Mesquito sounding rocket

[blackshire]

Hello All,

Here are links to scale data on NASA's Mesquito (that's not a typo) sounding rocket, which uses a surplus U.S. Army M26 rocket motor from the MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) to boost an unpowered, instrumented 4.5" diameter dart 90 km - 100 km high:

http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code810/technologydevelopment.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesquito

http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/mesquito.htm

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/pdf/227222main_w051208.pdf

http://highpowerrocketry.blogspot.com/2010/02/mesquito-sounding-rocket.html

http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code810/files/Rocket_Report_4th_qt_2009.pdf

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Mesquito+rocket&nfpr=1&wrapid=tlif12882112640951&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=SIvITKeSLoq4sAOe4sG_CA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDgQsAQwAw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADbw99DDmio

[CPMcGraw]

Looks interesting, and might be easily done as a model.

Side note: How many rocket scientists does it take to spell "flight" correctly? :eek: :D

[jharding58]

Looks interesting, and might be easily done as a model.

Side note: How many rocket scientists does it take to spell "flight" correctly? :eek: :D

Only one that does the web page at 3:00 in the morning.

[MarkB.]

Blowing up the drawing yields a Semroc Series 16 Booster and a Series 12 Dart in 1/5.5 scale.

Is there something that indicates the dart is 4.5" in diameter?

It does look fun, colorful and easy which would be a scale model trifecta.

Hmmm . . . .

[MarkB.]

Never mind; I found it. My bad!

A 9" booster and a 4.5" dart; 2:1 ratio on diameters.

So Series 18 Booster and Series 8 Dart! 1/4.9 scale. Almost three feet tall!

Or 1/10 scale Series 8 to BT-4. (paging Carl at Semroc)

To the copy machine . . . .

[blackshire]

Below are a few more Mesquito links that I found. These include color photographs and videos of the rockets. Three rounds have flown so far (two in 2008 and one in 2009). Given the gigantic stockpile (hundreds of thousands) of M26 and M28 (for M26 practice rounds) MLRS rocket motors that have been produced, the Mesquito and other M26/M28-derived sounding rockets will probably become as ubiquitous as the Nike-boosted sounding rockets, if not more so. (A two-stage M26 or M28 powered sounding rocket could reach space!) Here are the links (which I've also appended to my initial posting in this thread):

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/pdf/227222main_w051208.pdf

http://highpowerrocketry.blogspot.com/2010/02/mesquito-sounding-rocket.html

http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code810/files/Rocket_Report_4th_qt_2009.pdf

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Mesquito+rocket&nfpr=1&wrapid=tlif12882112640951&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=SIvITKeSLoq4sAOe4sG_CA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDgQsAQwAw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADbw99DDmio

[blackshire]

Hello All,

A flying scale model of the Mesquito sounding rocket raises an interesting question regarding flight points. Since this is a boosted-dart vehicle whose dart is intended to release a trail of TMA (Tri-Methyl Aluminum) on many flights for tracking and wind determination purposes (as with the Nike-Smoke), duplicating this in a Mesquito scale model would add realism and aid tracking and recovery of the dart. Here is my question:

Would it be "NAR-kosher" to use either an MRC FX smoke motor or a smoke generator cartridge (the kind that R/C aerobatic flyers use on their model airplanes) in the scale Mesquito dart? I know that the NAR Safety Code says "I will never use an explosive warhead or a payload that is intended to be flammable," but I think the second part of this rule (in italics) was referring to incendiary (thermite-type) payloads whose purpose is to set things on fire on impact. The MRC FX smoke motors and the R/C aerobatic airplane smoke generator cartridges are, I'm pretty sure, designed to produce smoke but no flame in order to prevent them from igniting the models in which they're installed.