August 2023 meeting

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by Joel Cool-Panama, Secretary, RRS.ORG

The Reaction Research Society held its monthly meeting at the Compton/Woodley Airport location,
7:30 PM PST.

  • New member: Andrew Fuller
  • MTA projects
    • Water truck was required for newly poured pads
    • National Concrete poured the bathroom ramp for no additional charge
    • Schematics received for 20ft office and 40ft crew containers
    • Deposit given, construction on containers begins 8/11, expected to end 8/25
    • Estimate received for crane services
  • 7/21 intern launch event
  • Morgan State University RF equipment inquiry
  • MTA use inquiry from commercial businesses
  • Frank donation of rocketry parts
  • Rocket Fever, Columbia Memorial in Downey, 8/12
    • Alpha rocket, possibly model rocket, launch
  • LMU Mars Rover Expo, 9/30
  • Publishing by-laws, fee policy

Past Events

The Society is pleased to announce that Andrew Fuller, a Northrop intern, has joined the society. He is interested in obtaining his level 2 model rocket certification, and we held a small launch event at the MTA towards that end on August 5th.

Over the previous month, National Concrete laids the pads for the new 20ft and 40ft containers, as well as the ADA ram for the bathroom, in return only for a tax writeoff. The Society would like to Treasurer Larry for his work in getting the ramp poured for no additional charge.

In regards to the containerized office and crew cabin, the Society has received schematics from the manufacturer. Their construction began on August 11th, and is scheduled to finish on the 25th. President Dave is going to work on scheduling their delivery to coincide with a crane service, so that the containers may be laid on the pads without damaging the internal fixtures.

The Society also consulted former-President Osvaldo on what it will take to complete the solar cell system at the MTA. The result of the conversation was that we determined the system should very easily power the light system, but that more batteries may be needed to shore up the system’s capacity. Society member Dimitri is back in California, so we may coordinate with him on future MTA projects

Regarding Osvaldo, he also oversaw the July 21st launch event at the MTA. The event was hosted primarily for the Aerospace corporation’s intern event. In addition, three new members to the Society, all from the Lander Challenge, launched micrograins.

In regards to Society assets, we are pleased to announce that we have started a LinkedIn page. We intend to use the page to increase our social outreach, including to professionals and students in the field, and spread word and knowledge of our mission as an education non-profit. The page is currently being primarily operated by Secretary Joel, but all members of the Executive Council, who have LinkedIn accounts, are administrators of the page.

Unfortunately, a class that Vice-President Frank had scheduled for the Boyle Heights YMCA has been delayed. They apparently are having issues with funding the buses necessary to get the students out to the MTA, so the class will need to be rescheduled to a later date.

The Compton Comet has made some progress over the past month. They have finished the plumbing system for the rocket, and held a low-pressure test in the Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum laboratory. The Comet had previously had issues with bending large radius pipe, but mentor and Society member Waldo found pipe bending services, for which he’s generously paid out of pocket. Regarding future Hot-Flow and Launch of the Comet, a winch will be needed, in order to lift the rocket vertical into the launch stand.

Current Events

The Society was pleased to see a former student member, Bradon Angelo, attend this month’s meeting. He has attended the MTA a handful of times in the past, and is currently attending CSUN. He is considering officially rejoining the society.

Recently, the Society has received a number of requests to us the MTA. Ordinarily this would be well received, however, these groups aren’t interested in using our site to launch, but typically to camp at. These same groups are instead paying FAR to launch at their location. One of these groups heard from a former customer of the Society that they had once been allowed to use the site for free, and were hoping to do the same. Two groups to name who’ve made such requests are Imperial College in London, and Morgan State University.

THere have also been some recent commercial use inquiries for the MTA. One is for an individual who would like to test a magnetic rail gun. Another is a company looking to test solid motors. This organization would need to build-out test stands for their motors, and would therefor require a fair investment into the MTA on their part.

At this month’s meeting, it was brought up for discussion, that the Society should publish our by-laws, our fee policy included. The Executive Council voted to approve the motion during the discussion, and a meeting will be held to discuss the details. It was agreed that the fee policy will be formally included in the by-laws

Future Business

Society member Michael Rouleauo is looking into a high power launch rail on behalf of the society. The Society is still looking to its options for the purchase of a 60ft rail, which our donors have already promised to fund.

In regards to future MTA asset acquirement, it was agreed upon that the society could use a cordless drill for work at the MTA.

The Society will be attending the August 12th rocketry educational event in Downey. Frank will bring his tent, as well as his Alpha rocket. The Downey Columbia Memorial Center allegedly has their own paper rocket launching system, but Frank will probably bring his launchers just in case. Larry also has a launcher of his own. The representative of the Society will need breaks, and we’ll appreciate anyone volunteering their time to help us.

The Society will also be attending a second event soon, Loyola Marymount University’s Mars Rover Expo on September 30th. The event will be on a Saturday, and Secretary Joel is planning to attend. Other Executive Council members may also appear, and Larry is planning to get some funding necessary for the event.

The RRS Symposium for 2024 has already been scheduled, and will occurr again at San Pedro’s Mary Star of the Sea High School. The Symposium will be held on Saturday, April 13th.

Secretary Joel raised some questions regarding the RRS’ historical publications during this month’s meeting. Previous regular publications include Aerojet and RRS News, and Vice-President Frank gave a brief description of their history. Joel and Frank discussed possibly publishing short-form articles on rrs.org in the coming future.

Also, President Dave felt the need to mention that Executive council nominations will occurr in three months, in November. Any voting member of the society may nominate themselves and run for any position they wish. Dave is currently planning to step down from the Presidency, so there is guaranteed to be some shuffling of the Council this year.

The next society meeting will be on June 9th, 2023, at the Compton/Woodley Airport location. Contact the secretary for details.

Compton Comet Update, July 2023

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by Joel Cool-Panama, Compton Comet Engineer, RRS Secretary

Compton Comet team, including Tre, Joel, and Marx, as well as mentor and RRS President Dave Nordling

The Compton Comet has made a lot of progress in the past few weeks. In that time we’ve managed to have new pipes fabricated for the LOX and ethanol systems, allowing us to finally complete them. We had previously tried to bend tubing by ourselves, since our budget is quite limited. However, it proved to be practically impossible to bend larger tubing without kinking, especially 1″ diameter tubes, with the simple pipe bending tools at our disposal. In the end, these problems were overcome by Waldo Stakes, one of our generous mentors, having the aluminum pipes bent at his own expense. We know from previous quotes for tube bending that this can in fact run into the thousands of dollars, so we are surely indebted to him and his generosity.

We’ve also started, and finished, LOX washing the plumbing, especially the pipes leading to and from the LOX tank. LOX is a very strong oxidizer, and the presence of any remotely flammable material in the plumbing system could spell disaster. For this reason LOX washing is vitally important, and the knowledge of how to properly do it is practically required in rocketry.

With the plumbing all cleaned and installed, we will begin doing low pressure tests of the whole system. This should reveal the majority of any leaks that may be present. Naturally we will need to retest and tighten the whole system once we get it out to the RRS MTA for the hot fire test, but doing a low pressure test now will practically ensure that there are no irreparable problems with the system when we get out there, from where we would likely be incapable of fixing those problems with what tools and supplies we can reasonably bring with us.