Hobby in which participants build rockets and associated systems
Amateur rocketry, sometimes known as experimental rocketry or amateur experimental rocketry, is a hobby in which participants experiment with fuels and make their own rocket motors, launching a wide variety of types and sizes of rockets. Amateur rocketeers have been responsible for significant research into hybrid rocket motors, and have built and flown a variety of solid, liquid, and hybrid propellant motors.
Amateur rocketry was an especially popular hobby in the late 1950s and early 1960s following the launch of Sputnik, as described in Homer Hickam's 1998 memoirRocket Boys.
One of the first organizations set up in the US to engage in amateur rocketry was the Pacific Rocket Society established in California in the early 1950s. The group did their research on rockets from a launch site deep in the Mojave Desert.[1]
In the summer of 1956, 17-year-old Jimmy Blackmon of Charlotte, North Carolina, built a 6-foot rocket in his basement. The rocket was designed to be powered by combined liquid nitrogen, gasoline, and liquid oxygen. On learning that Blackmon wanted to launch his rocket from a nearby farm, the Civil Aeronautics Administration notified the U.S. Army. Blackmon's rocket was examined at Redstone Arsenal and eventually grounded on the basis that some of the material he had used was too weak to control the flow and mixing of the fuel.[2][3][4]
Interest in the rocketry hobby was spurred to a great extent by the publication of a Scientific American article in June 1957 that described the design, propellant formulations, and launching techniques utilized by typical amateur rocketry groups of the time (including the Reaction Research Society of California). The subsequent publication, in 1960, of a book entitled Rocket Manual for Amateurs by Bertrand R. Brinley provided even more detailed information regarding the hobby, and further contributed to its burgeoning popularity.
At this time, amateur rockets nearly always employed either black powder, zinc-sulfur (also called "micrograin"), or rocket candy (often referred to as "caramel candy") propellant mixtures.[5] However, such amateur rockets can be dangerous because noncommercial rocket motors may fail more often than commercial rocket motors if not correctly engineered. An appalling accident rate[5] led individuals such as G. Harry Stine and Vernon Estes to make model rocketry a safe and widespread hobby by developing and publishing the National Association of Rocketry Model Rocket Safety Code, and by commercially producing safe, professionally designed and manufactured model rocket motors. Model rocketry by definition then became a separate and distinct activity from amateur rocketry.
As knowledge of modern advances in composite and liquid propellants became more available to the public, it became possible to develop amateur motors with greater safety. Hobbyists were no longer dependent on dangerous packed-powder mixtures that could be delicate and unpredictable in handling and performance.[5]
The Reaction Research Society conducts complex amateur rocket projects, utilizing solid, liquid, and hybrid propellant technologies. The Tripoli Rocketry Association sanctions some amateur activities, which they call "research rocketry," provided certain safety guidelines are followed, and provided the motors are of relatively standard design.
On May 17, 2004, Civilian Space eXploration Team (CSXT) successfully achieved the first officially verified flight of an amateur high-power rocket into space, achieving an altitude of 116km (72mi).[7]
Prior to that, the Reaction Research Society on November 23, 1996, launched a solid-fuel rocket, designed by longtime member George Garboden, to an altitude of 80km (50mi) from the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.[8]
For Series 9, Episode 4 of the BBC's Top Gear, a group of amateur rocketeers were given four and a half months to convert a Reliant Robin into a space shuttle with the assistance of an engineering firm.[9] The shuttle used 6 x 40,960 N·s Ohybrid motors for a maximum thrust of 8 metric tonnes, making it the most powerful non-governmental rocket launch in Europe. Unfortunately, the explosive bolts holding the Robin to the external tank failed to separate, causing it to crash into a nearby hill.[citation needed]
On 22 March 2007, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach launched the two-staged Icarus rocket from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Icarus was designed and built by students from the Embry-Riddle Future Space Explorers and Developers Society. This vehicle set the world record for highest altitude launch by a student team with an apogee of 37.8 miles (200,000 feet), with a maximum velocity of Mach 4.04. It also became the first two-stage student sounding rocket to launch from a NASA facility.[10]
On June 3, 2011, Copenhagen Suborbitals launched the HEAT 1X Tycho Brahe rocket with a capsule containing a test dummy. The flight had the wrong trajectory and had to be aborted in-flight (potentially the first in-flight termination of an amateur rocket based on telemetry data and radio command).
On June 23, 2013, Copenhagen Suborbitals launched the SAPPHIRE-1 rocket with active guidance. This rocket reached an altitude of 8.2km with a horizontal error/drift of 180 m at apogee with respect to the launch platform. This launch was also a potential first in amateur rocketry as the first guided rocket launched by amateurs.
