The California State Fire Marshal’s (CSFM) office held a sub-committee meeting to discuss potential changes to the definitions in the state laws concerning amateur rocketry. This meeting on Friday, 2/21/2020, at the CSFM offices in Monrovia was the second of two meetings held between CSFM and amateur rocketry representatives to informally discuss and review ideas for improvements. The laws had several ambiguities and areas for improvement which would better reflect the needs of our growing amateur rocketry community and provide for clarity and safety at all points.
The RRS was glad to host Ramiro Rodriguez, the state fire marshal of the local Hollywood office last year both at our February 2019 meeting and later as a speaker at the 2019 RRS symposium in April. The RRS and representatives from the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) and the Rocketry Organization of California (ROC) had met several times over the last calendar year leading to a consensus opinion on a few areas that would be presented to CSFM for consideration. Many of the ideas were with regards to fees, transportation issues and the different licensing classes of pyrotechnic operators for rocketry.
The RRS, FAR and ROC were glad to have the opportunity to speak frankly and give the state reasonable ideas that would preserve the freedoms in our hobby while keeping only responsible measures for assuring public safety as is required by CSFM.
CSFM will report their findings back to the home office in Sacramento and begin to discuss the next steps to amend the legislation governing amateur rocketry. We hope to hear more in the coming months as several of our ideas were accepted.
Dave Nordling, Secretary, Reaction Research Society
The Reaction Research Society (RRS) met for our last monthly meeting of the year on December 13, 2019, at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena, California. We had a full house with three different universities represented and a few returning members who came out to see how this year was ending for the society. The Compton College STEM club came out and some of them joined the RRS that night. Compton College is working on their own liquid rocket build which may next year see some important testing conducted.
Compton College STEM club at the December 2019 meeting of the RRS. From left to right, Katherine Perez, Desiree Medina, Erik Aparicio, Jamie Alvarez
Frank Chandler who is the director of Cal Poly Pomona’s (CPP) liquid rocket group and an RRS member was also at the meeting to discuss a March test date at the RRS MTA. He mentioned that Cal Poly Pomona recently had a tour of the AstroPak company in Downey, California. AstroPak has been in the business of cleaning mechanical parts for oxygen service for many years. The CPP students got to see each step of the process and learned the importance of maintaining this cleanliness throughout operations. Nearly all liquid rocket projects have decided to use liquid oxygen which has it’s own challenges to meet. Studying and keeping good cleanliness practices is paramount to avoiding catastrophe.
Chris Lujan and Frank Miuccio establish the link to bring in Richard Garcia, our director of research into the meeting.
We also were happy to have our director of research, Richard Garcia, calling into the meeting. Frank Miuccio and Chris Lujan have been very helpful in establishing a call-in number for some of our former and current members to call in when they are away from the city. We hope to have more of our membership calling in so that they may remain informed and active with their membership in the society. As per our tradition, we always value those making the trip to visit us in person.
After calling the meeting to order, and the reading of the treasury report, we covered our agenda items. We covered nearly all of our agenda and had time for special presentation from two members of Long Beach Rocketry at California State University Long Beach (CSULB). The purpose of their visit was to introduce themselves to the RRS.
CSU Long Beach presenters with their latest prototype on display at the December 2019 meeting of the RRS.Frank Chandler sits at the table next to the Long Beach Rocketry team’s next assembly on display at the December meeting of the RRS.
Corey Fraga and Dan Dao gave us a short presentation of their team and some of their recent accomplishments. Their solid motor rocket project started in 2015 and has done well in recent competitions including the NASA University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) taking fifth place among a long list of worthy competitors. They also brought their most recent prototype vehicle which has a quadricopter drone built into the cargo bay. After the rocket completes its flight and gently touches down from its parachute recovery system, the cargo bay opens from an electric motor driven mechanism which allows the drone to take off and survey the landing site. The idea is to create a system that could be useful in planetary exploration or even in remote or dangerous areas here on Earth.
