Hello All,

Has anyone here on YORF ever come across scale data on the Joust 1 microgravity research vehicle? This sole example of Orbital Sciences Corporation's Castor IVA-powered Prospector guided sounding rocket was launched from LC-20 (Launch Complex 20) at Cape Canaveral on June 18, 1991 (five links to photographs of and information on this vehicle are included below), and the mission failed due to a guidance system problem. Although the Prospector vehicle had three quite small fins, the design's flared conical tail section would also help to stabilize a scale model of the rocket. Here are the links:

http://www.wired4space.com/category/rockets/prospector
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/proector.htm
http://www.skyrocket.de/space/doc_lau_fam/castor-4.htm
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/.../ai_3304753905/
http://www.afspacemuseum.org/missiles/JoustI/index.htm

I hope this information will be helpful.

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NAR #54895 SR

That first pic from the AF Museum just shouts "SEMROC nose cone", doesn't it?

Have you run across any line drawings with dimensions yet? None of these links seem to have more than an overall length measurement...

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Craig McGraw

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SAM 0044
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This gemtleman was the PM for Joust out of University of Alabama Huntsville.

http://www.eng.uah.edu/~wesslif/resume.html

Perhaps he might be amenable to providing some assistance on an underdocumented subject? Course, that was quite a while ago.

__________________
Gravity is a harsh mistress
SAM 002
NAR 91005
"The complexity of living is eminently favored to the simplicity of not."

If only Peter had been able to finish up all that he wanted to do...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scaleroc/message/5584

__________________
Gravity is a harsh mistress
SAM 002
NAR 91005
"The complexity of living is eminently favored to the simplicity of not."

Unfortunately, no. I've sent an e-mail message to OSC's launch vehicle department--hopefully they have dimensioned drawings (or at least vehicle section dimensions lists).

__________________
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

I also miss Peter's previously-growing scale data packs. Thank you for posting Dr. Wessling's resume web page! I'll contact him to see what he might have on Joust 1.

__________________
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

Attached a pdf with dimension and station. Courtesy of Professor Wessling

Attached Files

Joust Dimensions.pdf (242.4 KB, 103 views)

__________________
Gravity is a harsh mistress
SAM 002
NAR 91005
"The complexity of living is eminently favored to the simplicity of not."

What an excellent find--thank you very much for posting this! Just to clarify, this drawing looks (from its style) like it's from one of the NASA "blue books" (stapled-together sounding rocket mission profile/plan booklets with blue front and back covers, which were distributed to project personnel--I saw many of these when I was the volunteer historian at Alaska's Poker Flat Research Range www.pfrr.alaska.edu ). The vehicle drawings in these "blue books" are rather schematic in character; that is, every detail isn't 100% accurate, but that does *not* make the "blue book" drawings any less useful for scale modeling purposes (please see below).

For example, the Joust-1 vehicle had "pure" delta fins, but the fins shown in the "blue book" drawing are of clipped delta planform. Also, the rocket's payload section was slightly wider than the Castor IVA rocket motor, but this diameter difference isn't shown in the "blue book" drawing. The station numbers (the distances from the nose tip to various component interface planes) are invaluable--used in concert with vehicle photographs, they enable modelers to build high-fidelity miniature replicas of the full-scale rockets that considerably exceed the minimum Sport Scale documentation requirements. Also:

This drawing indicates that the bottom end of the Joust-1 payload was fitted with a spherical-section re-entry heat shield (similar in shape to the Mercury and Gemini capsules' heat shields). It looks like an arrow indicating the heat shield's radius of curvature is pointing to it, but the number is off the edge of the page. (This dimension isn't necessary to build a good Sport Scale model of the Joust-1 vehicle, but one intended to garner more Flight Points with a separately-recovered payload would do well to have an accurately-shaped heat shield.)

__________________
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

Did not get an indication as to the source but I would assume that to some degree the general layout is consistent with the vehicles.. The zero station appears to be above the radius of the NC so I imagine that generating a Nose cone scaled to a BT-55 woudl be relatively easy to do. This was the sole content I received from Professor Wessling so I am not going to look a gift horse. As for the fin shape I cannot tell if it is a slab with triangular LE or if this is a diamond fin. The Castor flew with both.

As for the general dimensions from the stations they seem to tally with the Astronautix specifications of 46.2 ft and 3.3ft for the airframe diameter. The frustum around the engine bell seems to look right, and I suppose you squint the length of the tubular section at the very base from the drawing.

I agree that this is rather more of a representation than a scale crawing, but to your point, the MR drawings that I cadged from Bluebooks were close enough.

__________________
Gravity is a harsh mistress
SAM 002
NAR 91005
"The complexity of living is eminently favored to the simplicity of not."

Try using ST-20 instead...

If you take that base diameter of 40" as a starting reference, dividing by 20 (making this a 1:20 scale model) gives you 2", which is so very close to ST-20's 2.04".

Using that 1:20 as a guide, the lower section of the transition becomes 2.8", and that is very close to LT-275 at 2.84"...

Attached is an early RS "sketch", with no serious internal structure for engines or recovery systems. It's just an outline. It also doesn't take into account the larger diameter of the payload section...

Attached Thumbnails

   

Attached Files

Joust-1.rkt (23.6 KB, 63 views)

__________________
Craig McGraw

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AMA 352635