Hello All,

Taiwan's space agency, the NSPO (National Space Organization, see: https://www.nspo.narl.org.tw/index.php?ln=en and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natio...ce_Organization ), has an interesting sounding rocket program. They use--and are developing--hybrid propellant sounding rockets of various sizes, numbers of stages, and performance envelopes (which vary widely; see *this* https://www.nspo.narl.org.tw/inprog...=20030401&ln=en page on the NSPO website), and they are also developing a satellite launch vehicle, and:

There is one narrow single-stage vehicle (photographs and a launch video of it are here: https://www.nspo.narl.org.tw/inprog...=20030401&ln=en ), a two-stage version (with an apogee of over 80 kilometers), and a larger vehicle that looks very much like Britain's Black Arrow satellite launch vehicle, but is smaller (10.297 m tall, with a 1.4505 m diameter first stage and a 1.053 m diameter second stage). Its apogee is over 150 km. Also:

I have posted a dimensioned illustration of it below (it "paints" much larger on the linked-to webpage, and when "clicked-on" below). It has a multiple-nozzle first stage (one oxidizer tank probably feeding multiple hybrid fuel grain cases, each with its own nozzle), a frustum interstage with latticework at its bottom, and a two-piece, satellite launch vehicle-like payload fairing, atop the short second stage. This hybrid propellant sounding rocket looks like it would be a good carrier for astronomical telescopes (which our Aries sounding rocket is also often used for). Unlike the solid propellant Aries, however, this hybrid rocket-powered vehicle could shut down its second stage motor(s), stopping outgassing and the production of smoke, which could collect on the telescope optics and/or obscure the deep sky view, just as clouds overhead can obscure ground-based telescopes' views. The Taiwanese rocket might even be partially- or fully-reusable.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Interesting . . .

It looks like one that data, especially precision, dimensioned data, will be hard to come by.

Dave F.

Maybe...but maybe not. Incidentally, I just (minutes ago) found photographs (but one looks like CGI) of the Black Arrow-like Taiwanese hybrid sounding rocket, which is called Hapith ("flying squirrel," see: https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_lau/hapith.htm and https://www.google.com/search?q=Hap...nt=gws-wiz-serp )--Squirrel Works Model Rocketry, are you copying this? :-) Hapith I is the two-stage sounding rocket, and Hapith V is a three-stage satellite launch vehicle; all stages of both burn styrene-butadiene synthetic rubber fuel and nitrous oxide oxidizer (here is the Hapith V payload user's manual, see: https://www.mach5lowdown.com/wp-con...user-manual.pdf ) . A technique that Peter Alway has used with good success might pry scale data from the NSPO (he did this with ISRO, to get "missing" dimensions of the Indian Rohini RH-200 two-stage sounding rocket, and he may also have done this with other space agencies):

To get the "missing" RH-200 dimensions (needed for making good scale models of it), he mailed them a drawing he made of it, with the sections he needed the dimensions of marked. They filled in those "missing" dimensions and sent it back to him. (I don't get the impression that the NSPO is jealously guarding this sort of material, as their satellite launch vehicle's development test flights have all been open and well-publicized [see: https://www.google.com/search?q=Tai...sclient=gws-wiz ].) Also:

Such a "missing dimensions" drawing need not be created on a computer; a hand-made drawing created with drafting equipment (or just a steel rule, or a good ruler with a straight edge, and a French curve [or a school-type drawing compass, for curved parts such as some nose cones, or radiused-tip conical noses]) would be sufficient. Including a picture of a well-built "prototype" scale model (with the unknown-dimensions parts "eyeballed" from photographs and/or drawings of the actual vehicle) would also help, by showing the modeler's genuine and sincere interest in creating a high-fidelity scale model of the vehicle, and:

Sending a photocopy of the drawing by postal mail, with an accompanying letter briefly describing model rocketry and the scale modeling aspect of it (model rocketry isn't a familiar hobby/craft activity everywhere in the world), will also help, because taking the trouble--and paying the slight expense--to type or print out (or neatly hand-write, although a typed or printed letter is preferable), and then mail it and the drawing to the agency or company, will demonstrate the modeler's seriousness and intent to actually use the scale data. (In his "Handbook of Model Rocketry," G. Harry Stine wrote that sadly, many people have requested scale data, got it, but ultimately never used it. This makes those with the scale data less inclined to go to the trouble of finding it in their files, and copying & sending it to scale modelers.) Sending a "thank-you" letter after getting the scale data, and sending a picture of the "operational" scale model, is greatly appreciated, *and* it can lead to further, rewarding things. For example (the following happened to me):

