Tag Archives: USC

April 2019 meeting

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The RRS held our monthly meeting on April 12, 2019 at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena. We had a full agenda with the 2019 RRS symposium just around the corner on Saturday, April 27th.

The symposium is just around the corner

We first welcomed two new members, Keith Yoerg and Jonathan Martinez. Keith is active with Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum (TAM) at the Compton Airport and has given many educational programs to local schools. He’s also a graduate of USC and a former member of their Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (RPL). Jonathan Martinez joins the RRS as a student member from Compton High School. He’s been working at TAM and the RRS hopes to help him in his new project to hot-fire a liquid rocket.

Keith Yoerg (left) watches Waldo Stakes (right) show off the gas generator injector he brought to the meeting.
New RRS member, Jonathan Martinez (left) and Wilbur Owens (right) at the April 2019 meeting of the RRS.

We next talked about the recent launch event with LAPD CSP and Compton Elementary. The “Rockets in the Projects” program is going strong and we were glad to welcome Compton Elementary to our workspace and launchpad in the Mojave Desert.

Dave Crisalli, our pyro-op for the event, gives the safety briefing to all attendees including Compton Elementary, LAPD and USC RPL

Under very pleasant weather, we had a good launch event starting with a tour, safety briefing and the kids finally getting a chance to see their rockets fly into the blue sky. Osvaldo had a seventh alpha rocket with a parachute system, but somehow failed to deploy. USC static-fired a six-inch custom solid motor.

An alpha assembled at Compton Elementary streaks away from the box rails at the RRS MTA
USC’s six-inch solid composite grain motor burns for full duration at the RRS MTA. A second motor will be integrated into the Traveller IV vehicle that USC will launch from Spaceport America in New Mexico

After Compton Elementary and LAPD CSP went home, Osvaldo, Frank, Larry and I did a little reconnaissance for the alphas we flew at the event. We were able to find 3 of the original 6 and one more alpha from the past MTA launch event. The higher level winds have been carrying the alphas in a more northerly direction west of the launch rails. For reference, Osvaldo recorded the following coordinates for one of the alphas found: 35* 21′ 16.83″ North, 117* 48′ 50.03″ West.

Using the local wildflowers, Larry marks the location of a newly recovered alpha from the last MTA launch event

The 2019 RRS symposium was the next topic. We have over 300 Eventbrite tickets sold at the time of the meeting. The symposium has confirmed a full roster of speakers including AFRL Edwards AFB, Northrop-Grumman, USAF SMC. We decided not to hold the panel discussion this year. The symposium will start at 8:45AM on Saturday, April 27th.

Frank Miuccio goes over the preparations for the 2019 RRS symposium to be held on Saturday, April 27, 2019

The Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena will allow us to set up the night before (4/26/19) at 7pm until they close at 9pm. There’s a lot of work to be done and we hope all of our membership can come out on Friday and help us with setting up tables and hanging the sign outside.

We also hope all of our membership can help at the symposium on Saturday (4/27/2019) as well. The Ken Nakaoka Community Center opens at 8AM, we will have just a little bit of time to get ready before the event begins at 8:45am with our RRS president, Osvaldo Tarditti, giving the introductory presentation.

RRS member group photo from last year’s 75th anniversary symposium (1943-2018)

The next topic of discussion at the April 2019 meeting was facility improvements at the RRS MTA. The society has decided to invest in upgrading our blockhouse and building a new restroom facility at the site for better creature comfort for the increasing number of guests we’re having each year. Osvaldo has been working up the plans for these two facility improvements and will get bids very soon.

We also hope to solicit donations from the public at the symposium to help the society reach our goals for these facility improvement projects. To anyone wishing to make a monetary donation to the RRS, you can use the “DONATE” button on the RRS.ORG homepage which connects to Paypal. Please leave us a note and accept our thanks. The society is striving to improve our facilities as we prepare to have more events this year.

Osvaldo also told us more about the RRS participating with CALFIRE in their review of the state laws governing amateur rocketry. Members of the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) organization have also been working with CALFIRE on this important committee. It is the goal of the RRS to inform the public and governing agencies on ways to make the law reasonable, practical and just to the amateur rocketry as we uphold our commitment to public safety. CALFIRE has been very supportive of our hobby and we are building stronger relationships with the State of California and our fellow rocketry organizations.

Dave Crisalli (RRS member), Larry Hoffing (RRS events coordinator), Ramiro Rodriguez (CALFIRE) and Osvaldo Tarditti (RRS president) at the RRS MTA launch event on 4/6/2019

Discussion on our last topic on the agenda was about the RRS’s participation with the base11 project. We were not able to talk about this subject in much detail as closing time had fast approached. As an educational non-profit group, the RRS has a charter to support university groups. The base11 project is very ambitious in its goal of student-run teams building and flying a liquid rocket to an altitude of 100 km or higher. This multi-year program will be a challenge on many levels both financial and technical. The RRS is happy to support the base11 Space Challenge at the RRS MTA.

The RRS is proud to support teams for the Base11 Space Challenge

The remaining agenda topics will be covered in next month’s meeting including the quarterly progress update on the SuperDosa project and the RRS partnership with Tomorrow’s Aeronautical Museum (TAM).

The Reaction Research Society meets the 2nd Friday of each month at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena, California, at 7:30pm.

The RRS is very exciting about the projects we have planned for this summer. Our next monthly meeting will be Friday, May 10th, 2019 at 7:30pm.

MTA launch, 2019-04-06

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Dave Nordling, Secretary, RRS.ORG

The Reaction Research Society (RRS) had another launch event at the Mojave Test Area (MTA). We had a nice cool day for the launch with a little wind. The winter seasonal rains left the land green which was a lovely change to the usual desert brown.

The RRS sign welcomes our guests to the MTA. The winter seasonal rains had turned the land green.
Desert flora in bloom downrange of the RRS MTA

We were pleased to be joined by California State Fire Marshal, Ramiro Rodriguez, who came out to see our amateur rocketry group in action. David Crisalli was our pyro-op for the event and I was glad to apprentice under him once again for this event.

RRS events coordinator, Larry Hoffing; RRS member and pyro-op, Dave Crisalli, California State Fire Marshal, Ramiro Rodriguez; and RRS secretary, Dave Nordling

Also joining us was the students at University of Southern California’s Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (USC RPL). The students had prepared a 6-inch solid motor for static fire test. They were demonstrating an improved carbon-phenolic nozzle design. They arrived the night before and made preparations all morning.

The name of USC’s 6-inch solid motor was “Poise”

USC still had a few more steps to go in their preparations before our other guests from Compton Elementary arrived. LAPD CSP and the RRS were glad to bring another class of young minds to see firsthand a rocket in flight. After all had arrived and settled, we held our safety briefing with our pyro-op, Dave Crisalli.

Students, LAPD officers, USC and the RRS gather in front of the George Dosa building for the safety briefing.
Ramiro relates practical advise on safety to the students of USC RPL.
Everyone safe in the observation bunker. We’re ready to launch.

We had six of our standard alphas made by the kids at Compton Elementary. This launch event is the final day in the educational sessions we do with local schools thanks to our partnership with the LAPD CSP.

5 of the 6 alphas sit in the rack; Osvaldo’s alpha with a parachute sits to the left.

We loaded each of the rockets in the numerical order they were labelled. Each team had their own color scheme to help make them unique. Reds and blues stand out well against the desert browns and green of the brush.

A very well timed shot of an RRS alpha just clearing the box rails.
A not-so well timed shot just a split-second too slow on the shutter.

After the last alpha from Compton Elementary, we launched Osvaldo’s alpha with a parachute recovery system packed in the payload tube. The parachute deployment system has a simple timer circuit that starts when a pin is pulled as the rocket speeds away off the rails. The red flagged plug in the photo is the safety pin to prevent accidental activation of the payload.

Osvaldo’s customized alpha rocket with a parachute recovery system (left in the photo).