CSU Long Beach (Corey Fraga, Dan Dao) makes their presentation on their latest competition at Huntsville, AL.
The Long Beach Rocketry group offered to give the RRS a tour of their lab facilities on campus. The RRS graciously accepted their invitation. We should hopefully announce a date soon for this event.
Corey Fraga and Dan Dao finish their presentation at the December meeting of the RRS.
[1] Results from the last MTA launch
The launch report from the December 7, 2019, event has already been posted. We had a successful event despite an earlier concern for bad weather. Thankfully, the rain fell early and had cleared by Saturday morning. We were able to get our equipment set up for the event, but the society needs to invest in a simple sumping pump in case we need to remove any standing water from our bunkers or other enclosed spaces that have failed to drain from a recent rain or flooding. We are thankful to our neighbors at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) for letting us borrow their sump pump.
Two students of 99th Street Elementary wait for the next launch in the RRS MTA observation bunker. Many of our observers could use something to stand a little higher to see better.
I also noticed that we could use a few more cinder blocks in the blockhouse. Many of our students are too short to see over the wall and the few blocks we already have are not enough. The RRS should buy a few more cinder blocks and possibly make some standing benches to help our students see their hard work better from the safety of the observation bunker.
An RRS standard alpha takes off into the moist air of December at the MTA.
Another observation made was the students from the neighboring Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) site were often seen walking around too close to the RRS launching site as we were conducting road and air checks for our alpha rocket launches. It appeared that they were searching to recover their rocket from their prior flight, but we aborted three different countdowns due to car movements seen, or people crossing by on the north road adjacent to our property, and even one oblivious individual who was walking downrange of our own RRS MTA launch site as we were in the count!. The RRS and FAR must better coordinate our launch and recovery protocols respecting each others’ boundaries if only for the safety of all people concerned.
FAR and the RRS often conduct events on the same day and since our societies are sharing the launch areas and have many common interests, the RRS will work with FAR to find the best approach to assure safety and smooth operations for all.
[2] Next events at the MTA
Frank Miuccio is already working on the next event with LAPD CSP. The program will likely have its first class possibly on the Friday after the Martin Luther King holiday. Five to six weeks later means that the launch event could take place in late February or early March 2020.
I’ve been planning a launch event at the RRS Mojave Test Area (MTA) much sooner than that. For too many years, the RRS MTA sits empty in January and February for no good reason. I sought to undo this trend by holding an event just with our membership the way that our society used to operate.
At first, I was able to confirm Wolfram Blume who wants to fly his booster and ramjet upper stage system, if only for a system test of his booster, staging mechanism and recovery system. The ramjet upper stage will not be fired and will be loaded with an equivalent weight of water in its gasoline fuel tank to get the correct balance of the final vehicle. It’s a bit of risk to fly the actual ramjet prototype but there is no better way to get the right aerodynamics. It should be a good test and with luck his systems all pass the first flight test at the RRS MTA.
Larry and I have been talking about integrating a commercial hybrid motor into his 38mm fiberglass rocket. If I can acquire the motor parts, Larry will help me get the recovery system and the rest of the motor mounting complete. This will be the first hybrid motor launch from the RRS MTA in a very long time.
Also, John Krell voiced his interest in re-flying his improved avionics payload in an RRS standard alpha. This one will have an expanded accelerometer range to catch the ultra-fast burn of the alpha. He’s working on improving the data rate as recent open-source software changes have downgrading the sampling by half for some inexplicable reason.
CSULB’s Long Beach Rocketry team, (left to right) Corey Fraga and Dan Dao, Frank Chandler (CPP) and John Krell at the December meeting of the RRS
Brian Johnson and Bill Behenna each have avionics packages in development. The RRS has plenty of alpha boosters ready if members can get their payloads integrated into a suitable payload tube in time. We hope to confirm the launch manifest by New Year’s Day so I am hopeful we will have a fun launch day on January 18, 2020. We have also spread the word to our university project teams that the RRS MTA will be open for testing or flights if they can be ready on this date early in the year. The RRS encourages all teams to plan ahead and test early and often to assure their later success.
