Thread: lead weights
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Old 10-24-2012, 05:25 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tmacklin
Understood. But I doubt that the entire nose would need to be filled to accomplish the shift of mass necessary in my particular case. Dry sand weighs about 100 lbs/cubic foot, cast lead about 708 lbs/cubic foot. A small quantity of dry sand in a baggie would strike me as less lethal than a hard slug of lead and epoxy at the point of a nose cone.

Now if GH is willing to be a test subject.....


You are planning to put the ballast in the body tube in front of the chute. That's way down the body, meaning you are going to need a boatload of sand (much more weight) to do the same job as a tiny bit of lead in the tip of the nose. The rocket will be very heavy in comparison. I'll take my chances with a few ounces of lead over a bucket of sand. All safety aside, you're getting into the land of diminishing returns if you add weight somewhere other than the nose. You need more weight....which means you need a bigger motor....which means you need more weight....which means you need a bigger motor.

Of course, if anybody has any sense, they will just take one step to the side and let the rocket hit the ground harmlessly, whether it has lead or sand as ballast. It's worked for 50 years, and even with very large and dangerous rocket ships.
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