Report of 11-12-12 Launch
On November 12th 2012 we launched our under-scale rocket design on the Lummi reservation launch site. Our rocket contained a mini non-functional model of a quad copter. We used this opportunity to test the feasibility of deploying a quad copter during the decent of our rocket. During this launch we also tested an alternative recovery system using what is known as a “tender descender”, which allows our rocket to descend in two sections rather than three. We were concerned about our quad copter becoming entangled with our recovery system during deployment and decent. However, no such entanglement arouse during this model testing launch. The launch was fairly successful and a good starting point for further experimentation with our quad copter recovery system. I say fairly successful because our main parachute deployed prematurely, due to the fact that our rocket did not reach the altitude we had expected, causing our main chute to trigger shortly after our drogue was deployed. We are running further simulations to put a more suitable motor in this under-scale rocket so we can further test this alternative recovery system, and quad copter deployment methods. – BM