[3] Progress on the 2020 RRS symposium
Frank Miuccio, our vice president and symposium coordinator, has had some difficulties in confirming the symposium date, but we are hopeful that the April 18, 2020 will be the symposium date. We also may have the option for April 25, 2020. The Ken Nakaoka Community Center of Gardena will hopefully confirm the date for our symposium Monday.
The Long Beach Rocketry group and the Compton College STEM club have both indicated their interest in presenting or exhibiting at the 2020 RRS symposium. In many cases, it can be first come, first serve. This will be the fourth symposium in a row for us and we hope to continue the momentum we’ve built. I have a few government and private companies in mind to give us a great slate of speakers. We just need to confirm the symposium date.
[4] Treasurer’s report on the membership roster, dues payment policy change
Chris Lujan has been surveying the sign-up sheets from past months over recent years to help establish who has been attending meetings and how often. Active membership requires participation in the society as it does with any group. Attending monthly meetings is not the only means of staying active as attending launch events or participating in outside events also qualifies. The RRS is working on building a firm definition to make clear when a member is or is not active. This is important as our Constitution requires both an administrative membership class AND active membership to retain voting rights. Each year, we try to reach our past and present members but without effort on the member’s part to keep their information current, our elections and voting on important measures must go on without them. Contacting any member of the RRS executive council is the best way to keep the society updated on your whereabouts and contact information.. The membership roster is managed by the RRS treasurer.
treasurer@rrs.org
Chris is also working up some percentages for how many of our active membership are current with their dues payment. Initial estimates are encouraging, but since we have many new members who paid upon their induction, these high percentages make sense. It is our longer term members who are often neglecting their duty to keep their dues paid each year. Dues payment is also an essential element of membership.
The executive council has voted a policy change to when dues are to be paid. Effective immediately, all dues payments must be made by January 1st of each calendar year. I was glad that the society has supported this firm fixed date which makes accounting for dues much easier on our treasurer. The membership roster will also track dues payment and active membership status. For the several lifetime members in the society, this past membership class will remain and dues payment is not required for these persons, however, remaining active with the society is still a requirement to keep voting rights.
[5] 2020 Constitutional Committee report
Frank Miuccio was able to report that the 2020 Constitutional Committee has met a couple of times in the last two months and is reviewing the last page of the new draft. The committee will present its draft to the executive council at year’s end. The executive council will review the draft before presenting it to our administrative membership for consideration and a subsequent two-thirds ratification vote.
[6] Social media updates
Our social media coordinators were both not in attendance in December. The RRS continues to be active on Instagram. Our Facebook page needs some management. The RRS is also looking at trying to build a calendar feature on the RRS.ORG website to better announce events.
secretary@rrs.org
The RRS continues to use WordPress for its ease of use and simplicity, but the society has been considering reformatting and restyling our page or at least re-organizing the menu options to make finding common things easier. This will be a task for the new RRS secretary.
[7] CSFM committee on amateur rocketry
The California State Fire Marshal’s (CSFM) office has been holding hearings with the broader pyrotechnic operator’s community throughout the state this year. Most of the community is made up of the fireworks and special effects community. Amateur rocketry is a smaller and separate group which has our own interests we operate very differently from the other larger groups.
The RRS (Larry Hoffing), ROC (Chris Kobel) and FAR (Mark Holthaus) discuss a collective list of proposed changes to CSFM definitions governing amateur rocketry on 12/04/2019.
