Mmm...EJournal


 * Wednesday Oct 26:** Determined and purchased the material for the body of our rocket: Cardboard mailing tube. If any other groups are interested they are stupid cheap (67c) at Walmart
 * Saturday Oct 29:** Found the nosecone and fin material: balsa wood and styrene. As of now we still haven't fully fleshed out the recovery system (who needs it anyways)
 * Sunday Oct 30:** Did a lot today, cut out all of the fins, We have decided on a helicopter recovery system for our rocket. We made a proof-of-concept rocket out of a Fresca bottle and some styrene scraps
 * Wednesday Nov 2:** We made the cradle for the rocket engine and cut our rocket tube down to size. We experimented with using the lathe to shape our nosecone but it ended in a massive explosion of balsa wood. Unfortunately this means we have to sand it all by hand (woohoo!)
 * Friday Nov 4:** New Member!!!!!! XD : Introducing: Kyle Bonilla (warning he can explode things with his mind)
 * Sunday Nov 6:** We accomplished a lot today: sanded the nosecone down, attached the fins, cut out the helicopter blades, theorized on how to attach them, and ate a lot of halloween chocolate! Mmmmm...chocolate :)


 * Monday Nov 7:** Well this was an interesting day. We purchased a bunch of engines and in a mad rush to be able to test launch before dark we attached everything including the nosecone, the newly designed recovery system (now with 75% more duct tape), the engine mount assembly, and the guidance system. We used mostly duct tape and super glue. At about 6:30pm we drove out to the school and met up with the Rocket Masters group (many thanks to them for their help! :) ) and after countless unsuccesful attempts at getting the engine to light and freezing our fingers in the process, we finally achieved liftoff. Unfortunately the test flight wasn't all that successful. We had liftoff but shortly after the rocket left the launch pad the engine mount failed ( we think it was due to the glue not being dry enough) and the guidance system failed and it landed on the ground after 4.6 seconds of flight (reached a height of about 10 m). The ejection chage went off imediately after landing. (sorry dead camera = no video) The good news is that other than the engine mount the rocket was undamaged and after some quick fixes tonight it will be ready for launch tomorrow.




 * Monday Nov 7**: Jordan completes the awesome paint job on our rocket!
 * Tuesday Nov 8:** The launch day, woohoo! Unfortunately even though we solved the engine mount issue by reinforcing it with staples, super glue, and you guessed it, duct tape, our launch was again not as successful as we had hoped. It took off and pretty much immediately after made a 90 degree right turn and flew the width of the football field, making a crash landing on the other side seconds before the recovery charge deployed. The recovery charge burned through the fishing line holding the nosecone on so that will have to be reattached. We believe that the turn was caused by the rocket's weight being unbalanced so we are going to perform the "string test" and then add counter-weight accordingly
 * Wednesday Nov 9:** By examining the launch footage, we identified the unbalanced side of our rocket and decided to use a piece of a wire hanger as counter-weight. We duct-taped it to the inside of the rocket and reattached the nosecone with a new and improved heat shield around the fishing line (duct tape fixes everything) but didn't quite finish. Will have to complete tomorrow.
 * Thursday Nov 10:** Launch day #2: After finding out super glue doesn't like sticking to places that have been super-glued previously, we had to jury-rig the nosecone attachment using the glue and duct tape (we should just change our name to the duct tape group) as well as jury-rigging the counter weight. We ended up having to use a C-6-5 engine for this launch instead of the C-6-3 engine we used for our previous ones which meant a longer delay in the recovery charge. This ended up being our downfall as otherwise the launch was a large improvement over the previous ones. After lift off, the rocket still made a turn and flew horizontal for a short distance however it reached a higher altitude and attained a longer flight time than our first launch. Unfortunately, this higher altitude, longer flight time launch ended in a perpendicular nosedive straight into the ground that resulted in major damage. We may be able to work some magic and get it ready for an encore launch tuesday but it isn"t looking good.

media type="file" key="mmhE launch.3gp" width="300" height="300"

We spent over 150 hours combined between the three of us on this model rocket project.
 * Monday Nov 14:** Finished the wiki and completed the lab.


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