Help us pick 10lbs of awesome to launch to 10,000 feet

November 9, 2007 11:37 AM

I'm on a team that participates in an amateur rocketry competition. We are building a rocket to carry a 10 lb (4.5 kg) payload to 10,000 feet (3048 m) above ground level. Help us come up with 10lbs of awesome we could put in the rocket.

We're a group of engineers, trying to impress other engineers. In the past, we've put GPS units, strain gauges, cameras and thermocouples (for measuring temperature) in the rocket. Since this year's competition is similar to last year's, we'd like to up the ante a bit. That being said, any and all idea are welcome.

posted by !Jim to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (49 answers total)

Does it have to be brought back down safely? If not, then I say pack it with 10 pounds of gunpowder and a fuse. You didn't want your rocket back did you?
posted by ND¢ at 11:45 AM on November 9, 2007

Or wait. How about a small monkey in an astronaut suit. That would be awesome.
posted by ND¢ at 11:46 AM on November 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

My dog weighs about 10 pounds...
posted by jozxyqk at 11:48 AM on November 9, 2007

Or a really heavy banner that weighs 10 pounds when stuffed in the rocket and then you set it off and it goes 10,000 feet and then it comes back down and the other scientists are all like "So what did you have in there?" and you pull out your banner and spread it out and it says "Suck it nerds!" That would be cool.
posted by ND¢ at 11:49 AM on November 9, 2007 [2 favorites]

if i could assure her that it would parachute down safely, i would volunteer one of my neighbor's cats that comes over here to pick fights with my cat.

if you can't get the right cat, how about launching an ipod plus an iphone. if you knew the cell numbers of the engineers you're trying to impress, you could have the payload call them in flight, conference them all in, then blast them with jimi hendrix or led zeppelin.
posted by bruce at 11:50 AM on November 9, 2007

If you could get the timing right (and it were at night) fireworks would be solid. And you would not even need 10 lbs to make it sweet. You stated the payload, what kind of volume do you have to work with? That might be pertinent info for getting good ideas.
posted by milqman at 11:55 AM on November 9, 2007

There are these places that can put your face on a doll. So you take pictures of everyone on your team looking like they are travelling at high speed, maybe take their picture while someone is pointing a leaf blower at their face, and you have those pictures put on a lot of dolls and then put the dolls in the rockets. Dress them like astronauts too.
posted by ND¢ at 11:57 AM on November 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Put a targeting system and foldable wings in it. Actually, just make it a vertical take-off rocket plane with an autopilot in it and land it in one of the other teams' trucks.
posted by backseatpilot at 11:57 AM on November 9, 2007

Response by poster: This is an academic competition, so think more along the lines of things that would be somehow educational or research-oriented.

The rocket is designed to come down safely, but sometimes the parachutes fail, and the rocket plummets to the earth and becomes a giant dart. Anything living is definitely right out.
posted by !Jim at 11:57 AM on November 9, 2007

Response by poster: I'm not sure about volume yet, the diameter of the rocket will be around 6 in., so say we have a space 4-5 inches in diameter, and 10-12 inches long.
posted by !Jim at 11:59 AM on November 9, 2007

Candy!

(Seriously. How cool would it be to have candy raining from the sky?)
posted by angry.polymath at 12:04 PM on November 9, 2007

10lbs of Tang
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 12:07 PM on November 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

Seconding 10lbs of Tang.
posted by 517 at 12:17 PM on November 9, 2007

Best answer: An autonomous glider that finds it's way back to the launch point.
posted by phrontist at 12:17 PM on November 9, 2007

Best answer: Radiation detector? How sensitive would it have to be? Human exposure at ~10,000' is roughly 0.001 mSv/hr or something like that. Maybe take a look at personal dosimeters and see if you can't hack something from that.
posted by exlotuseater at 12:23 PM on November 9, 2007

So, are you looking for something that gathers interesting data while the rocket flies? Or just random science-y stuff that happens to weigh about 10 lbs?
posted by vytae at 12:24 PM on November 9, 2007

Best answer: I'm sure you've already considered altimeters, what about a Gauss-meter to measure the earth's magnetic field? Or hygrometer's to calculate moisture levels in the atmosphere?
posted by dendrite at 12:25 PM on November 9, 2007