Mark Holthaus of FAR has been reviewing the definitions pages of the California laws relevant to amateur rocketry. The RRS and FAR have met on three different occasions in the last two months. The RRS has found FAR’s proposed changes to be very reasonable and accurately reflect how we can continue to operate safely. We have also included feedback from members of the Rocketry Organization of California (ROC) at the last two meetings. David Reese of ROC has been particularly helpful in improving and clarifying the language which governs our hobby and we are also grateful for his assistance.
Mark has made arrangements to discuss our proposed changes with the CSFM office on Monday, December 16th. We hope this informal meeting goes well and that all of our recommendations can be implemented which will assure both safety and legal operations for our groups. Some of the amateur rocketry groups are not national organizations and would be harmed by excessive regulation from the state. The CSFM office has been very welcoming and open to ideas thus far. CSFM has not often held these kinds of reviews and the RRS recognizes the great opportunity we’ve had to help shape policy for everyone in rocketry in California.
[8] RRS executive council election results for 2020
Larry Hoffing, our appointed election chairman for this annual election cycle, certified his results to the membership at our December 2019 meeting as required per our Constitution. Each officer was elected by unanimous vote. Our new executive council officers starting in January 1, 2020 are as follows:
Osvaldo Tarditti, president@rrs.org
Frank Miuccio, vicepresident@rrs.org
Drew Cortopassi, secretary@rrs.org
Chris Lujan, treasurer@rrs.org
The RRS is grateful to our election chairman, Larry Hoffing, for fulfilling his duties to the society. The council will appoint a new chairman next November when we hold nominations for the next election cycle. The society is thankful to our new and returning officers who have stepped up to serve the society for this next exciting year, 2020.
[9] Proposed RRS MTA standard fee schedule
The RRS has become increasingly active with more and more requests to use our Mojave Test Area (MTA). This is a very good thing, but often scheduling of hot-fire events has become excessively chaotic. The RRS understands that sometimes things happen that can force cancellation of a planned event with little or no notice. Weather is often the main culprit of such things. However, as one who has participated in coordinating launch events at the MTA this year in conjunction with our RRS president, I have seen many occasions when poor planning is the only reason for a last minute cancellation. Worst yet, the society has also received far too many last minute requests for use of our site. The RRS is in the process of drafting a standard fee schedule which will explain the requirements for outside users of the MTA. The exact details of this forthcoming policy are still under discussion, but the following is some of the ideas that were discussed.
The RRS is happy to help as many organizations as we can, but our customers must understand that:
(1) We are a volunteer society. Few, if any, of us are paid for the substantial time and resources spent to make these events possible. While we often generously donate our time to support and promote these events, the society needs money to operate and improve our site and this must come from charging fees to pay for repairs improvement projects. A standard fee schedule will be drafted, reviewed and approved by the society before the end of the year.
(2) We operate the RRS MTA by APPOINTMENT ONLY! There is no sign-up calendar like what is used by other amateur rocketry organizations such as FAR. We operate in this fashion because we stress the importance of advanced planning. Last minute requests for using the MTA site will very likely be rejected. Rocketry is a dangerous hobby and the importance of careful preparation is reflected in the desire of the RRS to accept only advance notification for all proposed projects. This not only makes planning events easier for all parties, but it makes them safer. Contact the RRS president for all requests to use the RRS MTA.
(3) Our indemnification forms are required to be signed and submitted by ALL PERSONS well in advance of attending the event. This includes spectators, spouses, significant others, and children. This has been standing policy at the RRS MTA and will remain so. Just showing up at our MTA site on the day of the event is NOT acceptable and people will be turned away if our policies are not respected.
(4) We expect several weeks advance notice to conduct a thorough review of each new project. This means that all groups must have their operating procedures, checklists, drawings, schematics already prepared for the pyro-op’s review when the request is submitted.well in advance of the requested event date. Expecting the pyro-op to examine your intended test article and procedures for the project only on the day of the event upon their arrival is NOT REASONABLE.