On October 16, 2015, Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering (DARE) launched the Stratos II+ rocket from El Arenosillo, in Spain, to an altitude of 21.457km with a successful water landing and capsule recovery. This broke the original amateur European altitude record of 12.3km set by DARE in 2009 with the launch of Stratos I. This record stood as the European altitude record among all student rocketry programs.
On November 8, 2016, Hybrid Engine Development (HyEnD),[11] a student team from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, launched the HEROS 3 (Hybrid Experimental ROcket Stuttgart) from Esrange Space Center in Northern Sweden to an altitude of above 30km.[12] By this, the European altitude record for student programs and the World record for hybrid propulsion student rockets was taken by HyEnD.
On April 21, 2019, USCRPL launched TRAVELER IV,[13] an eight-inch diameter vehicle from Spaceport America. All of the subsystems were reported as successful, and the vehicle was fully recovered. On May 22, 2019, a whitepaper was published calculating apogee altitude of 339,800ft ± 16,500, giving a 90% confidence that it passed the Kármán line.[14] This makes it the highest-performing student-designed and student-manufactured rocket in the world, and the first to reach the internationally accepted definition of space.[15] However, even though all subsystems were reported as performing nominally throughout the flight, the rocket experienced a loss of GPS data from approximately 13 seconds to 278 seconds of flight, therefore missing apogee.
On 3 August 2019, Cape Rocketry launched JR101 in the Karoo, South Africa. An altitude of 10.3km was reached, making it the highest verified altitude achieved in Africa by an amateur group. This was an especially notable achievement as the propellant was based on Ammonium Nitrate, as opposed to the more common ammonium perchlorate. All major components used were manufactured in South Africa, including electronics and propellant.[16]
On February 22, 2020 Mike Hughes, known as "Mad Mike", died after the parachute in his homemade rocket deployed prematurely and detached during liftoff.[17]
On March 8, 2021, a student group of the South African University of KwaZulu-Natal beat the previous African amateur hybrid rocket altitude record with their "Phoenix-1B Mk IIr" vehicle by reaching 18km height after successfully launching it at the Denel Overberg Test Range in the Western Cape.[18]
A rocket is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely from propellant carried within the vehicle; therefore a rocket can fly in the vacuum of space. Rockets work more efficiently in a vacuum and incur a loss of thrust due to the opposing pressure of the atmosphere.
A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses solid propellants (fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used in warfare by the Chinese, Indians, Mongols and Persians as early as the 13th century.
A hybrid-propellant rocket is a rocket with a rocket motor that uses rocket propellants in two different phases: one solid and the other either gas or liquid. The hybrid rocket concept can be traced back to the early 1930s.
A model rocket is a small rocket designed to reach low altitudes and be recovered by a variety of means.
A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are used to launch instruments from 48 to 145 km above the surface of the Earth, the altitude generally between weather balloons and satellites; the maximum altitude for balloons is about 40 km and the minimum for satellites is approximately 121 km. Certain sounding rockets have an apogee between 1,000 and 1,500 km, such as the Black Brant X and XII, which is the maximum apogee of their class. Sounding rockets often use military surplus rocket motors. NASA routinely flies the Terrier Mk 70 boosted Improved Orion, lifting 270–450-kg (600–1,000-pound) payloads into the exoatmospheric region between 97 and 201 km.
Homebuilt machines are machines built outside of specialised workshops or factories. This can include different things such as kit cars or homebuilt computers, but normally it pertains to homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes. Homebuilt aircraft or kit cars are constructed by amateurs. Homebuilt computers have been built at home for a long time, starting with the Victorian era pioneer Charles Babbage in the 1820s. A century later, Konrad Zuse built his own machine when electromechanical relay technology was widely available. The hobby took off with the early development of microprocessors and, since then, many enthusiasts have constructed their own computers. A homebuilt vehicle is a wider concept than a kit car. A homebuilt vehicle is a motor vehicle built by an individual instead of a manufacturer. These machines may be constructed "from scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits. Outside of the United States people wishing to build such complex machinery often have no professional networks to rely on for spare parts, plans, or advice in the matter and therefore have to rely on their ingenuity and intuition in order to build a machine that works.
Viking was a series of twelve sounding rockets designed and built by the Glenn L. Martin Company under the direction of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Designed to supersede the German V-2, the Viking was the most advanced large, liquid-fueled rocket developed in the United States in the late 1940s, returning valuable scientific data from the edge of space between 1949 and 1955. Viking 4, launched in 1950, was the first sounding rocket to be launched from the deck of a ship.
The National Association of Rocketry (NAR) is a non-profit tax-exempt scientific organization dedicated to consumer safety, youth education, and the advancement of technology in the hobby of sport rocketry in the United States. Founded in 1957, the NAR is the oldest and largest spacemodeling organization in the world with over 8,000 members and 200 affiliated clubs across the U.S. It was established in 1957 by Orville Carlisle and G. Harry Stine. It supports all aspects of safe consumer sport rocket flying, from small model rockets with youth groups to very large high-power rockets flown by adult hobbyists.
