A.S.T.R.O
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Reflections
Maria Clark
For this project, my group was me, Manuhe Abebe, Logan Stocks, and Tyler Magazine. We had to build a rocket that would launch in the air along with a recovery system for a quail egg put inside. This took a lot of planning at first. We drew, talked, and researched different possible rocket designs that would work. Our rocket consisted of 2 2.75 inch diameter tubes, a 3-D printed nose cone, 2 in cardboard fins, and our egg contraption. The egg contraption was a rectangle of sponge that had a hole carved in the middle for the egg. We put a piece of sponge over the egg hole, and duct taped it shut. Lastly with the egg contraption, we added the plastic bag as the parachute. Even with all this hard work we put into the rocket, The engine we had put inside of the rocket wasn't secure so, when it was set to launch, the engine flew out from the bottom and out on its own. The rocket itself just fell over and the egg contraption inside shot straight up. It's amazing how something as small as the engine being secure, that out rocket failed. We were so focused on every other aspect, that when we put the engine in, we just left it. Even though the rocket failed, when the egg was shot up, it survived the fall. During this entire process we had both ups and downs. The ups about it is the fact that we figured out the center of pressure and we were able to find a design that our rocket can work with. We were able to do this because we worked well as a group when building and communicated ideas as it went on. Putting 4 heads together is alot better than one. The nose cone we made was very heavy, but it fit pretty well with the rocket. Another thing that went well was our egg contraption. It served its purpose when flung up and protected the egg inside from cracking. Some downs we had throughout this process is when there was a complication with launching so we had to take the rocket apart and strip is down to 3 ounces or less from being about 4.8 ounces. With the time and cooperation of the team, this was doable. Since we rushed with the time we had left to fix the rocket, we left some things that I would have changed or improve. For example, I would have improved the engine tube by hot glueing or recoating it with super glue to the rocket so that the rocket's engine doesn't have a chance to fly away on its own. Something else I would have improved on is the parachute from the egg contraption. I needed a more flowy and light material for it, even though the one is used worked fine. I would also change our rocket is by making the nose cone out of a different material.
Manuhe Abebe
Mr.Holler
Technology Engineering and Design
January 4th, 2017
Astro is a leading global manufacturer, we believe in creating the best products for the best companies out there. Astro has been developing rockets since 2005. Our group consisted of Maria Clark, Tyler Magazine, and Logan Stocks. We don’t imagine our standards will drop anytime soon. We’re committed to designing, crafting and assembling the best merchandise on the market. As a leading global manufacturer, we’d love to give you a behind-the-scenes view of what went well and our struggles and how we overcame one of our biggest projects yet.
One of our biggest projects was “Save Mark Watney”. NASA instructed us to build a rocket and a recovery system that we would launch into the sky and the recovery system will safely return Watney (egg) unharmed to Earth, Also we had to make it sturdy, cheap and efficient.
One thing that went well during the process was taking some of the weight off of the nose cone, this may sound impossible but I managed to do all the work. What I did was I shaved some of the bottom pieces of the rocket with a box knife and sanded it down. Again this may sound complicated but it was not. After I did that I sanded the whole nose cone. Our original nose cone weighed 0.90 and I managed to get it down to 0.70. The reason it went well was because we managed to get some weight of-of the nose cone so it would at least fly and put less weight on the rocket. Another thing that went well during the process was our egg contraption. There are many ways to ensure that Watney (egg) will survive. One approach would be to cushion the egg but to protect it from the large impact. A logical solution we came up with is to use a bubble wrap. A way we can implement this onto our egg is to delicately wind the bubble wrap around the egg anywhere from two to five times, creating a thick cushion. We then Tie the ends of the bubble wrap with rubber bands to prevent the egg from slipping out through the top or bottom.
An Additional idea we came up with or can execute onto our egg contraption system is to have a sponge, and an egg like hole on the sponge, and put the bubble wrapped egg inside the sponge and then fold it horizontally. So it would look like a cylinder and would be much simpler for the egg contraption system to work. The reason the egg contraption went so well was that we had an idea or a discussion of what would be best for the recovery system.
There are many things I would have changed or modified if I were to do this again. I would have probably made the rocket a little bigger so the egg contraption would fit perfectly because we did have trouble putting it into the rocket. Another thing I would change or modify is the parachute we did use a plastic bag as others used a small parachute, the reason we chose this is because it would catch more air and the more air it catches, the slower it would fall. The overall landing took approximately 7 seconds when we tested it from the bleachers but it would take more time as the height increases. As a team, we decided to keep the design because we did our research we tested it multiple time and have come to the conclusion that our egg will survive any height. After testing our rocket, our parachute did come out but if we did use a smaller parachute and made the rocket less heavy I guarantee that our rocket would have flown higher.That is why we believe in creating the best products for the best companies out there, and that is the reason we test our model rockets that would look like the real rocket beforehand so we can make adjustments to our actual rocket.
One thing we as a team could have improved on which I think as a group we all agreed on and that is by hot gluing the engine tube or with super glue much more to the rocket.The reason is when we tested our rocket the engine came out of the rocket which is why I think our rocket did not launch high enough but other factors were also involved. Anyways if we glued it much more onto the rocket the engine wouldn't have any chances of flying of the rocket. Another thing we could have improved is the nose cone we could have made it out of a different material. The reason is because the plastic from the 3-d printer is very heavy. I do not know what we could have used but I think the nose cone was kind of heavy but we did manage to fix it last minute. When NASA reported that we had to take some weight off of our rocket. Which we did as I mentioned how in paragraph 3.
Over all we did a very good job, in terms of communication we did handle that very well. Our rocket launch was successful and we are glad to say that we did save Watney and we hope to have more projects like this to challenge our company and make us an even better company.