Hello All,

A UK company, B2Space (see: https://b2-space.com/ ) is developing, among their other near-space plastic film balloon mission options (named Hawk [a flying lab], and Blue Jay [for flying CubeSats ^as^ instrumented gondolas, on world-circling flights]), a balloon-launched orbital rocket for their Colibri (Spanish for "Hummingbird") programme (see: https://b2-space.com/colibri-programme/ and https://twitter.com/B2_Space/status/1488640840436260867 ). Also:

The orbital rockoon vehicle has three stages, all solid propellant, and the first stage is reusable; they don't mention this, but the first stage alone would be a useful, suborbital telescope-lofting vehicle, for making exoatmospheric astronomical observations. Here (see: https://www.google.com/search?q=Col...chrome&ie=UTF-8 ) is more information about the company and their products and services.

I hope this information will be useful.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
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NAR #54895 SR

The thought of a flying a Rockoon, in Scale competiton, is an intriguing idea.

I don't think that doing so would violate the Safety Code, in any way ?

The main obstacle would be the size balloon needed and the amount of Helium needed, depending on the weight to be lifted.

Technically, the rocket could be, at a minimum, only a few inches off the ground, at liftoff.

https://www.instructables.com/How-t...on-Project-HAAS

Dave F.

Attached Files

How to Make a Rockoon.pdf (463.7 KB, 17 views)

Man rated?

Attached Thumbnails

 

WOW ! Who would be crazy / brave enough to attempt that flight ?

I wonder what the "steering wheel" is controlling ?

Dave F.

I think that Wyoming inventor's rocket would work, but standing up (or even sitting upright) in a high-acceleration rocket is asking for trouble, in the form of a black-out, due to the blood running down away from the brain. (Red-outs, which occur with positive--toward the head--g forces [as with a jumper from a near-space, Skyhook-type balloon, who'll rotate rapidly in a flat spin if he left the gondola with any off-body-CG motion; Joseph Kittinger made his edge-of-space balloon jumps very carefully for that reason] aren't healthy, either.) Also:

Retired U.S. Navy Captain Robert C. Truax's "Project Private Enterprise" Volksrocket X-3 (see: http://www.b14643.de/Spacerockets/S...ocket/index.htm -and- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3OY1gTbUWQ ), which was powered by four Atlas/Thor LR101 vernier engines, pressure-fed with LOX/RP-1 and gimballed for steering during powered ascent, would have carried his astronaut, the artist Fell Peters, above 50 miles. Due to the rocket's narrow diameter, it had upright seating. The maximum acceleration was 3 g, so the passenger--with the proper "anti-g" abdominal and chest muscle tension training (used by fighter pilots), and being in good physical condition (which Peters was; he was also an athlete)--could possibly have avoided blacking out during the Volksrocket X-3's 100-second burn time; but I wouldn't have bet *my* life on that, had I been offered a ride. Also:

Truax Engineering's Chief Engineer, Andrejs (pronounced "Andreas") Vanags, offered me a job there in the early 1990s, after I'd sent him detailed Aerobee drawings--he wanted to try LOX/LH2 in a surplus Aerobee, for higher performance. (Although honored to have been given the job offer, I was a bit taken aback by his plans, as the Aerobees' [hypergolic] fuel and oxidizer tank volumes' ratios weren't even -close- to being right for efficient flights burning LOX and liquid hydrogen, due to the latter's very low density). After asking a few others "in the space business" I know, I decided not to take it. Those who had visited the place said that Truax had a veritable space museum/junkyard, with all kinds of things--from guidance system components and rocket engines to entire Thor IRBMs--that he'd bought as surplus over the years. The problem, they said, wasn't lack of expertise (Robert Truax had plenty--at the U.S. Naval Academy, he stunned Robert Goddard, who watched gob-smacked as he demonstrated a fully throttle-able and restart-able pressure-fed, nitric acid/aniline rocket engine!), but lack of focus and organization.

__________________
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

This caught my attention . . . "detailed Aerobee drawings".

Please elaborate on these drawings . . . Thanks !

Dave F.

I've ruminated on that as well. As long as the rocket's launch angle (from the balloon) is 30 degrees or less away from the vertical (a simple, lightweight "plumb-bob" arming circuit [perhaps with an infrared photocell horizon sensor as well, where both would have to "say" 'the elevation angle's within the correct range,' to enable ignition]), it should satisfy that requirement of the Model Rocket Safety Code. ALSO:

With today's gram-scale instruments, small, sounding balloon- (weather balloon)-lofted rocketsondes may now be practical (and safe), for gathering weather data up to the lower reaches of outer space, and in the upper atmosphere, down to the upper limit of radiosonde weather balloons (about 100,000'). What plagued the Meteorological Rocket Network (MRN), limiting the launch sites to isolated, often coastal areas, was the danger posed by falling spent rocket motors (and also dart airframes and nose cones, for boosted-dart type meteorological rockets). The Arcas' ejected instrumented nose sections--and the boosted darts' ejected instrumented payloads--descended slowly (especially near the ground) under "calibrated descent velocity," radar-reflective (for wind measurements) parachutes, and:

The early Loki-Dart vehicles' spent rocket motors were aerodynamically unstable after dart separation, making the motor cases' impact locations unpredictable; ballast added to the motor's front transition section made them fall stably, and made their impact points predictable. Atlantic Research Corporation tried a "Frangible Arcas" (whose outer surfaces were coated with plastic explosive, to fragment the spent motor and its tail assembly--for safe, slow descent of their fragments--after the instrumented nose section separated). An alternative payload, for both rocket types, was the ROBIN falling sphere, a 1-meter diameter spherical Mylar balloon, either coated with a vacuum-deposited aluminum film for radar wind and air density tracking, or containing an internal aluminized Mylar radar corner reflector, for doing these things (depending on the manufacturer; the ROBIN falling spheres were made by multiple companies, as are radiosondes, pilot balloons [pibals], and sounding balloons [radiosonde-carrying weather balloons]). The Australians used a 2-meter aluminized Mylar ROBIN with their HAD (High Altitude Density) and Cockatoo meteorological/small sounding rockets. But:

With today's highly-miniaturized electronics, much smaller--yet fully-instrumented--rockoons may now be practical. Launched from sounding balloons at about 100,000' altitude, they need not require boosted darts, and the much smaller solid rocket motor (or motors--two stages might be needed) could, after the sonde (or ROBIN) payload separated, after burnout and the coast up to apogee, descend slowly and safely to the ground, using helicopter recovery. A "triple-split," close-fitting 'sleeve' cylinder over the rocket motor (or motors), hinged at the top, would open at a slight tilt (caused by the hinges' arrangement), forming staves that would function as rotor blades, set at a slight collective pitch angle. Regarding model rocket rockoons, such as scale model ones:

Thank you for posting those two rockoon articles--kudos to the "HAAS-building kid!" That was an involved project--electronically, mechanically, and aerostatically--and he kept on it, and (judging by what he wrote) will try again. Below are links to some easy-to-make, DIY balloons (the "Heliotrope" ones look like the Project Skyhook-type ones used to loft Dr. James Van Allen's Loki & Deacon rockoons (see: https://www.google.com/search?q=Lok...sclient=gws-wiz ), and the USAF's four-stage, Project Farside rockoons (see: https://www.google.com/search?q=Pro...sclient=gws-wiz ):


Heliotrope solar hot-air balloon links:

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/j...D-19-0175.1.xml

https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1608516

https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1518531

https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/20...to-study-venus/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDS2CCPZ5QY

https://www.youtube.com/results?sea...iotrope+balloon , AND:


Solar Tetroons (easy-to-make, tetrahedral solar balloons):

https://www.youtube.com/results?sea...etroon+balloons , AND:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cVp8EKtgTA (A "How-To" DIY tetroon video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhDoDoNrYuU


I hope this information will be helpful--and fun!

__________________
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

They were from an old issue of "High Power Rocketry" magazine (kindly sent to me by Randa Milliron at Interorbital Systems: https://www.interorbital.com/ ), plus some old Aerobee drawings that Aerojet had sent me about 30 years ago. Peter Alway may have my Aerojet drawings (you can keep them, Peter--if I died suddenly with them ^here^, they'd have gotten thrown out!), and I think I gave the ones Randa sent me to Roy Houchin (for the same reason; so that they won't get pitched out if I die suddenly). I made high-quality photocopies of all of the Aerobee material, which I sent to Andrejs Vanags at Truax Engineering. Together, they were detailed enough to duplicate a full-size Aerobee from them, and:

I'm sure that Aerobee engines *would* run--and well--on pressure-fed LOX & LH2 (Aerojet's "stock" dual-chamber kerolox LR87-AJ-3 Titan I [see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HGM-25A_Titan_I ] first stage engine was run on LOX/RP-1, Aerozine-50/dinitrogen tetroxide, and LOX/LH2 [see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerojet_LR87 ], all successfully. The Titan II's very similar LR87-5 was lighter, used turbopump starter cartridges, and lacked an ignition system, because hypergolic propellant combinations make them unnecessary. But fueling a "stock" Aerobee with LOX and LH2 wouldn't give a long burn time (or a high altitude), because the LH2 would run out *long* before the LOX did.

__________________
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 . . .

I have the AEROBEE material from "High Power Rocketry" magazine.

Too bad you never scanned those Aerobee drawings, from Aerojet.

Dave

Speaking of Project Farside, I started a data thread about it, just the other day!

https://forums.rocketshoppe.com/showthread.php?t=20791

Dave F.