Events at the MTA will be conducted with a pyro-op appointed by the RRS. Our pyro-op should have had the opportunity to see everything well planned and well in advance. Attending RRS monthly meetings is an excellent way for potential users to familiarize themselves with the society and our expectations. Submitting your project description on an RRS standard record form a month in advance and was formerly policy at the RRS. Everyone must understand that the pyro-op in charge can refuse any test at any time for any reason making your journey out to the MTA all for naught.
Based on an accumulation of both good and bad experiences, I will undertake a project to draft an official RRS policy on testing at the MTA for our outside customers that will take affect on January 1, 2020. I was glad to get a lot of feedback from potential customers and other members at the December meeting. To our society members, please send me your feedback soon as I will be working this policy out in the next two weeks before the executive council approves it.
The RRS will begin charging standard daily fees for use of the MTA site and charging a separate daily fee for the pyrotechnic operator in charge at this event. Pricing may vary with private companies and universities, but in all cases, fees are expected to be paid before approval of the event is given by the RRS. Cancellations within two weeks of the event will result in forfeiture of all of those fees for that event date and new fees must be paid again for a new test date. When customers stand to lose their fees if they fail to deliver on their commitments to the RRS, they will better understand the importance of managing their projects better as they must now avoid the cost of cancellations. Other groups, both amateur and professional organizations, operate successfully with these kinds of policies and the RRS will be enforcing their own policies soon.
[10] Review of the Gas Guzzler ramjet project
Wolfram Blume and his wife were kind enough to stop by the December RRS meeting bringing his booster rocket for one more inspection. I will be the pyro-op in charge of his first test flight on 1/18/2020 and I wanted a closer look at how secure and stiff his fins were. Based on my inspection, his booster looks ready for rail launch. With luck, his staging and recovery systems will function without issue. Wolfram has borrowed from prior successful designs flown at ROC events in Lucerne Valley. The RRS is glad to assist him with this ambitious project.
Wolfram Blume stands with his booster used on the Gas Guzzler project.
[11] Solid propellant making classes
The RRS was approached about restarting our composite grain propellant making classes at the RRS MTA. After some careful assessment of our equipment, resources and available personnel, the RRS is not yet ready to offer these classes again. Twenty years ago, the society held a few of these solid motor building classes which became very popular. The RRS is building back our capabilities and this will take some time.
The Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) has offered similar classes at their site and for the time being, the RRS must refer interested parties to them.
[12] SuperDosa project update
The SuperDosa project was established two years ago with the intent of the RRS restarting our large solid motor building skills to progressively build larger vehicles able to not only breach the von Karman line (100 km ASL), but surpass the current amateur rocketry altitude record holder. Despite our increasing membership, we have not had much progress to date. Given my commitments to several liquid rocket projects, I am handing over my leadership duties to Drew Sherman. Drew is a founder of Leo Aerospace and also an active RRS member. His interests very much align with this project and with the combined resources of others in the society building high powered motors, we hope that Drew can continue this project to its lofty goal of bringing the title back to the Reaction Research Society.
[13] RRS MTA facility improvements
Osvaldo Tarditti, our society president, continues to lead our MTA facility improvement projects, chief among those is improving our bathroom facilities at the site. Osvaldo has drafted plans for an improved bathroom facility at our remote RRS MTA site. The RRS will be soliciting bids from local contractors soon and we hope to commence this important improvement at the MTA sometime this spring and complete by the summer. The society has nearly enough funds for this project, but we are hoping to receive a few more thousand dollars to initiate this project sooner than later.
Also on our list of improvements is a blockhouse replacement, horizontal mounting plate at our testing area to create a regular interface pattern for future users rather than continue the unregulated drilling of anchor bolts (and the hated “male” variety of these anchor bolts) into our concrete slab. RRS members, Dmitri Timohovich and Wilbur Owens have been supporting the society on this improvement as it will require heavy equipment to place and secure this trench plate at the RRS MTA.
