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-   -   Cricketsonde rocket (http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=19663)

blackshire 07-02-2021 01:22 AM

Cricketsonde rocket
 
Hello All,

Here’s a “new” (1960s) scale subject: there was a low-altitude meteorological rocket called the Cricketsonde (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricketsonde & https://www.google.com/search?q=Cri...Q4dUDCAk&uact=5 ), which used acetone and liquid CO2 as propellant. Also:

The Cricketsonde was made by Texaco Inc. and the Friez Instrument Division of Bendix Corporation. It was fired from a special launcher, and reached a peak altitude of 3,000’.

Blushingmule 07-02-2021 06:15 AM

Thanks!

That is cool...a real cold power rocket.

Bob

blackshire 07-02-2021 07:07 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blushingmule
Thanks!

That is cool...a real cold power rocket.

Bob
You're welcome; I thought that, too, that the Cricketsonde was a full-scale cold propellant rocket. I wonder if anyone has tried the acetone/liquid carbon dioxide propellant in a model rocket? Also:

I wonder if the acetone was mixed with the CO2, to enable the latter to exist as a liquid, as carbon dioxide (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_carbon_dioxide ) normally requires a pressure above 5.1 atm (5.2 bar; 75 psi), under 31.1 °C (88.0 °F) (temperature of critical point), and above −56.6 °C (−69.9 °F [the temperature of triple point]), in order to be liquid. Maybe the acetone, mixed with the CO2, allowed the CO2 to be a liquid at a lower pressure and/or higher temperature than those figures, *OR*:

Might the Cricketsonde rocket have operated as a liquid bi-propellant rocket, where the acetone and the carbon dioxide mixed and burned, delivered to the rocket engine under pressure (from compressed CO2 gas)? Under sufficiently high pressures and temperatures, CO2--which normally *extinguishes* combustion (hence its use in fire extinguishers)--actually acts as an oxidizer, ^supporting^ combustion. This happened during the Pioneer 13 (Pioneer Venus Multiprobe--also called Pioneer Venus 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Venus_Multiprobe ) mission, when the insulation on the four atmospheric probes' external wiring harnesses auto-ignited, burning in the high-pressure, high-temperature Cytherean atmosphere. Also:

"Cytherean" (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytherean ) is the accepted possessive adjectival form for features or attributes of the planet Venus, because the other forms--"Venerean" and "Aphrodisian"--have less-than-honorable connotations and associations for the planet's namesake, the goddess of marital love and beauty. (In contrast, the asteroid Eros https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/433_Eros , named after the god of "wild" intercourse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros , and from whose name the adjective "erotic" comes, presents no such problem; the possessive adjectival form for things having to do with the asteroid Eros is "Erotian.")

Ez2cDave 07-17-2021 12:44 PM

10 Attachment(s)
I have been "digging" . . . Here is all of the Cricketsonde data I have been able to find, so far.

GROUP - 1

Dave F.

Ez2cDave 07-17-2021 12:45 PM

10 Attachment(s)
GROUP - 2


Dave F.

Ez2cDave 07-17-2021 12:48 PM

10 Attachment(s)
GROUP - 3

Dave F.

Ez2cDave 07-17-2021 12:50 PM

10 Attachment(s)
GROUP - 4

Dave F.

Ez2cDave 07-17-2021 12:52 PM

10 Attachment(s)
GROUP - 5

Dave F.

Ez2cDave 07-17-2021 12:58 PM

10 Attachment(s)
GROUP - 6 . . . ( last one ) . . . ENJOY !

Dave F.

blackshire 07-18-2021 01:39 AM

WOW...I feel like Peter Alway did when I sent him a box of scale data on rockets that he'd either never seen before, or had only seen, once, in a book (a photograph showing the Javelin III triple-launch, with scale data on those rounds)! With today's more advanced technology, the Cricketsonde's relatively low performance (which resulted in its cancellation) could be improved. An electrical resistance-heated metal object inside the CO2 & acetone tank could be disconnected just before launch, after it reached the proper temperature (which could differ depending on the ambient air temperature [a table could list these], providing higher--and consistent--impulse on any day).


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