Unfortunately, the parachute system didn’t deploy after launch. It’s possible that the timer deployed the parachute too early which the forward pressure against the payload tube may have held the system in place. The other possibility is the timer didn’t start at all. Either way, the recovery of Osvaldo’s rocket had to be done like all the others… with a shovel.

After the last of the alphas fired, LAPD CSP packed up Compton Elementary for the long ride home. The RRS is grateful for the chance to show young people the excitement of rocketry in the Mojave desert.

Dave Crisalli talks wtih USC as they made their solid motor ready for static fire. USC had several cameras ready to record the 11 second firing.
Dave oversees the careful installation of the igniter system into the core of the solid motor.

The USC RPL team was ready after waiting through our fusillade of micrograin alphas. With final preparations made and instrumentation checking out, the installation of the igniter package on the end of a long sacrificial stick was inserted to the proper depth. Standing back and bringing everyone to safety, USC began their countdown.

Still capture from video taken from the RRS MTA blockhouse. The motor ran full duration.
Post hot-fire inspection showed the carbon-phenolic nozzle still in tact.

USC had predicted a peak thrust of 800 lbf and a burn duration of 11 seconds. Actual burn time matched predictions, but thrust levels may have been short of expectations. USC was crunching the data as the RRS moved on to recovery of the alphas from down-range.

We were fortunate to find three of the alphas from the launch event. They were found north-west of the launch site which was unexpected. Another alpha from last year’s event was also found.

One of the three alphas we recovered later in the afternoon.

Osvaldo’s ratcheting extractor tool came in handy once again to avoid the back-breaking work of shoveling out an alpha once it’s found.

Securing the chain links in a circle near the nozzle throat gives the steel cable something to grasp as the ratchet progressively pulls the rocket from the ground in the same direction it entered.
Osvaldo’s alpha with a parachute was one of the alphas we recovered. Sadly, the parachute system did not deploy and the alpha returned ballistically with the parachute still packed inside.

The next RRS meeting will be Friday, April 12th, at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena. This will be our last meeting before the 2019 RRS symposium on Saturday, April 27th. We’ll have more information posted here on RRS.ORG very soon.

May 2018 meeting

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The RRS held our monthly meeting on May 11, 2018 at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center. We were well attended, but got a late start. After the reading of the treasury report, we started with the discussion of the agenda items. We were happy to be visited by Wilbur and Mel Owens and Harry Reid of the Compton area. They heard of our work with schools and have interest in rocketry projects. We hope to form some kind of partnership to help support like-minded Los Angeles area groups.

RRS president, Osvaldo Tarditti starts the May 2018 meeting

May 2018 meeting of the RRS gets underway

First on the agenda was discussing the results of the 75th anniversary symposium. We had a lot of great feedback and built a lot of good relationships with industry, universities, schools and private groups at the all-day event. We also discussed some of the lessons learned from the symposium and what worked well and what could have been done better. The RRS is very grateful to the many people who supported the RRS in making this event possible. The discussion then turned to discuss if the RRS will hold a 2019 symposium around the same time next year. After some initial discussion, the vote was postponed to next month’s meeting.

Discussion of the 2018 RRS symposium

Second on the agenda was the upcoming launch event at the MTA on June 2nd with UCLA. UCLA will launch 10 of their commercial rocket motors as the final part of the quarterly class that Dr. Spearrin has with his students. The RRS is glad to host the event and we also plan on launching at least two of our standard alpha rockets at the event.

Alpha rocket iso view

Also, the RRS horizontal thrust stand is nearly complete as Osvaldo and I confirmed the fit of the final load cell parts to the frame. Osvaldo brought the frame and I brought the load cell to the meeting. Everything looks ready to go for final fit up on the concrete pad at the MTA at the June 2nd launch event. Having the ability to make actual thrust curve measurements on the RRS standard alpha rockets will be very valuable to better understand the performance of this classic rocket. Much of what is known of the flight characteristics is based on old knowledge which could be somewhat theoretical. Getting new data will be a step in the right direction to reducing uncertainty.

