HALONSC

[tstowe]

I believe, Todd, we can build one like you said in the form of a rocket body for testing, and the such.

Now, if we'll keep it that way, is dependent on future payloads.

Thanks for the suggestion.

No problem. I think the main reason space capsules were shaped that way was to reduce reentry speed.

Check this video out I ran across yesterday: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mooIW92f9hA. It looks like she is using a postal mailing tube. I like the rocket body idea better though. What about putting spring loaded fins on the side? Make them small so they could be pinned back against the sides and rig something to release them after the balloon bursts? Keeping them flat on the way up wouldn't spin the capsule going up (ruining any video you tried to make) but deploying them on the way down would give you a tight spiral (reducing drift).

[NMarkis]

I was just going to E-mail you on a similar idea.



I pulled my little team together and told them: "How viable do you think, essentially, a rocket with our payload that is suspended nose-down by a balloon would be? And if so, what type of innovations can we incorporate into this? "


Well, a day later we came up with a helicopter-style recovery. Like the model rockets?


The the blades on a rod extruding out the bottom of the 'rocket', with a bearing on top where the blade roots all connect. . Spring load the blades with a tripod-like mechanism, and have servo unlock them(somehow), and the blades would extend and take the KE into mechanical energy to spin them, and slow the rocket down.

The only thing I see is the capsule needs q to keep the deceleration acceptable. I suppose the springs would be counteracting the air(at deployment time), and angle a blade angle more than 30 degrees. I suppose if we can reduce that angle(with respect to the ground below) proportionally to the speed, we can get somewhere.

But, Mr. Stowe; we're going to have to look into it, and pull stuff together. This may, indeed, be impossible for us to implement(the blade-style recovery), but we'll give a kick.

What do you think?

[tstowe]

You need to see if you can get hold of Make Magazine, volume number 25. They have a helicopter style rocket with spring loaded blades on the cover and have the plans to build it inside. But this was a light-weight rocket. I'm not sure how it would work with something that weighed several pounds.