You could put 5 grams of each element on the rocket. You could put in a glider with gps that would launch at zenith. You could get a prop from a TV show you like. You could launch a potato. You could launch a Rolex.
posted by enfa at 12:29 PM on November 9, 2007

It would be awesome if ten pounds of eggs made it back to earth intact.
posted by booth at 12:29 PM on November 9, 2007

Swedish Fish.
posted by sourwookie at 12:30 PM on November 9, 2007

Astronaut Ice Cream.
posted by yohko at 12:37 PM on November 9, 2007

Best answer: How about a 10 lb. rocket?
posted by Pastabagel at 12:53 PM on November 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

How about a variation on a russian doll set but instead have one rocket inside another rocket and so on, your main rocket being the biggest version.
posted by pwally at 12:54 PM on November 9, 2007

glitter would really beautiful raining down.
posted by theora55 at 12:56 PM on November 9, 2007

I like the glitter. I was going to say, can you put a crapload of fireworks in it and blow them off way up high?
posted by sully75 at 1:08 PM on November 9, 2007

Condoms, and claim that engineers always do it safely and correctly?

Do the glider with a little GI Joe-type pilot in it for the "manned re-entry vehicle."

(Or a condom-filled glider, if you're feeling facetious.)
posted by fijiwriter at 1:13 PM on November 9, 2007

A recording of the words "We're coming to blow your alien butts away" in every known language.
posted by Pallas Athena at 1:14 PM on November 9, 2007

some kind of spectrum analyzer/scanner to look for and record data on wifi points and cell towers? it would be the radio spectrum equivalent of the powers of 10 movie.
posted by rmd1023 at 1:15 PM on November 9, 2007

Response by poster: So, are you looking for something that gathers interesting data while the rocket flies? Or just random science-y stuff that happens to weigh about 10 lbs?

We're looking for something that gathers interesting data, or something sciencey and related to aerospace engineering.

Things we've done:

• Acceleration measurements (g-forces, etc.)
• Altimeters
• Cameras

Thanks for the answers so far, and keep them coming! The ones I've marked best answer are the most useful but the rest have also been creative and amusing.
posted by !Jim at 1:20 PM on November 9, 2007

If you put ice cream in it, and it goes into space, does it *become* astronaut ice cream?
posted by mrzarquon at 1:27 PM on November 9, 2007

Thirding 10 pounds of TANG
posted by briank at 1:28 PM on November 9, 2007

It would be interesting to put some form of sound system into it and broadcast a tone. You could sample it from different locations to measure air density, doppler effect or other things that the sound motion might tell you.

Also, anything that could send back some form of telemetry would be cool.

Or how about a Buck Rodgers doll?
posted by slavlin at 1:40 PM on November 9, 2007

Rig a humongous balloon to inflate at zenith.
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:41 PM on November 9, 2007

A whole team of rocket hamsters.
posted by Totally Zanzibarin' Ya at 2:04 PM on November 9, 2007

Several digital movie cameras pointing outwards. Afterward, have tame computer dorks use the information to construct a moving 3-d panorama, so that you could replay the launch and slew the virtual camera any which way.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:13 PM on November 9, 2007

Surely someone among you is a ham radio dude. Put on a VHF or UHF beacon with a repeating message in morse code. Notify the surrounding schools (perhaps for hundreds of miles) and offer a prize to the student who is first to decode the message and the most distant. have them respond to an e-mail address in the message.
posted by OneOliveShort at 2:28 PM on November 9, 2007

Yes, cameras. Get in touch with the local ham radio club(s) and see if they know anyone who's done this before. You might not even have to spend money on the gear, if it comes back in one piece.

The digital 3d route sounds cooler but much harder to implement. Besides, live video is kinda spiffy. For bonus points, run 2 cameras as a genlocked stereo pair, overlay the images somehow, and hand out 3d glasses to people watching the monitor.