RRS horizontal thrust stand sits on a dolly at the May 2018 meeting

payload tube adapter, S-type load cell and thrust stand adapter; fit check is complete

After some discussion of scheduling other possible launch events at the RRS MTA with Cal Poly Pomona and USC, we moved on to the next agenda item.

The third topic on the agenda was about the next educational event that the RRS will support with our partners in the LAPD CSP program. This summer program will be with Operation Progress in Watts. The first session will kick off on June 15th and the final launch event is planned for July 7, 2018.

Operation Progress – Los Angeles

The fourth topic on the agenda was regarding the RRS pyrotechnic operators manual that I am compiling for the society. The RRS uses licensed pyro-ops at our events and we are on a mission to expand our roster to better support the growing activities at the MTA. Osvaldo, Richard and I have begun the process of getting endorsement letters from our fellow pyro-ops and when our applications to the state of California’s Fire Marshall office are complete and received, we will take and pass the exam to become licensed. Having a society manual to capture this knowledge is not only useful to train new pyro-ops but it is beneficial for all of our society to have simple access to this important information.

RRS pyro-op manual and training guide

The fifth topic on the agenda was a discussion of RRS payloads. I have been pushing our society membership to think about and design payloads for the many RRS standard alpha rockets we launch. Although the payload tubes are very small (1.60″ inner diameter), there are many opportunities for flying ever-shrinking sensors in these payload volumes.

Larry brought a few commercially available sensor packages that he hopes to fly in beta rockets. Some of these devices are simple and powerful which have been used in high-powered model rocketry with a lot of success. Payloads such as these will certainly work well in RRS rockets as well. Beta rockets tend to be expensive, so it would be nice to have those that fit inside the alpha payload tubes (1.600″ OD or about 1-1/8″ square).

most payloads are too big for the alpha payload tubes; force-fitting doesn’t help

Example of pre-fabricated instrumentation package; clean, simple, but often too big

I have designed an in-line second stage for an RRS standard alpha. Osvaldo was kind enough to machine the interstage and second stage pieces that I described in last month’s meeting post. The second stage would have a solid motor poured into a PVC casing that fits within the standard alpha aluminum payload tube. The pieces fit very well together which is very encouraging. I took the interstage part home with me to integrate the umbilical port and wiring and work up the delay timer for the upper stage igniter.

RRS standard alpha interstage and second stage motor casing

The final topic on the agenda was an idea that Osvaldo had for more educational program at the RRS. The RRS has gotten to know many fine speakers in areas of professional and amateur rocketry. In the past, we have invited speakers at our meetings, but we often don’t have an appropriate amount of time to listen and discuss these topics at length. The idea put forth is that the RRS would hold Saturday morning presentations to our interested membership. The idea was well received and approved by the society. A list of speakers is being built and Osvaldo will try to schedule the first presentation in what we hope will become a long series. More details will be coming in future announcements.

One last topic wedged in as we were finishing was that the RRS will be attending the Two-Bit Circus event in Hawthorne, California, next Saturday, May 19, 2018. The Two-Bit Circus is a high-tech STEAM-based amusement park that started in downtown Los Angeles and is growing to include more areas of the city. The RRS is glad to be a part of it. The link to the event is below.

Two Bit Circus – Hawthorne 19-MAY-2018

The RRS will have a booth at the Two-Bit Circus and will be bringing our air launcher for small paper rockets. Frank built a new air launcher that’s a little cheaper, but just as powerful and fun to try. The RRS will have it available for demonstration near the basketball courts at the event.

Frank’s T-shaped air launcher

The RRS meeting concluded late at 9:25pm. We are grateful to the Ken Nakaoka Community Center for letting us stay beyond the 9pm closing time of the center. The RRS must try to begin our meetings on time so we can finish on time.

If there is anything I have missed or misstated, please let me know.
secretary@rrs.org

The next monthly meeting of the RRS will be June 8, 2018. Please join us.