Scout C1 test flight
 

Hello All,

The ubiquitous new micro-electronic systems have made TVC (thrust vector controlled), landing leg-equipped model rockets possible. In this test flight (see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypHruMqfU3U ) by Barnard Propulsion Systems, his (Joe Barnard's) Scout C1 test vehicle lifts off under TVC, powered by an F15 black powder motor, then deploys its three parachutes and four landing legs under computer control. One day, a hobbyist rocketeer (or more likely, a team of them) may succeed in orbiting a small payload...

I am going to work with him on some longer burning motors suitable to testing the duration and steering limits.

Good--that sounds like a fruitful collaboration. While HPR and amateur rocketry will likely be the first beneficiaries of this kind of technological development (which would also have myriad educational and academic research applications), LMR and model rocketry will, I think, ultimately benefit from it as well (regarding scale space modeling and active, data-gathering payloads). TVC-steered scale models of finless rockets would add a whole new dimension to scale model rocketry. Also:

Reusable solid propellant rocketsondes (meteorological rockets) that could be flown--and recovered & re-flown--even at remote sites easily, *without* requiring a tube launcher or a rail launcher, would be very useful for supporting space launches, Project Skyhook-type instrumented stratospheric balloon launches, and other scientific experiments, as well as for providing routine daily or weekly upper atmospheric soundings. The recovered spent motors could be "brought home" for reloading or disposal (depending on the costs of both options), and the parachute & TVC/landing legs modules could be removed from the spent motors and then be affixed to unused rocket motors for subsequent launches in the campaign. In addition:

These same features (TVC control, landing legs, and low altitude-opening--and perhaps steerable--main parachutes [after a drogue-stabilized faster descent from apogee]) would also make possible reusable solid propellant, hybrid propellant, or even liquid propellant sounding rockets (Aerojet developed a reusable variant of its four-finned Aerobee 150A and/or 170A rockets in the 1980s). The Aerobee's Inhibited Red Fuming Nitric Acid (IRFNA)/Aniline-Furfuryl Alcohol hypergolic propellant combination was a nasty one, which made the rocket unpopular with launch crews (although the payload scientists loved its "soft-ride, zero out-gassing after sustainer engine burnout" characteristics), but the cleaner *White* Fuming Nitric Acid/Turpentine hypergolic combination (which Interorbital Systems http://www.interorbital.com/ uses) would be a good one for a TVC-steered, landing legs-equipped reusable sounding rocket.

We have a Nitric acid - furfural alcohol hypergolic rocket at our test site right now. I have seen most of the Interorbital flights and assisted them with acquisition and proper storage of their chemicals at Mojave Airport. The main benefit is fairly high density impulse.

Jerry