I’ve never built any model rocket before and need help finding the right one. When I go to the Estes website I see they have some beginner rockets also listed in the intermediate section, which makes it even more confusing. I’m building it with a 10 year old who is huge into aviation and science so I’d like something with some pizazz. Budget is around $100. Any advice is appreciated!

I'm looking for substitutes for BP, I've found this old recipe.

• 60% Sodium nitrate
• 10% Sulfur
• 18% Charcoal
• 10% Ammonium Nitrate
• Urea (optional)

Is it real good? Is more a explosive or a propelent? I can't test, because I don't have any of those ingredients.

Obviously it would not have choked flow but it would allow you to throttle the water between flights if you have an actuatable plug. It would be pretty neat to figure out what's the best throttle without needing an entirely new nozzle every time. It should redirect the water to be pretty straight too, if you make your contour correctly.

Was going through the house clearing things out. Came upon a stash of Estes rockets (5), Engines (70+), launch platform and controller. along with all the other accessories. Maybe $350+ USD to replace today.

Used to do them with my son back in the day.

Came to this reddit to learn a little about these rockets.

I am located in California and realized I really cannot just give them to my neighbor to use with his son or use them myself or sell them online. New laws now apply from back in the day. Nearest NAR club is about 60 miles away so not really doable on a regular basis.

So looks like either hazardous waste disposal or do the NAR clubs take donations of what would be basically beginner level Estes components?

Hello everyone, this is my first reddit post so be nice.

I am currently a college senior looking to be a propulsion engineer but I have not been involved in clubs or rocketry in general. I have an idea for a senior project and I am currently planning on reaching out to clubs and companies in search of a sponsor. I'm working on a one page summer of the idea (background, pitch, proposal etc). My main question is would anyone have productive opinions on the idea or have any research sources that can aid in my understanding?

The idea is to develop a small and easy to use cold gas propulsion system that allows the rapid iteration nozzle designs. The goal is to use scaling laws to evaluate nozzle performance characteristics on a physical model without the need to move on to hot fire/full scale testing. The challenge for my team would be defining the key laws that come with nozzle analysis and scaling them to get useful data, developing a simple yet flexible system, and making a repeatable procedure to recreate the set up.

Any input would be appreciated I really hope this could be an opportunity for me and my team to learn about propulsion while also pouring into the industry.

Thanks!

so, i was huge fan of rockets in my childhood, always searching wiki pages about rockets and how to make them, and i make few non ignition pressure rockets, but after hitting rock bottom with material, slowly i move on, quit rocketry. so now after 10 years , i want start my old hobby, so where should i start now ( I , personally think starting from sugar motor should be good) , appreciate any help.

Hey everyone, I just got tasked with making a water bottle rocket for an engineering competition. The rules are basically just it has to be a 2 liter bottle propelled by water and pressure inside. The only goal here is to get it the farthest distance. We are allowed to modify the bottle in any way we see fit.

My group is trying to optimize things as much as possible and we have a list of questions. We ran simulations online to test certain things but we cant produce any test models for at least 2 weeks due to scheduling conflicts. So in the meantime we wanted to research what we could.

• We've read that for all subsonic flight vehicles a rounded parabolic nose cone is most efficient to reduce drag, (ex all commercial airliners, most cruise misses). But does that extend to water bottle rockets with the goal of horizontal distance?
• We are not sure what fin shape to choose here. Elliptical fins are the most aerodynamic and we can easily 3D print them, but does the extra drag produced by them make them better than Clipped delta fins since our end goal is not vertical height?
• Does adding soap to the water mixture alter it in any significant way. We read that it could possibly lower the surface tension of the water however are the results at all noticeable?
• Does raising the center of gravity cause the rocket to move farther or does it just make it more stable, we've heard conflicting answers
• One group member suggested making curved or spiraled fins, so that the rocket would spiral like a football. I can see how this would increase stability but are there any real benefits here that wouldn't be achieved by a more conventional fin shape?
• Alternatively, would trying to make the rocket more "plane like" be better? Since our end goal is distance here couldn't we model it more like a plane rather than a rocket in hopes of getting it to glide. Since our propulsion ends quickly once the water is out of the bottle, would attaching planes wings onto our 2 liter bottle, with an extended tail, be practical?

Apologies for the long post, this is my first time on reddit. Thanks to all that respond!

I'm trying to build a rocket in a game inspired by the minute man 3 but I can't actually find anything on how it maneuvers in air

Hey everyone!