I corresponded with some of the "old hands" at ESRO (the European Space Research Organisation--which, along with ELDO--the European Launcher Development Organisation, comprised Europe's united space efforts before ESA was founded [ESRO and ELDO used in their English-language publications, as ESA does, the British spellings for 'organisation' and other words].) ELDO developed and flew the Europa and Europa II satellite launch vehicles (SLVs) at Woomera and Kourou, but bad luck dogged that program; Ariane was Europa's successor. ESRO, which flew many sounding rockets from ranges and remote sites all over the world (they also built satellites that were launched aboard other country's SLVs, including ours), had far greater success. ESRANGE (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esrange , now called the Esrange Space Center [see: https://sscspace.com/ ]), was built by ESRO in 1964 near Kiruna, Sweden, and it was transferred to Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) in 1972; as well:

Some of Peter Alway's scale data was provided by the ESRO "old hands"; I just passed it along to him. My correspondence with them also led to a most unusual--but happy and rewarding--request:

From August 28 to September 1, 1996, the ESRO sounding rocket folks had a reunion at Esrange, and they asked me if I would provide a flying scale model of an ESRO sounding rocket, that they could launch at Esrange. Naturally, I said "YES!", and immediately got to work putting together an "ESRO Special" RTF (Ready-To-Fly) Starter Set for them (it also got into the ESA Bulletin 88, Published November 1996 (see: https://www.esa.int/esapub/bulletin...t88/peder88.htm ). For reasons of available time and parts, I selected the single-stage Swiss Zenit (Zenith, in English; Peter Alway later produced an excellent kit of it) sounding rocket, which was powered by a dual-thrust (boost/sustain) solid propellant rocket motor that came from the Swiss Micon SAM (Surface-to-Air Missile). A boosted Zenit, using a British Cuckoo rocket motor, was also flown later, and:

On that ESA Bulletin page, click on the picture labeled Figure 5, whose caption says: "Reliving old memories: launching the Zenith model rocket" (you can see the launch pads area meteorological sensors tower and the enclosed "funnel" Skylark tower launcher in the background; it is now used to launch the Brazilian-made VSB-30, which was developed as a "drop-in replacement" for the Skylark--it is fully compatible with the reusable Skylark payload modules, which have flown into space many times, since the 1960s!).

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Very "sneaky" . . . I really LOVE this idea !

Dave F.

So do I--"Wise and resourceful, is the Alway." :-) One other thing that could only help--and that the "interwire" now makes possible--would be to write (on your computer) the letter in basic English (avoiding British or American sayings or idioms [like "going the full nine yards," for example] that might be obscure to a non-English speaker), and then translate it into the recipient's native language, on one of the online translation websites. Then, you could print out both letters--the English original one, and its translation in the other language--and mail both of them, along with the "missing dimensions" drawing (and optionally, a picture of the "prototype" model) to the agency and/or company (the NSPO and TiSpace Inc., in the Hapith I and Hapith V vehicles' case). Also:

Google's translations are quite good; they are "gisted" but easily understandable. It--and other such translation websites, most of which are free (they often also offer, for a fee, "Deluxe" human translations for manuals, books, poetry, song lyrics, etc.)--can be accessed by simply entering (without quotation marks) "English to Taiwanese Mandarin" on Google ("English to Taiwan Mandarin" also works)--here are the results that came up for the first query entry (see: https://www.google.com/search?q=eng...nt=gws-wiz-serp ). As well:

Mandarin is the official language in Taiwan, spoken as a first language by over 83% of the population. (Taiwanese Mandarin differs from mainland Chinese Mandarin much as American English differs from British English, but with one important difference [which isn't a problem in written or printed correspondence]; they are mutually-intelligible to a ^reader^ of either one because both use the same script, but *spoken* Taiwanese Mandarin differs a lot from spoken mainland Chinese Mandarin, and their spoken forms are -not- mutually-intelligible.) Many Taiwanese (especially in the NSPO and at TiSpace Inc., I'm sure, as both have dual Taiwanese Mandarin-English websites) also speak and read English, due to their long-time military and commercial ties to the West--but including Taiwanese Mandarin *and* English versions of your letter would be a courtesy that I am sure they would greatly appreciate, and:

Such courtesies count high with everyone, and especially with Asian peoples. My friend John Evans, a disabled Vietnam combat veteran, told me about the stark differences between the ways different Western countries' embassies in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), South Vietnam, served local interests--the locals' level of interest and commercial engagement for trade tracked right along with the various countries' embassies' levels of courtesy:

The French Embassy, he noted, was the best. Their attitude was, "We welcome business partnerships with the Republic of Vietnam!" (South Vietnam), and their embassy facilities showed it. They had the latest catalogs--printed in Vietnamese--from innumerable French companies, they had telex machines and telex lines, and the French firms' telex numbers (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telex [telex is still in use by some companies today, although fax machines and the internet have made it largely obsolete, except for ship-board HF--High-Frequency--radiotelex, a required element of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System]). French construction firms even had set up highly-detailed table-top model displays showing their specialized construction vehicles and equipment at work, constructing office buildings. And most importantly, the French Embassy personnel were proficient in the Vietnamese language, spoken and written (they use a 29-letter latin script very much like those of the Western Romance languages [Portuguese and French, in particular], with diacritical marks to denote tones, as heard in spoken Vietnamese). BUT:

While the British Embassy's local service set-up was almost as good as the French Embassy's, just being slightly "short" on Vietnamese-proficient personnel (they had the most effective security, though--the British Embassy had *one* Ghurka guard without a gun, who stood outside wearing the British Army hot-weather uniform [the one with shorts], and wearing a khukuri knife [which is a stabbing & carving knife for human flesh!] on his waist--NO ONE messed with him!), the U.S. Embassy, John was sad and embarrassed to see, was a joke:

Their security guards (several armed Marines--they were sharp and competent, but they were hamstrung by so many rules about when they could respond to threats that local rabble-rousers didn't respect them) often had to take refuge behind the camouflage netting, when local troublemakers threw rocks and bottles at them; they didn't even ^think^ of trying that with the British Embassy's young Ghurka guard, because they knew he had standing orders to "slice and dice," if necessary. The French Embassy wasn't messed with much, as their several French military guards (I *think* they might have been from the French Foreign Legion) were well-armed, weren't hamstrung by unrealistic rules, and didn't take kindly to hurled rocks and bottles (they'd throw them back, harder!). Inside the U.S. Embassy, things were even worse:

To serve local in-country interests, they had one man--who barely spoke any Vietnamese--who sat, bored, at a desk. In his section there were lean-to racks of American companies' catalogs; many of them were tattered (like well-used old telephone directories), all of them were only in English, and all of them were out-of-date, from previous years (John was "negatively intrigued" enough to look at all of them). There was no telex machine or line, at least in that section of the embassy (I'm sure that the Ambassador's office had one, because telex is very useful for all sorts of communication, even encoded, including in emergencies). Not surprisingly, the fellow at his desk seldom had any local Vietnamese businessmen come in to inquire about cooperative business ventures, or even about buying American products or services (or selling South Vietnamese products and services in the U.S.) That section of the U.S. Embassy projected an unsavory attitude, which the Vietnamese perceived clearly: "We'll do business with you if you're interested, but we don't really care, one way or the other." John also discovered--and told me about--a shrewd (but perfectly honest) thing that the French did, which the U.S. would do well to adopt:

He noticed that French-made cars (Citroen, Renault, etc.), wine, cigarettes, soap, and many other products were very common in South Vietnam, and especially in Saigon. The French Embassy's employees--French and local Vietnamese--also all had, or had use of, French cars, and the same was often the case at the embassies of other countries that were allies and/or close commercial partners of France (although some of those other countries' embassies' employees had British or German cars; he saw quite a few Volkswagens at African nations' embassies, and those particular countries got U.S. foreign aid!)--but not one of them, he noted, had an American car, not even a Cadillac or a Lincoln Continental, even though many of those nations got U.S. foreign aid as well; in "Embassy Row" in Saigon, American cars were conspicuous by their absence! This all stemmed from France's wise foreign aid policy:

Instead of giving those countries money (as we do as foreign aid), they French extended them generous credit--with reasonable interest rates; they weren't "loan sharks"--which had a few "strings" attached (which were also reasonable). A country that received French foreign aid was extended credit to buy French products (and services), made (or provided by) French companies (at volume discounts for large purchases), transported by French ships, and unloaded by French stevedores (quite a number of them lived and worked in South Vietnam's port cities). And "French" didn't equal "white"; they were referring to people--regardless of race; some were ethnic Vietnamese--who were French citizens, or dual citizens, with one of the two citizenships being French. Now:

This arrangement was mutually beneficial to both parties, as well as to French companies (even French providers of services only, such as law firms, who helped Vietnamese businesses draw up contracts and business treaties valid in both France and South Vietnam, etc.), and to local vendors--and buyers. (In all of the stores in Saigon, French consumer products--cigarettes, soap, bottles of Perrier water, pre-packaged non-perishable food items and snacks, condiments, and so forth--were the most common, especially in categories where there simply wasn't any locally-made alternative product. French winemakers also made special concentrated wines--which didn't become weakly diluted when ice cubes placed in the glasses melted in the hot climate--especially for the Vietnamese market.) This credit-extending French foreign aid arrangement also developed strong "brand loyalty" for French products among buyers in South Vietnam (and in other countries that received French foreign aid).

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR