by Dave Nordling, Secretary, Reaction Research Society
The Reaction Research Society (RRS) met for our monthly meeting on Friday, October 11, 2019. We had a full agenda with three presenters and a lot discuss with upcoming events.
We had a few new people come to our meeting including Frank Chandler who works with the Cal Poly Pomona liquid rocket project. Frank joined the RRS as a member and we hope to see him and his students at future meetings and launch events.
We were also happy to have several Compton College students from their newly formed STEM club attend our meeting. The RRS is glad to support the efforts of university students in their ambitions to build liquid rockets and we’re happy to add Compton College to the growing list of organizations we support.
We called the meeting to order and after the reading of the treasury report, we started the first of our presentations.
[1] The Gas Guzzler Ramjet Project
Wolfram Blume is a new member to the society and he has been working for over eight years on a unique kind of rocket project that has been very rare in the long years of our society and probably in amateur rocketry as a whole. His two-stage rocket consists of a first-stage solid rocket booster using a commercial grade motor and a gasoline-fueled ramjet engine as a second stage. Both stages have a parachute recovery system and an onboard fuel management system.
Wolfram’s presentation was very thorough as this project is very complex. The RRS is still assessing the project in all of its aspects. With Wolfram’s permission, we’ll share the full set of details in a separate report here on RRS.ORG. The Gas Guzzler project still needs several more static tests conducted to prove key parts of the combustor. Flight tests of a dummy, unfueled ramjet and the solid booster are also being discussed. We hope to share more details as this exciting project evolves.
The RRS is happy to consider propulsion projects of all kinds, but every project must be peer-reviewed by the RRS before it is accepted for any testing at the MTA. Testing at the RRS MTA is by appointment only. All persons and groups interested in testing at the RRS MTA must submit a standard record form and all details of their proposed project. Our standard record form is available for download on our RRS.ORG website. These materials must be submitted to the RRS president and after careful review that a test can be scheduled.
president@rrs.org
[2] Bill Behenna, Avionics Payload for the RRS standard alpha rocket
With the many school events we’ve been having through the LAPD CSP, we have had many alpha rockets getting flown out of the MTA. The payload tubes are typically empty which creates a great opportunity for others to build and fly payloads in these small but powerful rockets being launched many times throughout the year.
Bill Behenna has been actively working on making a customized instrumentation package that would fit within the small confines of the long alpha payload tube. Barometric pressure measurements, accelerometer readings and air temperature would be recorded on a solid-state memory chip which have been shown to survive even the harsh sudden stop into the dry lake bed floor if the parachute recovery system fails.
Bill talked about his testing with his breadboard model using Arduino modules and an UNO microprocessor. These instrumentation packages can be challenging to make, but they can offer a lot of great information on the flight. The quality of data collection devices are ever increasing and the size and price of these instruments are ever decreasing. It is a great time to be in amateur rocketry. Many commercially available rocket instrumentation packages exist and are used more and more frequently in model rocketry. The particular challenge with the RRS standard alpha is its compact size and metallic construction.
[3] Review of John Krell’s Flight Data
In parallel to Bill Behenna’s efforts, John Krell has been working on a slim instrumentation package that measures the three-axis acceleration, barometric pressure and air temperature readings. He conducted several tests of his system which was able to record data and a speed sufficient to capture the rapid combustion of the alpha flight.
John was able to get his first prototype, actually two prototypes, ready to fly in alpha rockets #9 and #10 at the September 21 launch event. More importantly, the rockets were located downrange and extracted intact for examination. The data confirmed that the burnout velocity is in fact subsonic, the burn time is just short of 0.40 seconds and the altitude of both rockets is around 4000 feet. What is surprising is that the maximum acceleration from the alpha exceeds even the 100G limit of the sensor.
John’s report was very thorough and with his permission, the RRS will publish the full details of his project in a separate article here on RRS.ORG. The most important thing is that John is already building more units for more rocket flights that will take place at another launch event at the MTA. With more data, the flight parameters of the RRS alpha can be even better resolved.
[4] RRS presents at the CATIE conference at Antelope Valley College
The RRS was asked by Dr. Khalil Dajani to present at the California Aerospace Technology Institute of Excellence (CATIE) at the Antelope Valley College (AVC) in Lancaster, California on September 18, 2019. The conference was an event for government and commercial companies in the Antelope Valley to network and to forge beneficial partnerships in the aerospace industry.
