Saturday, October 18, 2008

We came so very close...

I just reviewed the data from our successful and unsuccessful flights.


By backing the realized thrust coefficient out of the successful flights and the chamber pressure from the unsuccessful heavy flight we are within  6%. If we had 6% more  Tank Pressure or throat area we would be flying.   Argggggg!  This would mean Hydro+ing the tank to ~ 400 PSI. I’m almost tempted to go out in the garage and pump it up to that point.


Our realized ISP was only 65% of theoretical(Adjusted second by second for chamber pressure ISP changes) If we could fix the catalyst mixing or had chosen a solid cat instead of the hated purple menace we would be golden! If we could hit 75% of theoretical ISP we could reduce the fuel load enough to do it.


If wishes were horses beggars would ride.


Best luck to Armadillo and TrueZero

2 comments:

RM said...

It would drive me crazy to come so far and so close but just miss it.

Do you have a picture of your H2O2 and permanganate injector that you're willing to share?

Chris Phoenix said...

I'm really glad you're still, despite what must be intense frustration, going to try next year.

I've really appreciated your detailed blogging. I'll probably never build a rocket, but it's great to watch!

Best of luck in '09!

Chris