Friday, March 27, 2009

March 22nd, 2009 Launch

It was a steadily windy Sunday afternoon when the A-Mach Time Rocket Society met to test two of its new rockets: Tom Cruise Missile and Kobayashi Maru. These two rockets are the cornerstone of the next phase of Society activity which will test out different rocket types.
Tom Cruise Missile is unique in that it has six small cylinders attached to it for stability instead of the traditional four-finned style. Tom Cruise Missile was up as the first launch of the day. Sadly, it did not perform as expected. As soon as it left the launch pad it spiraled out of control, losing five of its cylinders. Luckily, all cylinders were recovered and the rocket is fixable.
Kobayashi Maru fared much better during its first ever launch with reaching nearly a thousand feet, but still came away damaged from the flight. It has already been repaired, however, and will live to fly another day for the A-Mach Time Rocket Society.
Fire on High, quickly becoming the durable go-to rocket for us, performed excellent as always, and recorded some of the best heights of the day, reaching a whopping 933 feet!
The seasoned veteran Riptide also performed well, though taking on some damage. At first we were scared that the rocket would be unfixable. However, with some finely tuned craftmanship, it appears that Riptide will see the skies again.

Here are how the launches fared:

Tom Cruise Missile

Flight Number: 1
Launch Site: Avalon Park
Temperature: N/A
Wind speed, mph (Max): 12.2
Wind speed (Avg): 2
Dist. From Pad (ft): 250
Stage 1 Fuel: C6-5
Stage 2 Fuel: none
Stage 3 Fuel: none
Recovery Device: parachute
Launch Rail Angle: 0
Launch Rail Length (ft): 2.5
Altitude Angle θ: 50
Altitude Achieved (ft): 297
Recovery location (ft): N/A
Time to Max height (s): 1.5
Time from Max Height (s): 2

Kobayashi Maru:
Flight Number: 1
Launch Site: Avalon Park
Temperature: N/A
Wind speed, mph (Max): 13
Wind speed (Avg): 5
Dist. From Pad (ft): 250
Stage 1 Fuel: C6-5
Stage 2 Fuel: none
Stage 3 Fuel: none
Recovery Device: parachute
Launch Rail Angle: 0
Launch Rail Length (ft): 2.5
Altitude Angle θ: 75
Altitude Achieved (ft): 933
Recovery location (ft): 663.92
Time to Max height (s): 8
Time from Max Height (s): 50

Fire On High
Flight Number: 1
Launch Site: Avalon Park
Temperature: NA
Wind speed, mph (Max): 8
Wind speed (Avg): 3
Dist. From Pad (ft): 250
Stage 1 Fuel: C6-5
Stage 2 Fuel: none
Stage 3 Fuel: none
Recovery Device: streamer
Launch Rail Angle: 0
Launch Rail Length (ft): 2.5
Altitude Angle θ: 61
Altitude Achieved (ft): 451
Recovery location (ft): 437
Time to Max height (s): 5
Tim from Max Height (s): 20

Flight Number: 2
Launch Site: Avalon Park
Temperature: NA
Wind speed, mph (Max): 19
Wind speed (Avg): 10
Dist. From Pad (ft): 250
Stage 1 Fuel: C6-5
Stage 2 Fuel: none
Stage 3 Fuel: none
Recovery Device: streamer
Launch Rail Angle: 0
Launch Rail Length (ft): 2.5
Altitude Angle θ: 75
Altitude Achieved (ft): 933.01
Recovery location (ft): 579
Time to Max height (s): 8
Tim from Max Height (s): 20

Riptide
Flight Number: 1
Launch Site: Avalon Park
Temperature: NA
Wind speed, mph (Max): 13
Wind Speed (Avg): 5
Dist. From Pad (ft): 250
Stage 1 Fuel: C6-5
Stage 2 Fuel: none
Stage 3 Fuel: none
Recovery Device: Parachute + Streamer
Launch Rail Angle: 0
Launch Rail Length (ft): 2.5
Altitude Angle θ: 63
Altitude Achieved (ft): 490.65
Recovery location: 575
Time to Max height (s): 7
Time from Max Height: 40.25

Flight Number: 2
Launch Site: Avalon Park
Temperature: NA
Wind speed, mph (Max): 9
Wind Speed (Avg): 4
Dist. From Pad (ft): 250
Stage 1 Fuel: C6-5
Stage 2 Fuel: none
Stage 3 Fuel: none
Recovery Device: Wide Streamer (50x4)
Launch Rail Angle: 0
Launch Rail Length (ft): 2.5
Altitude Angle θ: 70
Altitude Achieved (ft): 686.87
Recovery location: 291.78
Time to Max height (s): 7
Time from Max Height: 19

Flight Number: 3
Launch Site: Avalon Park
Temperature: NA
Wind speed, mph (Max): 6
Wind Speed (Avg): 2
Dist. From Pad (ft): 250
Stage 1 Fuel: C6-5
Stage 2 Fuel: none
Stage 3 Fuel: none
Recovery Device: Thin Streamer (50x2)
Launch Rail Angle: 0
Launch Rail Length (ft): 2.5
Altitude Angle θ: 60
Altitude Achieved (ft): 433.01
Recovery location: 314
Time to Max height (s): 7
Time from Max Height: 18

Take care and be well until next time, everyone!

A-Mach Time Rocket Society
Launching Towards Tomorrow

Friday, March 13, 2009

What's in a logo?

Though the A-Mach Time Rocket Society is a rather new entity, its members have been space and rocket enthusiasts for quite a while. With that being said, we knew that we needed an appealing, eye-catching logo to start things off right. Our final logo is the result of the work of one Chintan Shah. I sat down with Chintan to discuss the creation of said logo, and here is the conversation that transpired (with some of the original designs in between the questions):Question: What was the main purpose you were trying to capture with the logo?
Chintan: I was trying to make something that was modern, but also simple that would represent us. I knew that good logos are recognized by just a glance (like Nike, or Pepsi, etc.) so I wanted to make something different.
Question: What did you use to make the logo? (programs, etc.)
Chintan: I used mostly Photoshop and some Flash to do the lettering and editing.
Question: Were there earlier versions of the logo that you abandoned? Why?
Chintan: The logo was a work-in-progress for a while and I kept working on it from the beginning. While it did look nice, I kept feeling as if something was missing. When the final draft was made, I really felt it was complete and that it captured what A-Mach was supposed to be about.
Question: Are there any interesting facts you would like to tell us about the logo? Any hidden messages that it is trying to convey?
Chintan: I really like the rocket that crosses the A. The A looks like a mountain, the MACH shows we're climbing new heights, and the rocket shows that we're getting everything going!
There you have it everyone. The history of our logo has finally been revealed, hidden messages and all. Thanks for reading and take care until next time!
A-Mach Time Rocket Society
Launching Towards Tomorrow

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Rocket Launches 3.5

the 21st of February, 2009