Month: March 2017

Interesting motor failure and the rocket still continued to fly safely to recovery and landing

The Maxi Icarus Rocket was a two stage rocket.  It was boosted with an Estes D12-0 to a C11-7.  The Booster failed but was still able to ignite the upper stage to a successful liftoff and safe landing. The booster section was repaired and ready for another launch.

Here is a slow motion video clip:

Section Meet #4, March 25th 2017

Well Saturday was the only good day of the weekend for rocket launching.  There were three contestants for the Section meet contest. Each one had one good flight and another one that was not as good.  None the less it was fun and everyone knows how to do better the next time.  All flights returned safely.

Daniel Peirce had one good flight with his boost glide rocket.  It achieved a time of 46 seconds on his second flight.  Xander had one great boost glide flight with his boost glider that achieved 24 seconds on the first flight. I had one good flight with my boost glider of 31 seconds on the first flight.  I was hoping for another great boost on the second flight, but that did not occur.

Daniel achieved first place in the boost Glider event.  Xander achieved 1st in the B division.

The Helicopter recovery was a more challenging event.  Daniel Peirce entered the Rose-A-Roc helicopter recovery rocket and had mixed results.  I entered in a kit that I had built from a company called CMR (Competition Model Rockets) that was famous for a few of its boost gliders in the 80s.

There will be more events and I hope more will come out to attend.

Here are the overall results of the Saturday Contest:

B Division:  1st Place Xander Thompson with 72 points

C Division: 1st John Thompson with 308 points

2nd Daniel Peirce with 300 points

Space Quiz

Space Quiz

By Jeff Gorham

Ascent from Midgard

Vikings Rocketry Society newsletter 1988

Check your knowledge of the Real Thing!

Try your hand at this quiz. For the answers, email me at Thompsonje@gmail.com

Space Probes, the unmanned space program:

  1. What was the name of the first interplanetary probe? What was its destination?
  2. The Pioneer 10 and 11 missions each carried a controversial plaque designed by Cornell astrophysicists Frank Drake and Carl Sagan. Why was it controversial?
  3. The Voyager series, on the other hand, had a different message for any aliens who might encounter it. What was it?
  4. What was the name of the two probes that soft landed on Mars in 1976?
  5. By the time the Voyager probes leave the Solar System, al of the planets except one will have been probed. Which one was omitted?
  6. A Jupiter probe was supposed to have been launched in 1986, but was grounded because of the Challenger accident, what was the name of the probe?
  7. The probe Ulysses (also delayed because of the grounding of the shuttles) was supposed to look at the Sun’s polar region, but first it had to fly past another planet. Which one and why?
  8. Name the three U.S. lunar probe series launched during the 1960’s; a bonus point if you can identify the one that soft landed on the Moon.

Women in Space. There has been much written about the “man in space” program, but what about the women?  Here are some equal opportunity questions to test your knowledge of female space travelers.

Miss Baker rode a Jupiter nosecone with a rhesus monkey named Able.  What kind of animal was Miss Baker? What happened to her afterward?

  1. Anita and Arabella were a pair of space faring arachnids. What mission did they fly on?
  2. The first orbiting female went up in 1957. What was her name, and what was the name of the vehicle she was in?
  3. Originally, women were thought to be better suited to the rigors of space travel than men. Thus, a program called FLAT was established. What did FLAT stand for, and why was it abandoned?
  4. Most of us know that Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space, and that Sally Ride was the first American Woman. But can you name the second women in space for the Soviet Union and the U.S.?
  5. Early in the planning for the Gemini program, two sisters, Jan and Marion Dietrich, were highly considered as astronauts for the program. Why?

Easy Joke Question Designed to Raise Your Score:

  1. What do you call a baby Martian?