Our final launch was in the rain, with only two people, yet it went the highest and stayed up the longest!
Monday, May 9, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
final rocket launches
A few problems we encountered through out the project included the parachute, the cone, the amount of water to put for the launches, the pressure, and the weather.
The parachute not coming out affected the rocket's performance because if it was able to come out more then the rocket would have been able to stay up longer more than just on the final day. The cone affected the rocket because it didn't fit properly so it kept falling off to early. It also needed to be a little heavier. Another problem we had with the cone was that it kept ripping apart from the rest of the rocket during the launch. We had a problem each time when launching trying to decide on how much water we wanted to put into the rocket to launch. This affected the performance of the rocket because each time we would do a launch we wanted to try different things but didn't know how we wanted to do it with the water. The pressure was also a problem for us because we didn't know exactly how much we should put into the rocket. It was also a little difficult to get it up to the higher pressure that we were hoping to get to. Finally, the weather affected our rocket launches because when it was to windy the rocket would fly a different direction and it was harder to keep the cone onto the rocket when we were getting the launch started. It was also very a problem on the last of our launches because it began pouring rain when we were about to make the launch which made it a bit more difficult for us to work in.
To fix the problems of the parachute not coming out and the cone ripping off, we tried to tie string to the bottom strings, which were attached from the parachute to the rocket, to the bottom of the cone. To make the cone fit a bit better we added strips of cardboard to the bottom of the cone to make it a little bigger at the bottom, which made it sit on the rocket a bit nicer. We also tried taping pencils to the cone to make it a bit heavier. For the problem with the water, on our final day we decided to try it once with less water then again with a little more so we could see if the rocket would go higher. With the pressure, after trying it at about 60 on the previous days, we just tried to get it as high as we could on the final day. As for our problems cause by the weather, we couldn't fix them but we just tried to work as best as we could with the conditions of each day.
The results of our solutions to the problem mostly were able to make the launch better. We were able to have our best launch after making the changes that we could.
The parachute not coming out affected the rocket's performance because if it was able to come out more then the rocket would have been able to stay up longer more than just on the final day. The cone affected the rocket because it didn't fit properly so it kept falling off to early. It also needed to be a little heavier. Another problem we had with the cone was that it kept ripping apart from the rest of the rocket during the launch. We had a problem each time when launching trying to decide on how much water we wanted to put into the rocket to launch. This affected the performance of the rocket because each time we would do a launch we wanted to try different things but didn't know how we wanted to do it with the water. The pressure was also a problem for us because we didn't know exactly how much we should put into the rocket. It was also a little difficult to get it up to the higher pressure that we were hoping to get to. Finally, the weather affected our rocket launches because when it was to windy the rocket would fly a different direction and it was harder to keep the cone onto the rocket when we were getting the launch started. It was also very a problem on the last of our launches because it began pouring rain when we were about to make the launch which made it a bit more difficult for us to work in.
To fix the problems of the parachute not coming out and the cone ripping off, we tried to tie string to the bottom strings, which were attached from the parachute to the rocket, to the bottom of the cone. To make the cone fit a bit better we added strips of cardboard to the bottom of the cone to make it a little bigger at the bottom, which made it sit on the rocket a bit nicer. We also tried taping pencils to the cone to make it a bit heavier. For the problem with the water, on our final day we decided to try it once with less water then again with a little more so we could see if the rocket would go higher. With the pressure, after trying it at about 60 on the previous days, we just tried to get it as high as we could on the final day. As for our problems cause by the weather, we couldn't fix them but we just tried to work as best as we could with the conditions of each day.
The results of our solutions to the problem mostly were able to make the launch better. We were able to have our best launch after making the changes that we could.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Data from second launch
The changes we made on our rocket were taping down the fins to try to keep them down better and using a thicker string to attach the cone to the parachute. This time, the fins were able to stay attached to our rocket because the tape held them down. But the different string did not help because the cone still broke from the string.
With this launch we were able to get the rocket up higher and keep the fins attached to the rocket. The fins stayed on because we taped them down more this time.
In this launch we were not able to keep the cone attached although we tried to use a thicker string. We also weren't able to get the rocket to stay up for the 10seconds we hoped. During the set up, we had a lot of problems. We couldn't get the clips to hold the rocket to fit to the rocket the way we wanted it to. In general, we had a lot of problems with things going wrong.
In comparison to our prediction our launch made about half of the time we hoped for.
We will add one long string from the cone to the other strings on the parachute.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Video of First Launch Attempt
There is something wrong with the video. Hope you can still see it (meaning this upload actually works) to get the point and the next one will be better.
First Launch Data
Mass of the rocket empty(no water): 180g
Mass of the rocket full: 600g
Total flight time: 3sec
Time to maximum height: 1sec
Estimated maximum height achieved by rocket: 20ft.
Mass of the rocket full: 600g
Total flight time: 3sec
Time to maximum height: 1sec
Estimated maximum height achieved by rocket: 20ft.
Monday, May 2, 2011
First Launch Attempt
Our launch was successful in the fact that it actually was able to get in the air. We consider this a success because it didn't fall over or get stuck.
What was unsuccessful was that two of the fins broke off while in the air. Also, the parachute didn't come out when we were hoping it would. Because the parachute got stuck, our rocket wasn't able to stay up as long as we hoped.
The launch was very off from our prediction because it only stayed in the air for 3 seconds compared to our 10 seconds. Also, more things went wrong than went right with our launch.
Some improvement we intend to do include adding more duct tape over the fins so it will stay on, and attaching a stronger string to the cone and parachute so it will be able to come out a bit easier.
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