I had asked Drew Cortopassi to attend the conference on behalf of the RRS. Drew was also able to attend the conference on behalf of the Aerospace Corporation as he works in the Propulsion Testing Lab in El Segundo. The RRS introduced ourselves as an educational non-profit group with resources that can help government and commercial companies with modest testing facilities. The RRS was also proud to share with the audience our long history in the pursuit of reaction propulsion and research.
[5] RRS social media
Alastair Martin is one of our two social media advisors to the RRS. As part of our regular monthly agenda, he briefed our audience on our Instagram and Facebook sites that we maintain along with the main website. Alastair’s company, Production Tribe LLC, is producing the Rocket Talk Radio podcast which includes RRS members and discusses current and historical topics related to rocketry.
[6] RRS launch events at the MTA
The RRS had a successful launch event with Boyle Heights on September 21 as detailed in a prior firing report. The RRS is glad to announce that another launch event will occur at the MTA before the year’s end.
Frank Miuccio, our society vice president and our point of contact with the LAPD CSP, announced the next educational event will begin on October 25, 2019. This 5-week course will be with 99th Street Elementary School in Watts. The final step is the launch event at the RRS MTA on December 7, 2019. The exact number of rockets is not known yet, but we are expecting 10 alphas.
[7] The RRS history project
The RRS history project is an on-going task to archive and collect all historical materials. George Garboden has graciously donated a large number of documents to the society for storage, archival and scanning. The RRS is glad to accept these materials to help bring more of our history to more of our members. More than just the careful preservation of the reports and papers, is the larger task of sorting and scanning them. We hope to enlist more of our membership to devote the time and care needed for the long-term success of this project.
[8] Update from the 2020 Constitutional Committee
The RRS Constitution is in the process of being revised to better reflect how the society functions today and making important clarifications of parts that were somewhat ambiguous. This three-person committee was appointed by the executive council in February this year and consists of one executive council member, Frank Miuccio, and two of our administrative members in the society.
The painstaking task of going through every page and every paragraph of the Constitution is almost half finished. After a complete review of the whole document, the committee will present it’s findings and a recommended draft to the administrative membership for their questions and comments. This was hoped to be completed by November 2019 with the goal of attempting ratification by the new year, 2020.
The committee has decided to continue the use of an RRS policy listing which would contain the more specific or quantitative aspects of the society such as the annual dues amounts. Simpler and less categorical changes could be amended more easily by the council or by the administrative membership. The Constitution itself requires a higher level of approval for any changes which includes a two-thirds majority vote by the administrative membership. There will be more on this subject when the committee completes it’s initial task hopefully by next month’s meeting in November 2019.
[9] The 2020 symposium
The RRS agreed to hold the next symposium in 2020 continuing the annual tradition. Our membership commitment to making this next symposium an even larger and greater success is strong. Frank is working on confirming the next symposium date which may be March 28, 2020, if the Ken Nakaoka Community Center can confirm. The society will try to hold this event a little earlier in the year to hopefully avoid the onset of the warmer temperatures. The community center does not have air-conditioning and we do expect a larger crowd as this has been the trend since we restarted symposium events in 2017.
[10] The treasurer’s report on membership
Chris Lujan, the RRS treasurer was not able to provide his report on our membership roster and status. We hope to bring this report to the next meeting where we will show how well the society is doing in keeping current with receiving annual dues payments and show how much our membership roster has grown in these last few years.
[11] Reminder for annual nominations for RRS Executive Council at the November meeting
Per our Constitution, the RRS will be taking nominations for each of the four executive council positions at the RRS. Positions are only open to administrative members of the RRS, and we have been expanding our ranks with former administrative members returning to active status and newer members being inducted in the last two years. Nominations can be made at the next meeting of the RRS, November 8, 2019.
With nominations received, the RRS will appoint an election chairman, to conduct the voting process with the results announced at the December 13, 2019 meeting. All elected executive council members will begin their new terms at the start of the new calendar year, January 1, 2020.
[IN CLOSING}
This October 2019 meeting was one of the best we’ve had since my time with the RRS. A lot of great projects are in the making and we’re getting more and more data to share with the society. The society is growing and we’re glad that our enthusiasm is spreading.
The next meeting will be November 8, 2019, on the second Friday of each month as usual at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena. If there are any questions about this October meeting, please contact the RRS secretary. Hope to see everyone back again in November..
secretary@rrs.org