The Reaction Research Society held our monthly meeting on September 9th. It was the first in-person meeting in 31 months We met at the front office of the Compton/Woodley Airport at our usual starting time of 7:30pm. This was a new location for us and we are grateful to the staff of Los Angeles County for their hospitality.
We still held our teleconference which continues to allow our members living far from the city to join us. We will stay at this location for the next two more meetings to decide if this will be our permanent location.
September meeting agenda
Review of recent MTA/rocket events:
Upcoming MTA events
Bathroom work to continue this month
New concrete launch pad
USC RPL testing campaign
Catching-up in person
This is a placeholder until the full meeting minutes can be transferred.
Our next meeting will be on October 14 at the same location at the front office of the Compton/Woodley Airport. We will meet every 2nd Friday of each month. Contact the RRS secretary for information.
by Dave Nordling, President, Reaction Research Society
The University of Michigan came to the Mojave Test Area for another static order phentermine fire campaign starting Monday, July 25th and ending July 31st. Pyrotechnic operators, Jim Gross, Osvaldo Tarditti and myself supported this protracted campaign in the July heat. The weather was challenging during that week with few heat-related problems other than slow progress which is understandable given the conditions. New RRS member, Rushd Julfiker, and long time member, Jim Gross, assisted me in the cold flow and hot-fire testing. MASA’s academic adviser, Professor Mirko Gamba was also present at the MTA for the days of cold flow and hot-fire testing.
University of Michigan held a Test Readiness Review on Sunday, 7/17/2022, with RRS members present. Many good questions were raised but few corrections were needed. MASA proceeded with packing and departed campus cytotec for the MTA on Friday, 7/22/2022.
University of Michigan first day at the Mojave Test Area
The team arrived at the MTA on Monday night (7/25/2022) and began to unpack their gear and assemble the mobile test trailer. Leak checking went more smoothly due to design improvements. Problems with the igniter channel would prove to be a recurring concern.
Initial setup of the mobile trailer at first arrival.Attaching frequently used tools by retractable tethers means never hunting for the right wrench again. Genius.Hewlett-Packard film crew prepares to have interviews with the students.Control trailer operations leading up to test.A clean injector ready to be installed.Fuel transfer operations before next test.230-liter cryogenic liquid cylinders from Linde.
On Friday (7/29/22), gas bottles and cryogenic liquids were recieved from the supplier. Delays in receiving these consumables allowed sufficient time to verify systems were ready. MASA achieved significant progress towards hotfire after completing four valve timing coldflows and one abort test. Analysis of the data from our tests in preparation for hotfire tomorrow.
The RP-D2 engine sits on its thrust stand.University of Michigan’s mobile test trailer beside the vertical test stand
Saturday (7/30/22) was the first attempt at hot-fire which was unsuccessful due to an igniter failure. The cause was traced back to an intermittent problem with the switch in the junction box. The prior igniter test demonstrated the igniter would fire in the cold flow conditions the day before. Comparing data sets, the team found that a simple verification of continuity in the voltage data stream during the countdown would safely identify a failed igniter firing circuit and allow a safe abort if it were to repeat.
RRS members Jim Gross and Rushd Julfiker examine the setup before the next test attempt.
In the last hour of the last day (Sunday, 7/31/22) of the campaign, MASA completed a successful 1 second hot-fire of the 2,000 lbf RP-D2 engine. The chamber and injector remained intact and the system safed itself properly.
Screenshot from the 1-second firing of RP-D2 as seen from the Garboden bunker
After examining the data, pressures were significantly off from the expected profile, but the engine passed the visual inspection After further consideration, the team opted not to proceed with a longer 4-second burn due to the uncertainty about our data values and pressure drops seen from hot-fire. MASA would conduct a more thorough examination of the data and hardware back at the university.
