Sugar Shot to Space - Weekly Activity Report: April 27, 2008 (Week 18)

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Weekly Activity Report - April 27, 2008 (Week 18)

Highlights of recent developments on the MiniSShot Project
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- The static firing of the MiniSShot motor took place on schedule
yesterday (Saturday, April 26) at the FAR test facility in the Mojave
Desert. The first burn went very smoothly and the motor appeared to
operate as expected. After the planned 10 second "coast" delay, the 2nd
chamber was ignited, and within a second, casing rupture occurred just
aft of the midbulkhead joint. Although reminiscent of the earlier BEM
failures, the cause does not appear to be the same. Preliminary analysis
indicates that a nozzle blockage may have occurred due to degradation
and subsequent collapse of the casing insulation liner during the 10
second thermal soaking. A more complete post-firing analysis has begun
and will continue over the next while. Excellent thermal data was
collected which is expected to aid the investigation. Links to photos of
the event are provided at the end of this message.

A huge debt of gratitude is owed to Matt Campbell, Brent Dougherty and
Rick Maschek who worked doggedly to prepare the propellant, motor and
test rig in time for the planned firing date. Despite obstacles along
the way and despite fighting a ticking clock, these gents managed to
pull it off in fine style. The motor was prepped beautifully despite
their 11th hour joining of the propulsion team which meant learning the
intricacies and idiosyncrasies of the motor design on-the-fly. Matt
built an amazing test fixture and rigged up the instrumentation like a
pro. Thanks again, gents, you are an inspiration to us all. A huge
thanks also goes out to Randy Dormans who provided much appreciated
technical guidance at the site, and to Joseph Mahaney, who
video-recorded the event and helped out in other ways as well.

- Brent has completed the report that documents the propellant casting.
This document has been uploaded to the Sugar Shot website:
http://www.sugarshot.org/documentation.html

-Hans has revised the Chute Controller document to reflect the actual
construction. Hans also reports that he may have the opportunity to test
fly the Chute Controller and other avionics packages.

- Ed has made good progress with the video transmitter and plans to test
fly the device in the near future.

- Richard has been invited to give a presentation at the University of
Reykjavik (Iceland) on the topics of amateur rocketry and the Sugar Shot
project, and to attend a launch of a rocket designed and built by
students. The presentation will take place on May 2nd and the launch on
the 4th of May.

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