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Hydroaeropropulsion Rocket Research Labs
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4 september 2002
Mounting the parachute-equipped rocket. Alas, the top cap (with the
parachute inside) failed to open, because the cap was fastened too tight
to the bottle.
Pieter Vandecasteele's work. Very robust with thick plates, threaded rods etc.
Parachute bottle being pressurized.
Two launchers ... one worker :-)
Mounting the double bottle rocket we prepared yesterday.
We manage to put some pressure on the bottle ...
... but not for long: a leak develops at the place where both bottles
are joined.
Look, visitors, interested in science and technology!
Standard stuff: a 1.5 liter coke bottle.
This one should be easier to spot because of the paint on it.
Geert really wants to see if the parachute will perform better if we
put the cap very loosely on the bottle.
Hooray! (The right picture is a detail of the left one.)
Again, again!
This one lost the cap during the flight, but the main bottle landed
nicely.
Main conclusion: it's not bad as it is now but it seems that the cap opens
too early, before the bottle is at its heighest, and hence starts slowing
down the bottle so it doesn't get as high as the ones without parachute.
Some details on the construction. The parachute is a cut from a plastic
shopping bag and is connected to a coca cola can piece (the thing
with which you actually open the can) using four pieces of string.
The strings are connected to the corners of the plastic using duct tape.
I added a little knot just after the piece of duct tape. (Which might
be a good idea, then again it might not. But anyway.)
Here I added the plastic cap again with a fifth piece of string.
