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-   -   1970 Flight at TTU (http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=16566)

tbzep 04-02-2017 09:53 AM

1970 Flight at TTU
 
This is the back cover of a beg-a-zine...those magazines graduates get where they ask for donations and provide a little bit of propeganda for the school. This one is from Tennessee Tech where my son got his engineering degree.

If you notice the caption it says the professor is launching the rocket. If you look closely at the pic, you will see the student kneeling in front of the pad is actually launching it. The professor is either monitoring telemetry, or it's just staged to make him look important. It says he was a NASA employee and a handler for Able and Baker. I wonder if he actually studied them or just scooped poop. :chuckle:

From the look of the exhaust, it is a BP motor. Since it is carrying a mouse, it's probably a D13. The exhaust doesn't look thick enough for an FSI E60 or Centuri Mini-Max E62 and the model doesn't seem to be moving that fast. A D13 also makes me wonder if it really has any telemetry on board considering the weight of 1970 batteries and transmitters.


Jerry Irvine 04-02-2017 10:33 AM

That is a chart recorder. We used to use one to record thrust curves in the analog days of the 60's to early 80's. Ours were surplus. Their telemetry is likely an analog signal or two.

We went to digital about the time the PC-AT (286) came out. My company was computerised since 1978. First a PDP-11 for programs, then a Xerox 820 (CP/M 8.5" foppies) for publishing and locally run programs, then a 286 clone which ran the magazine, rocket club, 3 rocket companies and a publishing company. Then a Mac+ running Ramdisk which was not surpassed in speed in ram disc mode till the 040 came out. It also had SCSI :D.

tbzep 04-02-2017 10:42 AM

Yes, but I don't see anything resembling an antenna, so I wonder if it's actually recording anything. Since the payload was a mouse for the biology dept and the caption says they were studying effects on cardiac and respiratory systems, you'd think they would be trying to monitor rate changes in real time.

It's also interesting that the caption says "upper atmosphere". :chuckle:



.

jdbectec 04-02-2017 10:52 AM

I,ve done a little checking with bing and google. One source says it achieved 3000 ft but a PDF I found said 1000 ft and on may 2 1970 it was put on permanent display at Huntsville Alabama. I wonder if it's still there? I couldn't find any images. The Tntech post said they monitored heart rate and respiration both of which increased. Who would have guessed?

ghrocketman 04-02-2017 12:59 PM

Of course now the NAR and other pansy groups like PETA would be making a federal animal-abuse case out of launching a mouse, which should be NONE OF THEIR STINKIN' BIZZNUSS.

tbzep 04-02-2017 03:31 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by jdbectec
I,ve done a little checking with bing and google. One source says it achieved 3000 ft but a PDF I found said 1000 ft and on may 2 1970 it was put on permanent display at Huntsville Alabama. I wonder if it's still there? I couldn't find any images. The Tntech post said they monitored heart rate and respiration both of which increased. Who would have guessed?


It seems like 1000 ft would be too high for a single D13 pushing a mouse and telemetry package of late 60's to early 70's vintage. Cookeville's elevation is only about 1150', so there's no significant advantage up there on the plateau over my 450' elevation.

I've been to the Huntsville rocket center a couple dozen times beginning in the late 70's and never saw a model rocket (other than non-flight scale displays) anywhere other than the Estes kits sold in the lobby.

tbzep 04-02-2017 03:58 PM

I decided to try to contact Professor Dooley and found that he passed away in 2014. I don't think I will try to contact his sons. However, if my daughter decides to attend TTU, I will have her research the event at the school's library.

Jerry Irvine 04-02-2017 04:17 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
Yes, but I don't see anything resembling an antenna, so I wonder if it's actually recording anything. Since the payload was a mouse for the biology dept and the caption says they were studying effects on cardiac and respiratory systems, you'd think they would be trying to monitor rate changes in real time.
It's also interesting that the caption says "upper atmosphere". :chuckle:
.
Drop the skepticism. A 1 foot wire taped to the side of the rocket. Known silly short range from the visual rocket and the telemeter and a D13 with a small mouse aboard. How high could have it possibly gone? 500-300 feet? Believable.

I once talked by CB at night by skip from Upland, CA to Melbourne Australia for about 20 minutes. The weather conditions were right.

This sucker is line of sight 500 feet.

Research? Go old school. Inter-library loan!

Who wants to bet is was a D13-3?

Royatl 04-02-2017 04:33 PM

Why does no one think it might be an F100? or even a Centuri MiniMax? Is it just the thin-ish smoke?

tbzep 04-02-2017 04:36 PM

I'm betting D13 based on exhaust plume, although FSI introduced the D18 somewhere around 70 or 71. If nobody tracked the model, it's easy to see why they may have estimated 1,000 and 3,000 ft in the two articles I found after duplicating jdbectec's search. If they tracked and really did get 1,000 ft, then it is unlikely to be a single D13.

As for the antenna, I was commenting on the recording station, not the rocket.

I don't know if public libraries do inter-library loan with universities. My son has friends that are still in the TTU system. I might see if he can get one of them to poke around the school's microfiche or whatever they store periodicals and newspapers on now.


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