Larry Hoffing has recognized that the society will soon need a second 40-foot container for storage. We will be acquiring some new solid propellant mixing equipment and we need to rearrange our inventory in a more organized and accessible fashion. Whether this comes in the form of a new container on our MTA site or possibly one given to us from our site tenant, Polaris Propulsion Inc., remains to be seen. The society will continue to monitor progress and set goals to complete these tasks.
IN CLOSING
This will be my last monthly report as I am stepping down as secretary of the RRS. I have enjoyed serving in this role for the last three years, but it is time for me to allow a new secretary to lend his voice to you, our readers. I will remain active with the society, but only as a member engaged in many projects around the society. The society grows as we bring new members in and the society gets new ideas. It is also important that we also get new leadership from time to time. I hope to see more of our new administrative membership step up for these executive council roles in the future. There is no better way to help the society than with service.
As my last parting comment, I would encourage ALL of our membership to write and submit articles. The RRS.ORG website is one of the best ways we educate and inform the public about the things that interest the society in rocketry. Even simple academic subjects are excellent ideas. Next year, you may see a couple articles from me, but I want to encourage all of our membership to do more than just mention ideas in conversations, but write them down, text them, email them, convey them to the RRS secretary. It is the job of the RRS secretary to be the chief editor and means of publication for our membership. Past articles are welcome as we have re-printed ones from our long past. We also heartily welcome new content. Any time is a good time to submit.
Our next meeting will be held January 10, 2020, at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center at 7:30PM. If there are questions or corrections, please notify the RRS secretary. After January 1, this will be Drew Cortopassi.
secretary@rrs.org
With gracious thanks to the society, I hope to see everyone in the new year.
Group photo taken at the end of the December 13, 2019 meeting of the RRS in Gardena.
The Reaction Research Society (RRS) held it’s monthly meeting on August 10, 2018 at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center. We were very well attended with four new people including returning member, Jim French. I was unable to attend the meeting, but other council members gave me their notes.
The RRS meeting got a late start at 8:00pm. (Our starting time is supposed to be 7:30pm.) The agenda items were not covered in order, but the list of topics to be covered were as follows:
[1]
This was to be a discussion of the 2018-07-21 launch event that the RRS held at the MTA with LAPD CSP and the student group at Watts. The event was successful with both the student alpha launches and a few RRS member alphas with payloads. The event was summarized in a previous article. A few things could have been done better which will make future events go more smoothly.
[+] A single, simpler briefing to the kids would have been more effective. The kids in the student classes do pay attention at the events (which is great) but the RRS is giving a lot of redundant information and a more concise presentation delivered by only the pyro-op will be far better than having three people talking at the same time.
[+] Also, every person conducting a launch or hot-firing at the MTA must submit a detailed proposal to the pyro-op for review at least a week in advance and gain the RRS and pyro-op’s approval PRIOR to coming to the event. The RRS used to be even more stringent on this requirement. The use of the RRS standard record form is required to be filled out by the experimenter for review by the pyro-op. The RRS requires advance preparation and there is no reason why this can not be done by all participants.
In recent times, our pyro-ops have been very casual about this requirement and have been kind enough to review things on the spot, but this was always at the pyro-op’s discretion. The pyro-op is the single and solo authority for what is and isn’t done at the launch event. The pyro-op should be the most informed individual about what is going to be attempted at the MTA.
The RRS has a Standard Record Form available on this website under the Membership tab of the Homepage and under the subheading of Forms. This downloadable document gives members a basic framework for the detailed information they must provide to the pyro-op describing their project and its goals. The RRS encourages members to present their proposed projects at the meetings and be very detailed in any reports submitted to the pyro-op and RRS president. The RRS wishes to keep good records to benefit the society and future projects.
[+] In future events where we have the student launch event conducted first, we should not plan nor conduct any events before the student launch. Getting back to an earlier point, having launch and hot-fire events declared, reviewed and scheduled days in advance will help make RRS events go more smoothly and safely. Years of experience at the MTA has shown that tasks ALWAYS take longer than planned and too much waiting can make coordination of large groups unnecessarily difficult. Therefore, having our coordinated events go off first without distractions from other planned activities will make it easier for our pyro-ops to conduct their duties and make our participants be more organized in their projects.