The MASA team began cleaning up the test site on Sunday night and continued throughout the night to prepare for the 1800 mile jouney home. University of Michigan was extremely happy with the result of their campaign and were grateful to our pyro-op’s and membership that supported every day with the MASA team.
The RRS was glad to provide our testing site, resources, experience, labor and insight to this successful testing campaign.
For inquiries about using the RRS Mojave Test Area, contact the RRS president.
Excellent artwork generated by USC RPL for the launch.Group photo on the night before.
The USC RPL group had a large number of experienced seniors graduating this year. The pandemic had minimized activity over the past two years, so the group had many new students with little experience in conducting firings. Many of the experienced students were graduating so the purpose of this project was to teach the lower classmates how to conduct the firing preparations.
The Jawbone 6-inch rocket sits on the launch rail at the RRS MTA
I was the Pyrotechnic Operator (Pyro Op) in charge and arrived at the MTA at 0822-hours and shown the work done so far. The vehicle was on the launcher but the igniter was not yet installed. USC RPL had two 3-bag igniters prepared in fueling area. One was attached to their traditional dowel road but the spare was not.
Custom built igntier for the solid motor.Spare charges
The Pyro Op gave the safety briefing covering both rocket and environmental hazards at 0900-hours to the 79 participants. The predicted time to impact if the recovery system failed was 89-seconds. Everyone then got under cover in the bunker and final instrumentation checks were conducted. The igniter was inserted at 0913-hours and the vehicle launched at approximately 0922-hours. The ignition was prompt and the flight looked normal. Telemetry was lost during the flight.
High angle view from the north of the launch of Jawbone.
Some interesting facts about Jawbone: The predicted altitude was about 34,000-feet. It used their older propellant. It was reported the motor had about 40-lbs of propellant. This contrasted with the 100+ pounds that was reported on the Standard Record Form (SRF). The igniter had a total of 33-grams of igniter composition of which 24-grams was powder and the rest was strips of propellant. The igniter composition was the same AP/HTPB propellant as the motor. The free volume of the motor was reported to be 114-cubic inches. The outer diameter was 6-inches.
Jawbone was recovered late in the afternoon. The data recording system was working and to be downloaded and analyzed when the team returned to USC.
Further details on the event were provided by Jeremy Struhl of USC RPL:
USCRPL successfully launched and recovered Jawbone on Saturday, April 23rd, 2022. The vehicle reached an apogee of 41,300 feet above ground level (AGL), a maximum speed of Mach 1.717, and a peak acceleration of 7.266 G’s.
Infrared camera view of the Jawbone launch from the RRS MTA, 04/23/2022
Jawbone saw multiple new systems in avionics and recovery. First, the avionics unit on Jawbone received a number of upgrades. First flown on CTRL+V, USC RPL’s custom pancake-style PCB stack conforms around the nosecone deployment CO2 canister, allowing more space in the nosecone. The system featured a new custom battery charging and management PCB to prolong pad standby time. Additionally, this was our first flight of the Lightspeed Rangefinder, an in-house designed and built tracking unit that used four ground stations positioned around the launch site to triangulate the position of Jawbone following its flight. This positional data proved valuable during the post-flight recovery of the vehicle.
Fish-eye lens view of deployment at 41,000 feetAnother view of the spent booster stage.View from within the booster during deploymemt, nosecone in view
The Jawbone recovery system featured a next-generation design with improvements from the prior rocket ”CTRL+V “ dual deployment recovery system used in that flight. Using a connector and extension wire running along the forward shock cord segment, USC RPL’s custom avionics unit attempted to control the active deployment of the main parachute when the vehicle reached a decent altitude of approximately 5,000 feet. Unfortunately, the recovery system experienced a partial failure resulting in the main parachute failing to open. The drogue parachute was still successfully deployed, so the vehicle was recovered intact. The main parachute, which was constrained using a Tender Descender, was never deployed due to unexpected loads during nosecone deployment disconnecting the cable attached to the Tender Descender.