I’m pretty new to model rocketry and have been trying to keep a notebook or journal for my projects, but I’m not sure the best way to organize everything. I’ve been jotting down ideas and some launch data, but it feels kind of all over the place. 😅

How do you all keep track of your rocketry stuff? Do you follow a specific structure, or is it more freeform? What kind of things do you make sure to write down? (Like, do you track designs, issues you’ve run into, or cool ideas for future builds?)

Also, do you prefer writing things down by hand, or do you keep things digital? I’d love to hear any tips or advice you have on how to stay organized. Thanks!

Guys, I am planning to make motor for my Rocket that will have an Apogee of 3km approx.. I have done this initial motor Simulation...after that I will do CFD analysis and casing structural analysis and thermal analysis..Is this simulation acceptable?? I have fear of not making the port to throat above 2 to prevent erosive burning and I have read somewhere that this dextrose based propellant is less sensitive to erosive burning so I have reduced that ratio... And also can I use fiberglass, coated with resol based phenol formaldehyde resin liner which I will be making by myself ? Any suggestions will be appreciated...

With the knowledge and tech we have now would it be possible to build the german v2 in your garage without the destructive part of it all and better fuel?

I’m planning to use rylr998 for my 30k feet rocket. Its helical antenna operates in normal mode so planning to have it perpendicular to the rocket and parallel to the ground. I was wondering if this default antenna setup would be enough for a 30k 3+ mach rocket to receive reliable telemetry.

If not please recommend a better rf module or upgrade in antennas

Also I’m looking for a smd rf module that has similar specs to rylr998

Joined Spaceport America Cup and just had our used Aerotech Motor delivered in our country. Just wondering on how to clean the insides of the motor with all the melted phenolic and liners from the burn.

Hi,

I have been watching all kinds of Videos about building model rockets and reading lots of things on the internet for a couple of weeks now. Now I am interested in building my own model rocket. I would really like to build a TVC Rocket. I know I shouldn't just do something very complex in the beginning, so I will build some "normal" rockets first, but how long do you think it will take me to build a functional TVC Rocket. I know 2 CAD programs and am ok experienced in the field of Aerodynamics (mostly of cars), so I can also use CFD Software. I know some things about Manufacturing and own 2 3D printers, I have also worked with fibreglass a few times. The only problem is that I don't have much experience in coding, so I will have to learn that. But do you think my experience is enough to build a TVC Rocket after maybe building 1-2 "normal" rockets ? And how long will it take ?

Hello! I recently just got into rocketry(after a long time of wanting to do it)and my friend and I launched at a small football field and we find it 6 blocks away!!(its a b6 engine) any recommendations of where to go?

I wanted to know if it's worth putting gun grease between the outer wall of my graphite nozzle and the inner wall of the stainless steel combustion chamber. The goal is to protect the o'ring behind it.

Hi guys! i just want to ask some ideas about arc jet and resistojet. Our adviser ask us to create a resistojet or arc jet propulsion for small sat using additive manufacturing. One of the problems we encounter is what areas can we improve? because it seems to us that these types of propulsion is nearly complete and the only novel ideas were to create some type of propellant. Thanks!

I’ve lost a few rockets and started using AirTags with a rubber casing and hook , and just hooking them onto my nose cones , what is a good budget way to track my rockets? . Just seeing as a different method either than AirTags

So I have got a few sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, two pressure sensors) hooked up to the UNO. However, the moment I connect up a micro-SD card module to record all the data (high sampling rate), something fails to initialize or decides to not work in some other way. Independently all sensors work fine so i know its not the wiring! Not sure what is happening. Do i need to get a new and more powerful board or something?

Hi as the title says I forgot to put ground plane to pcb so my LoRa module interface with BME and BME data goes crazy and ideas to fix that? Maybe an extrernal ground plane?

So basically I buit this prototype of an electronic parachute ejection system for my 3D printed rockets because the ejection charge would've melted the bodytube when it exploded. A few days ago I found out that abs filament doesn't melt that easily. I want to focus on guided model rockets, but I don't know what type of ejection to use...

photos of the E-2 ENGINE SHUTDOWN IN THE HIGHEST PERFORMANCE SLOW MO VIDEO versus buran shuttle thruster burn

Under expanded cutoff condition of the E-2 transient shutdown.

Nearly invisible high expansion buran shuttle thruster hotfire

I mean what is the appropriate velocity a rocket should have when leaving the launch rod.