[+] The extreme heat of mid-July made it very difficult to conduct operations but having the motorized cart to shuttle the pyro-ops to and from the launch site made a critical difference. Bringing ice in the summer is a necessity. Having everyone well prepared for the hot weather continues to be the best advice.
[2]
Chris Kobel who is a member of Rocketry Organization of California (ROC) shared some advice for pyrotechnic operators (pyro-op). Chris has been a pyro-op for over 10 years and is pretty active with amateur rocketry. Safety was the primary emphasis of his presentation. He also mentioned a key point of contact at the Office of the State Fire Marshall (OSFM) of California, Tom Campbell. Mr. Campbell is very important authority at the California State Fire Marshall’s office who can answer important questions. Chris and the other pyro-op members at ROC were also willing to counsel RRS members interested in becoming pyro-op’s.
The RRS was glad to have Chris give our membership a wealth of information. We look forward to working more with Chris and ROC in the near future as the RRS is expanding our roster of pyro-ops for our growing events.
[3]
Osvaldo’s flight telemetry from his alpha flight on 2018-07-21 was briefly mentioned at the meeting. It was good that the flight was successful that data was taken. Given the time constraints, he’ll give more details at the next month’s meeting.
[4]
Progress on the RRS alpha parachute systems and future attempts was to be detailed by both Osvaldo and Larry who each attempted a unique recovery system built into the small confines of the alpha payload tube. Again, insufficient time was available at this meeting and this event can move to next month.
[5]
Sam Austin gave a presentation of MIT’s solid rocket launch and his upcoming liquid rocket hot-fire. Sam is here in Los Angeles for the summer on his internship, but managed to find time to launch his rocket from the FAR site on the same day the RRS held our launch event on 2018-07-21. The MIT team’s custom-built solid rocket motor (O4000) made from scratch reached an altitude of 33,132 feet as confirmed by dual altimeters. The vehicle weighed 121 lbm at liftoff and reached a peak velocity of Mach 1.8.
MIT’s rocket launch from FAR on 2018-07-21
MIT team poses with their rocket, 2018-07-21
Sam described a rough order of operations for their solid rocket grain making process and detailed their recovery. The rocket touched down safely 2 miles away and was fully recovered. The MIT team was elated and attributes their successful launch to careful design, many hours of testing that went into every component. The RRS is happy for MIT’s success and hopes they will test at the MTA with their next rocket.
[6]
There will be a liquid rocket hot fire testing on August 18th at both the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) site and the RRS MTA. Sam Austin has been working on his liquid rocket motor to test at FAR, next door to the RRS MTA site. Richard Garcia has built a small liquid motor for what could become the RRS standard liquid rocket design. Our two members have agreed to share resources and the hot fire events will take place on 2018-08-18.
Both projects will use a nitrogen K-bottle as their pressurization source and will share a liquid oxygen dewar to provide the oxidizer to both of their engines. Richard’s and Sam’s liquid rocket motors will use kerosene as a fuel. Richard’s design is a 1000-lbf thrust design with an assumed chamber pressure of 300 psig.
Sam and Richard have put a lot of work into these projects and we hope they have success. I plan to go out there to help document the event for a new posting to come shortly after.
[7]
The meeting was to discuss upcoming RRS launch events including the next one with LAPD. Frank has said that the next event with the LAPD CSP will be with the Boys and Girls Club. LAPD CSP is also working on setting up another school group in Watts for an RRS event. Specific dates were not yet set, but that information will be coming soon. We will post announcements of forthcoming launch events in the “Forum” section of this webpage.
