This blog covers the day to day progress of water rocket development by the Air Command Water Rockets team. It is also a facility for people to provide feedback and ask questions.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Acceleron V modelling

This weekend we spent a bit of time modeling Acceleron V to scale in 3DS Max in order to figure out the spacial relationships of the new release mechanism and the position of the staging mechanism. We now have a clear idea how to build the base support mechanism and what clearances are needed. The images below include the second stage, although the colour scheme will most likely be different.

The length of the second stage has not been determined yet but will be such that the entire two stage rocket is stable in flight.

The rocket is designed to be launched from our drop away booster launcher.


Detail of the release mechanism and the location of the staging pod. The pod contains one of our flight computers and uses a standard 9mm Gardena release mechanism to release the second stage. Depending on the length of the second stage, the pod can be moved further up the rocket.


Fabrication of the booster segments continues, and we now have a materials list for the release mechanism so we can start construction on that as well. The staging pod is already finished. I'll post actual build pictures next time.

We've also been preparing our rockets for the next NSWRA launch day. There are no major new rocket changes although there are some experiments we want to run in getting more stable descent video as well as flying the whistling nozzle. After the last crash the Axion rocket has been rebuilt.
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2 comments:

Mat_G said...

Hi George,
Brilliant idea again. Am I right in thinking that the first stage stays together or does it seperate like the drop away boosters?

George Katz said...

Hi Mat,

That's correct the first stage stays all together. The boosters act as guide rails for the second stage. It will be interesting to see it land even under parachute. I hope there won't be too much damage.