For the wifi detector, I'll recommend the RDC-based routers as a hardware platform. They're embedded 486-like machines with USB and wifi onboard, so integrating the GPS is easy, and the wireless interface is provided. Building a helical (so you don't have to deal with cross-polarization) antenna into the nose should be easy, and the battery-backed RTC means you don't need an NTP reference when you power it up for the timestamps to be useful. Throw a solid-state disk in for logging and you're done. I'm sure you can find a linux geek to build kismet for the platform. ;)

Also, downlinking some of your data like lat/long/alt coordinates, temperature, battery status, and stuff via APRS might be a neat backup for your regular telemetry, because it'll get more people in the community involved/interested, and you can turn it into a PR win.
posted by Myself at 2:33 PM on November 9, 2007

If you put ice cream in it, and it goes into space, does it *become* astronaut ice cream?

If it's cold enough, otherwise you get astronaut ice cream soup.
posted by yohko at 2:49 PM on November 9, 2007

Launch several weather balloons, each of which will carry a payload of a 100' metal tape measure rigged to unfurl after an hour.
posted by yohko at 2:56 PM on November 9, 2007

A Slim Pickens doll?

(Don't ask me where to find one)
posted by mysterious1der at 3:21 PM on November 9, 2007

You could do the same things you've already done, but mock it up as homage to Sputnik.
posted by anaelith at 3:31 PM on November 9, 2007

can you get a cheap GPS and datalogger into it, with enough resolution so you can plot your flight? I expect it won't be exactly vertical, and it would be interesting to see how accurate you could get with WAAS.
posted by jenkinsEar at 5:40 PM on November 9, 2007

Response by poster: We've done GPS before, and it's actually quite problematic. GPS antennae need to have line-of-sight with the satellite (sort of -- it's why you always see those little nubby antennas on top of cars). This is difficult to do on a rocket, because it needs to be good and smooth. In that past, we've done it by putting a small hole somewhere and then mounting the antenna inside the rocket, but near the hole, so it gets reception. It only works moderately well though.
posted by !Jim at 5:46 PM on November 9, 2007

!Jim, if you guys pull off something cool, could you post a f/u to MeTa?
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:16 PM on November 9, 2007

Best answer: The most interesting thing for most people about a model rocket flight to 10,000 feet, is the perspective view you can get from 10,000 feet. Unfortunately, in all but the best atmospheric conditions, the view, and therefore the pictures that come back are generally hazy and of limited resolution, due to water vapor in the atmosphere, vehicle speed and resolution/capture rate of the photo/video equipment involved. Who needs yet another fuzzy, if bird's eye view of hard-to-recognize farmland from 10,000 feet?

But what you can clearly discern from any altitude over about 2,000 feet is the curvature of the Earth at the horizon. In fact, between 2,000 and 10,000 feet, you can often infer your altitude pretty accurately by seeing how much the apparent curvature of the horizon changes, until you get to a point where atmospheric conditions limit the visible horizon to less than the true horizon. If you reach a point where the visible horizon obscures the true horizon at an altitude of less than 10,000 feet, you are seeing a clear demonstration of less than ideal local atmospheric conditions, even if the launch weather appears perfect.

So, I might suggest that you take some more pictures with a 9 lb. photo package mounted for capturing an optimal horizon image series, and then post-flight analyze it to see how close you came to being able calculate your actual highest altitude from horizon observation, compared to an onboard digital altimeter. It would be uber-cool if you could get the digital altimeter readout to post in the video/photo frame for comparison during analysis/playback.
posted by paulsc at 10:12 PM on November 9, 2007

How about a payload of helicopter seeds. The ones that take absolutely ages to fall and look quite pretty while they do.
posted by Surfyournut at 8:43 AM on November 10, 2007 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: v!Jim, if you guys pull off something cool, could you post a f/u to MeTa?

Yeah, I should be able to put a video up. Won't be till next summer, though.
posted by !Jim at 9:09 AM on November 10, 2007

How about a small solid state web server....and then ping it all the way up!

You could get people to pay/donate to host a page on the fast moving webserver ever!
posted by mattr at 10:19 AM on November 10, 2007

A riff on the monkey idea...what about "twin" monkeys, one kept on Earth and another in the rocket. During flight, explode some white powder (talc) on Rocket Monkey's head so that it looks like he's aged. Compare the twins once back on Earth.
posted by cocoagirl at 5:49 PM on November 10, 2007