sat in a box.  We said "someday" for five years.

Yesterday I was going out to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia picking up Billy after the completion of his freshman year in college.  I decided that yesterday would be the day.  I used Google Maps to look for places with a big open field near the highway.  I recharged the key chain camera.

At the first of my possible launch sites we found lots of fields, but also lots of fences, and cows and horses who might not like our noisy rocket.  We were about to give up hope when I spotted a farmer at work.  I explained the situation to Randy.  He agreed to let us launch, but wanted us to do it from his nearby house so that his family could watch.  This was very nice of them.

After one failed attempt, WHOOOSH!  That D12-3 engine really pushed that thing up there!  The family loved it.   It was  great.  The parachute deployed perfectly.  Billy would run across the field to retrieve the rocket (you can see him running up to get it in one of the attached videos).  When we got home I was amazed to find that the little camera had worked perfectly on all three launches. 

The Waters Edge Rocket Research Society would be so proud of us.  VIVA LA WERRS! VIVA!

Rocket Knack in the Congo

This guy clearly has a rocketry version of The Knack.  Busted by the police for a match-stick rocket at age 17,  Jean Patrice stuck with his dreams of a Congolese space program.  Years later, when the rat flying in one of his rockets crashed and burned, he declared that the varmint had "died for science."  Indeed he did.  That is what I said about the lizards and mice killed in the payload chamber of my Astron X-Ray Estes rocket during the late 1960's.  A moment of silence please...

Imagine how difficult it would be to make any progress on something like this in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Godspeed Jean-Patrice! 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/one-africans-personal-space-race-turns-vermin-into-astronauts-1446239060

Find your Estes Rocket Catalog Online

On Wednesday we were all waxing nostalgic about 73 Magazine. (Did anyone figure out how to download ALL 511 of them?) I mentioned that I read many of the early 1970s editions from cover to cover. This morning I found on the Maker blog links to another publication that was burned permanently into my adolescent memory banks: The Estes Model Rocket catalog. Wow, I spent a lot of time studying the tech stats on the various rockets and rocket engines. (A8-3s!) I suspect that many SolderSmoke fans were also Estes enthusiasts.

Here are ALL the catalogs:
http://www.estesrockets.com/customer-service/full-catalog/

I think mine was the 1971 edition (above). I still feel bad about losing my Astron Big Bertha. And guilty about all the frogs I killed in the Astron X-Ray. I forgot all about the rocket with the 8 mm movie camera.

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20