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[DrPoo]

Hey guys, i love space and rockets and stuff and i love experimenting with stuff, especially stuff that flies. I also love low/non-existant bugdets, so my projects usually end up looking alot hobo like.
Currently i got my own little backyard "space program" wich currently consists of making simple rocket engines, attempting to launch them, fail, grab a new match and wrap it up again and light that.

My totally possible overly ambitious (final) goals are:

-Build a multistage rocket out of low grade materials and primitive electronics that is capable of going like 50 meters up, eject a miniature space plane/lander carrying some fragile/slightly explosive(but cheap) cargo to land back on the ground, somewhat smoothly.

-Make a weather balloon, and a small reuseable autonomous probelike vessel, have it take some kind of samples, like pictures, temperature measurements, trajectory calculations and such.

-"Mars" mission, scale up the rocket design a bit, make it RC, fly as high up as legally possible, land in neighbor village, figure out where it landed, fly back and land in my garden/my launch site in the outskirts


Experiments/Designs/Ideas:

Hydrogen Rocket: Through electrolysis, hydrogen is obtained and stored in a primitive engine made from a water bottle and a simple nozzle of sorts, my friend did this recently, the rocket flew up like 10/20 meters and blew up in a funny blue flash, i would guess either overheat/overpressure, this is why i will add a safety/coolant system to a bottle of a somewhat sturdy/reinforced material, it would most likely either be a small compartment with a saltwater solution cooled to about -10 degrees celsius, or just a few icecubes added to the engine, maybe i'd just store the whole thing overnight in a freezer.

Solid Rocket Booster: Matchsticks can burn, and they do it fast, rocket fuel burns fast. I could make a simple solid rocket booster out of a nozzle, cardboard/plastic tube and alot of matchsticks/moderate ammounts of gunpowder. Matchstick heads have proven a suitable fuel.

Flour Rocket: I am not quite sure about this thing, never tried it but it seems plausible. Have a small cardboard/tin engine, fill it with some flour, have a little piece of heated iron/a sparker sit somewhere in the top of the engine, in the bottom, where the nozzle is, blow in air, the flour would combust, very fast, and send the rocket flying a bit... maybe.

Todo list:

Figure out when things start becoming illegal
Keep on making match stick rockets
Research other (legal) kinds of fuel

Before you post: Yes i know some of theese things are dangerous to me/other people, and yes i know people blow their hands off, but they are irresponsible and handle too large ammounts/unstable kinds of fuel, and yes i use safety glasses and gloves when handling dangerous materials.

So i'd thought that some of you other guys also like to build things that fly/explode horribly in your garage, setting your favorite poster on fire.

[ChairmanPoo]

Hmm... I googled it and apparently it IS possible to turn a single matchstick into a rocket

[jester]

Ill say that the weather balloon is totally workable, even if you dont want to buy one (they arent too expensive), giant ballon (like 20 bucks?) + small can of helium + tiny camera +gps tracker = homebrew spy satellite.

  Gotta say though, your multistage idea sounds suspiciously like a rocket launcher and the RC rocket is probably a non starter for a homebrew job.

  Solid fuel rockets are fairly hard tbh, I REALLY REALLY REALLY wouldnt recommend trying gunpowder unless you already have some experience with it and have an electronic ignition with about 40m of wire hooked to it.  Frankly I think you are more likely to make a bomb than a rocket, generally very frowned upon by the law and probably your neighbors as well.

  Depending on the range you are getting now, other stuff you can do is make a water rocket by inserting a valve from a bike tube into the lid of a coke bottle, then sealing it up with silicone glue or the like, then you fill the a 1.25l PLASTIC bottle 1/2 with water then put the lid on and pressurize it with a bike pump/small air compressor, just take off the lid to launch.  Get enough pressure in em and they go 50m+ fairly regularly.  Though if you put too much in (and itl be obvious) and they will explode, though coke bottles can take alot, ive seen the 'classic curves' on a coke bottle pop out to all smooth before this can happen, and I dont think you could do it with a bike pump.


Edit:  oh and another fun thing, that can be alot less dangerous is home brew hot air ballons.  I learned alot of science and had alot of fun with my dad trying to make a decent one as a kid.

[Siquo]

Oooh, interesting

I'm not sure at what height actual airway laws start, people usually don't like it when you fire rockets at aircraft height (and it might be very low, as helicopters fly at low altitudes).

There used to be an "independent astronauts" organisation. No idea if they still exist or actually produced something.

[jester]

In alot (US for example) of places you can actually buy small rocket kits with engines and stuff, so id assume its high

[DrPoo]

Ill say that the weather balloon is totally workable, even if you dont want to buy one (they arent too expensive), giant ballon (like 20 bucks?) + small can of helium + tiny camera +gps tracker = homebrew spy satellite.

  Gotta say though, your multistage idea sounds suspiciously like a rocket launcher and the RC rocket is probably a non starter for a homebrew job.

  Solid fuel rockets are fairly hard tbh, I REALLY REALLY REALLY wouldnt recommend trying gunpowder unless you already have some experience with it and have an electronic ignition with about 40m of wire hooked to it.  Frankly I think you are more likely to make a bomb than a rocket, generally very frowned upon by the law and probably your neighbors as well.

  Depending on the range you are getting now, other stuff you can do is make a water rocket by inserting a valve from a bike tube into the lid of a coke bottle, then sealing it up with silicone glue or the like, then you fill the a 1.25l PLASTIC bottle 1/2 with water then put the lid on and pressurize it with a bike pump/small air compressor, just take off the lid to launch.  Get enough pressure in em and they go 50m+ fairly regularly.  Though if you put too much in (and itl be obvious) and they will explode, though coke bottles can take alot, ive seen the 'classic curves' on a coke bottle pop out to all smooth before this can happen, and I dont think you could do it with a bike pump.


Edit:  oh and another fun thing, that can be alot less dangerous is home brew hot air ballons.  I learned alot of science and had alot of fun with my dad trying to make a decent one as a kid.

The gunpowder part is most likely out of question, i have made a few pieces of (legal, atleast in caliber) homemade fireworks before, even small ammounts are enough for a decent pop, a cardboard tube-full would most likely leave a crater and my hand(s + face) somewhere.

Gotta say though, your multistage idea sounds suspiciously like a rocket launcher

Teehee! Would probably also end up like one, but what the hell, one of my moms friends son at my age made a rocket launcher out of some PVC and a few spray cans, it fired into the neighbours yard knocking down a few things, no one/thing were hurt though Boredom works wonders.

When i was a lil' boy my dad bought me one of theese funny foam/plastic rockets, we tried launching it, it went 10 meters up in there air(i guess), we tried another time, since then it was thrown out. Water rockets are pretty funny.

I just noticed i make everything either sound silly or advanced, at worst, utterly incomphrensible

[10ebbor10]

You can buy modelrocketengines quite cheap. I think 10 dollar will get you 4 basic A engines( 50 meter).