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Old 02-09-2018, 10:16 AM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
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Quote:
Originally Posted by scott_mills
The cheapest build would be to start with a F9 paper model that you can probably download for free. Resize the model to be wraps for standard body tube sizes. As for the fins I personally prefer a removable fin tube similar to Estes space shuttle or Dr zooch flame fins. Now the real challenge here for this model is to find a matchbox , hot wheels style Tesla roadster appropriately scaled, to use as a nose weight. And descending separately would be cool also.
There would be plenty of room for the payload's parachute, and the Tesla did not separate from the Falcon Heavy's final stage (the spent stage, below the car and its payload adapter frustum, isn't visible in pictures like *this* http://spaceflightnow.com/2018/02/0...earview-mirror/ final, striking one). For a model, the parachute--which might be made of clear plastic, if desired--could be packed below the separating upper stage/car combination (which would constitute the "nose cone" in the model rocket; the fairing halves could separate and flutter down under streamers, as in some FAI scale Ariane, Atlas V, and Soyuz models) and lower it to the ground in a horizontal attitude (using a 'triangular'--when deployed--support harness made of thread or clear, mono-filament fishing line). The upper stage could have a Vacuum Merlin (MVAC) engine and thrust frustum at the rear (these could be hand-made and/or vacu-formed [or 3D printed]), and:

For added reliability, the upper stage/car's parachute could be packed *below* the main rocket body's parachute, so that it would, if necessary, pull the rocket body's parachute out with it. (Sometimes dual-'chute rockets, whose components descend separately under their own parachutes, eject the payload's parachute while the main body's parachute remains stuck inside the body tube [due to a too-tight fit, ejection charge leakage, etc.]. Putting payload's 'chute below the main body's parachute ensures that they'll both leave the rocket's body tube, and while tangling of the two 'chutes is very uncommon, one or both 'chutes can be wrapped in a square of wadding [which strips off at deployment] to prevent this possibility.)
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
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