Idea: Project Fire Rain

[Urwumpe]

The forces sustained are 12,000 to 50,000 G, the flash memory should survive that. But what I really meant by drives were the mechanical parts of the optical system, like shafts, motors, gears and such things.

For most optics stuff, piezoelectric actuators should do the job for you. They are precise and react good, but have limits in their size. You should not expect them to solve all problems.

 

[James.Denholm]

The forces sustained are 12,000 to 50,000 G,

Good Jesus!

the flash memory should survive that. But what I really meant by drives were the mechanical parts of the optical system, like shafts, motors, gears and such things.

Ah. Right. I'm all out of ideas.

Unless... No, it'll never work.

 

[Lunar_Lander]

Quote:
the flash memory should survive that. But what I really meant by drives were the mechanical parts of the optical system, like shafts, motors, gears and such things.
Ah. Right. I'm all out of ideas.

Unless... No, it'll never work.

No, just tell your idea here, I'm open to any suggestion. There are no "wrong" suggestions/answers in this board !

I have a payload idea: During HARP, a great number of Martlet 2's were filled with TMA (trimethyl aluminum) or a Cesium compund. These chemicals were released at about 100 km altitude and the resulting electron clouds were then tracked with an ionosonde (and visually in case of the Cesium). Now, these compunds always filled most of the interior space of the Martlet 2. Could some of the compund be taken aboard the Martlet 4 and then drained out during the climb? That would then be an example of an "ascent" experiment.

 

[James.Denholm]

No, just tell your idea here, I'm open to any suggestion. There are no "wrong" suggestions/answers in this board !

I was only kidding!

What if it was assembled in space, by remote? Actually, no, that won't work.

I like your idea. A lot.

 

[Lunar_Lander]

Thanks for you kind words James !

I'm at my University Library right now and just piced up some copies of articles about HARP. Maybe I can get more info about the original vehicles and methods from them. Until then, the "chemical" question from post #23 is still open to discussion :lol:

 

[penlu]

"The most difficult reentry in history."

The Galileo atmospheric probe entered Jupiter's atmosphere at 47 km/s.

 

[James.Denholm]

Thanks for you kind words James !

I'm at my University Library right now and just piced up some copies of articles about HARP. Maybe I can get more info about the original vehicles and methods from them. Until then, the "chemical" question from post #23 is still open to discussion :lol:

Today, I actually installed HARP and did a couple of test runs. Damn, that's fast.

People, you can't grasp the speed through numbers alone. Run a test. You won't regret it!

 

[Lunar_Lander]

Yes, you've to experience it to actually believe it .

Do you have some data of your shots? E.g. elevation, gun power, apogee?

 

[James.Denholm]

Yes, you've to experience it to actually believe it .

Do you have some data of your shots? E.g. elevation, gun power, apogee?

Pretty much the same as yours... soon, I'm going to use the Flight Data Recorder to record acceleration and so forth, but first I need to install Ubuntu on a Virtual PC and hope to hell that KRT (or whatever it's called) is one hell of a lot easier than using gnuplot. In the meantime, if someone knows how to use gnuplot, SAY SOMETHING!

 

[Lunar_Lander]

Sorry, I have Debian as an experimental installation on my laptop (besides Vista) and Im still figuring ou what you can do with it. So, I can't help .

Just had a funny thought about reactivating the HARP Gun. Here in Germany you've to notify the officials when you acquire a gun. And I just imagined the call:

Me: "Hello, I would like to notify you about my new gun."
Off.:"Yes, which type of gun is it?"
Me: "Um, naval gun, 420 mm bore"
*silence*
Off: "Err, for what do you need....it?!"
Me: "Oh, it's just a science project down on Barbados"

:lol:

 

[Lunar_Lander]

I'm going to do some more test shots and will post the data here.

What I would like to know: When you have your .log file, how can you get the data into, e.g. Excel to make a plot/graph out of them? When I try to highlight the numbers to copy them, I always highlight both columns (time and altitude) together. Any ideas?

Furthermore, I'll start to set up that scientific plan I talked about once .

 

[Lunar_Lander]

Ahm, I don't want to be annoying in any way, but it would be really helpful if anybody has a suggestion on how to get the .log file data into an Excel worksheet to produce a time vs. altitude plot.

Thanks in advance ,
Lunar_Lander

 

[Jarvitä]

Ahm, I don't want to be annoying in any way, but it would be really helpful if anybody has a suggestion on how to get the .log file data into an Excel worksheet to produce a time vs. altitude plot.

Thanks in advance ,
Lunar_Lander

Which file is the flight data logged in?

 

[Lunar_Lander]

It's a file called FlightData.log and it opens with Notepad.

 

[Jarvitä]

It's a file called FlightData.log and it opens with Notepad.

It's a lot of work on for a long flight log, but simply adding a tab between the columns in the log file puts them into separate columns when you copy/paste it into a spreadsheet program (I use OpenOffice.org). You have to do it for one line at a time, but I'm sure someone could come up with a very basic script to convert the spaces between the columns into tabs.

I've done some test flights of my own, and judging by them, the max. altitude (and flight time) results from a launch at a 75 degrees angle, followed by engine ignition at an altitude of around 27km and continuous burn of all 4 stages in the direction of the velocity vector. The apoapsis is at around 7400km altitude, and the projectile safely drops in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.

EDIT: I've just figured out how to seperate the columns in MS notepad.

First, you need to enter a tab indentation somewhere in the file and copy it.
Then, using the find and replace feature, replace all strings of six spaces with the tab indentation. Then, replace all strings of five spaces with it. Repeat the process for all strings of four, three, two and then one spaces (it's recommended you previously copy only the number columns into a separate file or every space in the log file will be replaced with a tab). You can now copy/paste the data into a spreadsheet and it's assigned into cells appropriately.

 

[Lunar_Lander]

Thanks for the tip Jarvitä ! I'll try that in the next time.

Also thanks for posting your test flight data. Did you get yout 7400 km because of burning one after another? I got about 5500 km when flying 75°, and I fired the first stage at T+20, second stage T+100, third stage T+200 and fourth stage T+300.

 

[Jarvitä]

Thanks for the tip Jarvitä ! I'll try that in the next time.

Also thanks for posting your test flight data. Did you get yout 7400 km because of burning one after another? I got about 5500 km when flying 75°, and I fired the first stage at T+20, second stage T+100, third stage T+200 and fourth stage T+300.

As I've said, I've started the first stage burn at around 27km altitude and continously burned all 4 stages. The only pause was a few seconds to kill the rotation with the second stage.

P.S.:Here's an example spreadsheet of a flight that went somewhat wrong - it was a 45 degree launch, but the payload separated too soon and dropped down on a ballistic course. Zipped because this forum won't let me upload .ods or .xls files.