[8]
RRS Instagram and YouTube account guidelines have been generated by RRS treasurer, Chris Lujan, and are now being reviewed by the RRS executive council. The idea of creating an RRS media manager position was proposed and accepted by the council. The RRS is considering offering this new position to RRS members, Bill Janczewski and Alastair Martin, who both have put forth a great deal of excellent work for the society. The RRS executive council will vote soon to better our social media presence to help our outreach efforts and give our followers a better view into the society.
Richard Garcia shared access information with the executive council on the existing social media accounts that the RRS has including Facebook and YouTube.
The RRS executive council now has access to Instagram and will be sharing photos from events more easily and quickly with our public audience. I have already begun to load photos I’ve had from recent events. More of the RRS will be posting to Instagram very soon.
Subjects not on the agenda included:
[BONUS 1]
The RRS will start to hold special Saturday morning seminars for special topics that can be covered in more depth outside of our monthly meeting. These bi-monthly sessions will take some work to coordinate, but should allow more of our membership to enjoy the quality of talks that we have been privileged to enjoy. Jim French agreed to give the first of the RRS Saturday seminars at a date to be determined very soon. Jim was a member of the RRS 25 years ago and we’re happy he’s come back to join us.
book by RRS member, Jim French
James R. “Jim” French also has the distinction of being a rocket engineer for over 60 years and worked at TRW on the Apollo program. He wrote a book about his experiences called “Firing a Rocket”. This first RRS Saturday seminar will be a great presentation to start this series. The date will be announced soon.
[BONUS 2]
I have been able to get the top and bottom plates made for the RRS ballistic evaluation motor (BEM) which will be a key part of the SuperDosa project and the RRS having the ability to take accurate burn rate measurements at the MTA for future motors. I am thankful to Matt Moffitt of CNC Specialty Machining in Huntington Beach. I hope to have the cylinder piece in the RRS BEM machined soon. This will likely require lathe work. Osvaldo is also looking into getting this part made. It is my hope the RRS BEM can be completed by the next quarterly update of the SuperDosa project in October 2018.
Top and bottom plates for the RRS BEM just back from the mill.
I have heard that Jack Oswald is trying to get into testing his large solid motor with an improved design. The RRS may have more to present next month on this subject.
[BONUS 3]
I wanted to bring a special device I bought from Additive Aerospace called a fly-away rail guide. I was introduced to this device by David Reese of ROC. Although the RRS has a very effective box-type rail launcher at the MTA site which will remain our standard technique, I decided to attempt a new method of launching an alpha just to get a longer guided path on launch.
This device allows a rocket to be fired from a extruded aluminum rail launcher such as the one we have at the RRS MTA, but without having to permanently attach the round launch buttons to the rocket itself. A spring-loaded clampshell piece goes around the rocket with a launch button on either side such that the clamp is closed when the rocket is on the rail. As the rocket takes off, the fly-away rail guide goes with the rocket along the rail launcher until the buttons clear the rail and swing open releasing it from the rocket as it speeds away.
Fly-away rail guide from Additive Aerospace; custom-built for an RRS standard alpha rocket, shown in the open position.
These devices are intended for common model rockets of the standard metric sizes (38mm, 54mm, 76mm, 98mm). I had this rail guide customized to fit an RRS standard alpha rocket which is slightly smaller than the 38mm size at 1.25 inches in diameter. I hope to demonstrate the fly-away rail guide device with a loaded RRS alpha from the 12-foot rail launcher at the RRS at the next event. I will relay my findings to the society and back to Additive Aerospace who is very interested to see how their design can work with the RRS micrograin rockets.
[IN CLOSING}
Meeting adjourned at 9:16pm which isn’t too bad. Our hosts at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center continue to graciously allow us to finish up despite the center’s closing at 9:00pm on Fridays. The RRS should seek to better finish on time as the staff at the center need to go home.
The next meeting of the RRS will be held on September 14, 2018.
For questions, contact the RRS treasurer, Chris Lujan. treasurer@rrs.org
