April 2022 virtual meeting

by Keith Yoerg (RRS Secretary)


The latest meeting of the Reaction Research Society was held Friday, April 8th 2022 and had twenty-two attendees, including several student presenters from the UCSD Colossus project.

Screenshot of discussion during the monthly meeting

PRESENTATION FROM UCSD COLOSSUS TEAM

The meeting began with a presentation from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Students for the Exploration & Development of Space (SEDS) team, led by the Colossus Project Manager Shannon Lin. Colossus is a trailer-mounted thrust stand developed by UCSD students with funding from a NASA grant, intended to accommodate a wide range of liquid bi-propellant rocket engines (up to 3,000 lbf).

Title slide from the UCSD presentation

The UCSD team hopes to market use time on Colossus to student, amateur, and professional groups that are building liquid rockets and would like to collect data without designing and building their own thrust stand. Colossus can collect concurrent data from 13 pressure transducers, 8 thermocouples, and 5 load cells at 1,000 Hz sample rate. They also expect to add a 20,000 fps high-speed camera as well as a mass-spectrometry camera to their data collection options.

The presentation prompted many questions from RRS members, and there was a lengthy description of the prior failure, refurbishment, and upgrades made to their mobile and modular test stand. The team expects to conduct coldflow testing in the coming months, and hope to use the MTA to test fire a CalTech rocket and a UCSD project sometime in the coming summer.

REVIEW OF RECENT MTA EVENTS

Following the UCSD presentation, membership discussed the recent events at the MTA since the March meeting. On March 12, Dimitri delivered and placed the new 40-foot storage container, Bill Inman performed his second and final burst test of a fired vessel for steam rocketry, and members conducted low and high-power launches. A firing report from Dave Nordling can be found here.

On April 2nd, LAPD CSP sponsored an event with STRIVE featuring Baby Bertha launches, a high-power launch, and one zinc-sulphur alpha. Maintenance of the MTA site was also performed that day by USC RPL and RRS president, Dave Nordling. A firing report from Dave can be found here.

The RRS executive council for 2022: from left to right, Larry Hoffing (treasurer), Frank Miuccio (vice president), Dave Nordling (president), Keith Yoerg (secretary)

UPCOMING MTA EVENTS

April 14th-15th the UCLA Rocket Project plans to use the Dosa Building at the MTA in preparation for a launch from our neighbor FAR on 4/16/2022. We are requiring that the group complete some site maintenance by way of brush clearance to help reduce the risk of fire at the MTA in exchange for use of the Dosa Building.

On April 23rd, USC RPL intends to static fire their Earthshaker 4 solid rocket, as well as launch a 6-inch rocket called Jawbone from the MTA. The group has been working with Jim Gross, who will be the pyro-op in charge that day. USC has also been conducting repairs on the concrete pad below the vertical test stand, including anchor bolt removal, concrete patching, and installing a new, larger female anchor bolt pattern via a template for accurate placement of future projects from any team.

The University of Michigan (MASA) is planning to conduct testing at the MTA from May 6th – 13th. Mutliple pyro-ops from the RRS will be required to support the campaign that the students hope to complete. The TRR is 4/21/2022, pyro-ops who are available should reach out to the RRS President to request the meeting details at: president@rrs.org Cryogenic deliveries to the MTA through Linde in Lancaster have been resolved, which was an important step considering the difficulties from the last time MASA tested at the MTA.

Frank and Larry have been teaching another rocketry class, this time with the YMCA. This class also uses Big Bertha launches and will likely include an alpha launch as well. This launch is planned for May 21st.

In early June, UCLA Senior Capstone project will use the MTA to launch rockets they have been building.

OTHER ITEMS

  • New and improved website coming soon!
  • Two new members of the society joined the Compton Comet team, Drake Perason and Alexis Monitel
  • Reminder for all pyro-op’s to renew their licenses with CALFIRE using new online system, deadline 6/30/22
  • Quarterly Amazon Smile disbursement

SAFETY AND RISK MITIGATION

Richard Dierking requested info on eye-wash station or similar on-site safety shower. Richard is researching and will present to the executive council in a few weeks.

Example of a portable eyewash station from an RRS member on the meeting

Richard Garcia did research on flame stacks, and whether the RRS should require their use when methane is used at the MTA. He is working on building reference to know what safe distances should be based on existing plume models. As the RRS Director of Research, Richard may draft a paper to add this information to the RRS member library. Other members or student groups with papers they would like considered for addition to the library can contact Richard at:

research@rrs.org

NEXT MONTHLY MEETING

The next RRS monthly meeting will be held virtually on Friday, May 13th at 7:30 pm pacific time. Current members will receive an invite via e-mail the week of the meeting. Non-members (or members who have not received recent invites) can request an invitation by sending an email to:

secretary@rrs.org

Please check your spam folders and add secretary@rrs.org to your email whitelist to make sure you are receiving the meeting invitation.

MTA Firing Event, 2022-04-02

by Dave Nordling, President, Reaction Research Society


The RRS held a launch event at the Mojave Test Area on Saturday, 4/2/2022. Larry Hoffing was our pyrotechnic operator in charge. It was a very pleasant day with low winds for most of the day.

The sign arch welcomes people to the Mojave Test Area

It was also the first time in a long time that all four members of the executive council were present at the same event. We took the opportunity to capture the moment in a photograph.

The executive council for 2022; Keith Yoerg (secretary), Dave Nordling (president), Larry Hoffing (treasurer), Frank Miuccio (vice president)

The primary project for that day was the launch of 15 Baby Bertha rockets made by the students of Nickerson Gardens over the six-week educational program the society held with the support of LAPD CSP. The rockets give the students a tangible sense of accomplishment and seeing them in flight from the MTA gives them good memories of what hard work can do.

The newest armada of Baby Bertha’s ready for flight.
Students wait in the Dosa Building before the launch.
The launch rails made ready for the event.

There was an RRS standard alpha made for this occassion which flew at the end. It was prepared by our experienced pyro-op, Larry Hoffing, and made an impressive finish to this school event.

Larry Hoffing (right) trains his colleague in the assembly and loading of a micrograin alpha rocket.
Larry Hoffing oversees the launch rail with Keith Yoerg for an alpha launch.

Secondarily, we had a few members of the USC RPL team out at our site to begin repairs of the concrete pad area used in their static fire tests. Removal of the male anchor bolts in USC’s custom mounting pattern were finally distorted too much to be useful. They were a frequent tripping hazard and their removal was a blessing.

USC RPL cinducts repairs of the vertical test stand pad.
USC RPL team at work making improvements at the MTA.

Also, the USC RPL team made several contributions to improving the MTA site with earthwork, brush clearance, and just good old fashioned hard work. We’re grateful to them coming out to help keep the site in good shape,

Earthwork in progress to backfill the erosion.
View from the blockhouse of the Peregrine rocket ready for launch.

The last portion of the day was spent launching a few more model and high-power rockets before the winds became too high. We used the time to plan our next event and rearranged our materials in our new storage container.

Our next monthly meeting is Friday, April 8th. Contact the RRS secretary for information.

secretary@rrs.org –