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Highlights of recent developments on the MiniSShot Project
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- As planned, the MiniSShot motor was test fired Saturday Nov.22 at the
FAR site in the Mojave desert. The firing was tantalizingly close to
being a success...with about a second remaining in the 2nd phase burn,
the nozzle suddenly got plugged by titanium casting tube debris. The
resulting overpressurization caused the bolts fastening the Nozzle Shell
to fail and the motor tore skyward from the sudden release of pressure.
Excellent thrust and chamber pressure data was obtained, which verified
the blockage.
Excerpt from the data which confirmed flow blockage:
http://www.sugarshot.org/downloads/nov22data.gif
(plot courtesy Chris King)
Photos of the motor & test firing:
http://www.sugarshot.org/downloads/img_9316.jpg
http://www.sugarshot.org/downloads/img_9318.jpg
Motor post-firing (blacked casing resulted from post-event fire)
http://www.sugarshot.org/downloads/img_9341.jpg
Melted and deformed titanium casting tube debris:
http://www.sugarshot.org/downloads/img_9362.jpg
(photos courtesy Randy Dormans)
Video of static test firing:
http://www.sugarshot.org/downloads/protosshot2_nov22motorfiring.wmv
(8 Mbyte; video courtesy Rick Maschek)
A huge debt of thanks goes out to those dedicated and hard working team
members who participated in Saturday's test, spending the better part of
Saturday in the desert -- Matt Campbell, Randy Dormans, Brent
Dougherty, Chris King, and Rick Maschek.
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To share in our dream, please make a contribution to the Sugar Shot to
Space program.
http://www.sugarshot.org/sponsors.html#Donors
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Project
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