High-power rocketry is a hobby similar to model rocketry. The major difference is that higher impulse range motors are used. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) definition of a high-power rocket is one that has a total weight of more than 1,500 grams (3.3 lb) and contains a motor or motors containing more than 125 grams (4.4 oz) of propellant and/or rated at more than 160 Newton-seconds of total impulse, or that uses a motor with an average thrust of 80 newtons (18 lbf) or more.
Motors for model rockets and high-powered rockets are classified by total impulse into a set of letter-designated ranges, from ⅛A up to O. The total impulse is the integral of the thrust over burn time.
Rocket Candy, or R-Candy, is a type of rocket propellant for model rockets made with a form of sugar as a fuel, and containing an oxidizer. The propellant can be divided into three groups of components: the fuel, the oxidizer, and the additive(s). In the past, sucrose was most commonly used as fuel. Modern formulations most commonly use sorbitol for its ease of production. The most common oxidizer is potassium nitrate (KNO3). Potassium nitrate is most commonly found in tree stump remover. Additives can be many different substances, and either act as catalysts or enhance the aesthetics of the liftoff or flight. A traditional sugar propellant formulation is typically prepared in a 65:35 (13:7) oxidizer to fuel ratio.
The Civilian Space eXploration Team, also known as the CSXT, is a team of around 30 civilians interested in private spaceflight. The team was created by Ky Michaelson. Having conducted multiple rocket launches in an attempt to establish altitude records, CSXT became the first entity to officially launch an amateur rocket into space on May 17, 2004, with the successful launch of its GoFast rocket to an altitude of 116 km above the surface, which was verified by FAA analysis of the team's flight data.
Copenhagen Suborbitals is a crowd-funded human space program. It has flown five home-built rockets and two mock-up space capsules since 2008. The organization successfully launched its Nexø II rocket in the summer of 2018. Its stated goal is to have one of its members reach space on a sub-orbital spaceflight. The organization was founded by Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen.
Rocket propellant is the reaction mass of a rocket. This reaction mass is ejected at the highest achievable velocity from a rocket engine to produce thrust. The energy required can either come from the propellants themselves, as with a chemical rocket, or from an external source, as with ion engines.
Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering is a student-run society within Delft University of Technology, with over 190 members. The main focus of the student group is the development of rocket technology on a non-profit basis. All development, from engines to electronics, is done in-house. Although several projects take place in DARE, the group's two flagship projects are Stratos and Project Sparrow. Stratos includes the Stratos I rocket which was launched in 2009 and set the European altitude record for amateur rocketry at 12.5 km. The follow-up of this rocket was the Stratos II+, which was launched on 16 October 2015, reaching an altitude of 21.5 km and breaking the European altitude record. In summer of 2018, Stratos III was launched, disintegrating 20 seconds after the launch. Its successor, Stratos IV, is currently in development. Project Sparrow is the newest project, working on a liquid-fueled rocket engine, which will be designed to go beyond the Kármán line. Even though DARE cooperates with the military to safely conduct launch campaigns, DARE's technology is strictly non-military. Approximately 70 percent of members come from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of Delft University of Technology, with the remaining 30% coming from other faculties, including Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics and Industrial Design. DARE also features a very high number of international students, with about half of the students coming from outside the Netherlands.
Miura 1 is a suborbital recoverable launch vehicle developed by the Spanish company PLD Space. It is planned to be the first recoverable launch vehicle in Europe.
OneSpace or One Space Technology Group is a Chinese private space launch group based in Beijing, subsidiaries in Chongqing, Shenzhen and Xi'an. OneSpace was founded in 2015. OneSpace is led by CEO Shu Chang, and is targeting the small launcher market for microsatellites and nanosatellites. OneSpace launched China's first private rocket in 2018.
WIRES is a Japanese project developing a winged single-stage reusable suborbital rocket as a test bed for a reusable orbital launch system or a crewed suborbital spaceplane. The full-size prototype, called WIRES-X, is expected to be launched in 2020.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to rocketry:
Equatorial Space Systems PTE LTD. also known as Equatorial Space, is a Singapore-based company that develops hybrid-engine rockets and space launch services. The company was founded by Simon Gwozdz and Praveen Ganapathi Perumal in 2017 in Singapore, with the goal to develop low-cost, safe and eco-friendly space launch vehicles.
↑ Bellicoso, Louise (15 February 2007). "Amazing space launch for ...Delboy's motor!". buxtonadvertiser.co.uk. Archived from the original on 28 July 2019. Retrieved 28 July 2019.While the show alludes to a 12-day build, in reality, it took over 4 months to build the final product.
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