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High Power RocketCam Videos

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the if-you-got-the-money-honey dept.

HaveNoMouth writes "What happens when the founder of Xircom and his brother bolt a DV Camcorder to the side of a 200 lb. model rocket and press the red button? The incredible movies (with sound!) at Gates Bros. Rocketry tell the tale. The quality of these movies is by far the best I've seen from the "strap a camera to a flying toy" community. They have a nice gallery of still photos too. If only everyone named Gates did stuff this cool."

12 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. Re:That's Interesting! by JanusFury · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's already been a camera for rocket launchers in FPSes before - Unreal Tournament (and Unreal Tournament 2003, I think) allows you to steer the Redeemer missle in first person.

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  2. Re:And people say the moon was a hoax! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    "Does one need a Space license?"

    Yes you do. You can't legally launch things up randomly in the sky. Hitting a plane at the present time would brand you as a terrorist. The difference is that space angencies "owns" their portion of the sky.

  3. Re:That's Interesting! by tincho_uy · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's already been done in Max Payne... when you shoot the sniper rifle... and it's bullet time :)

  4. Re:Question... by gregwbrooks · · Score: 5, Informative
    I don't know if the Gates Bros. went this route or not, but High Powered Rocketry is a big hobby and has some pretty strict self-policing standards. For example, you can't go buy engine x until you're qualified by your peers on its smaller predecessors. The group also works with various federal and local agencies to make sure John Law doesn't get too itchy about rockets going up in the desert.

    More info? The leading organization is www.tripoli.org.

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  5. Google cache by xadhoom · · Score: 1, Informative

    here it is:
    http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:FfdE9ICFkdQC: www.gbrocketry.com/movie_theater.htm+&hl=en&start= 1&ie=UTF-8
    But the movies are not cached... so you must wait until the slashdot effect passes...

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  6. Re:How did they keep that thing balanced? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    You counterweight inside the rocket and streamline the bulge to minimize drag. At 200 lb weight, a 10 oz camera sticking 2" out isn't going to cause enough thrust to overcome the resultant stabilization forces from the fins. Also, these motors are producing upwards of 1000 lb (not precise number) of thrust distributed across the cross sectional area of the rocket. Once again, 10 oz vs 1000 lb, it's not much.

  7. Mirror of photos by chevelleSS · · Score: 5, Informative

    link to photos of GB rockets at LDRS

  8. Re:Anybody get a mirror? slashdot should offer! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    FYI's:
    1. These launches were in 1999/2000. You've had plenty of time to slashdot this thing
    2. One of the guys is the founder of Xircom, aka HE'S RICH. Considering the amount of money required to launch a rocket that size, this guy has already bought plenty of bandwidth.
    3. That's what we have google for
    4. Imagine a beowulf cluster of these...
    5. RIAA sucks! Microsoft Sux! Linux Rules! etc. etc. etc.
  9. Re:Question... by GothChip · · Score: 3, Informative

    You do need permission in the UK but I don't know where from :-(

    A few years ago my friend bought a model Rocket from Beatties (a toy shop). We went down to a local park which was deserted. Just as we were about to set it up for the third launch we were approached by a local Bobby who told us to stop immediately.

    Just found [a href="http://www.gbnet.net/orgs/staar/legal.html"> this. It says there are no laws in the UK fro mpreventing this (except not doing it within 5 miles of an airport), but there may be many byelaws preventing it.

  10. Re:Are you nuts? by jweatherley · · Score: 3, Informative

    I use OS X and don't have much of a problem with DivX;). You need to get yourself a copy of DivX Doctor II to convert from DivX .avi videos to 3ivx QuickTime (.mov) videos.

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  11. SiN had this, as did Tribes by Wee · · Score: 3, Informative
    In the Wages of SiN expansion pack (came out in 99) for the game SiN there was an "alternate fire" mode for the rocket launcher that put you in the nose cam, flying the missle. It was deadly (especially if someone caught you up on the roof, staring off into space). Sound was done very well, too. You could just sort of hear distorted sounds from the missle's travel, but could also hear things happening around your "body". The effect of wearing googles to steer the missle was very well done.

    There was also a Tribes 1 mod that allowed you to deploy a base station which you could load with various missle types (my favorite was the one that exploded in poison gas) and then fly them around the map. You had to put them on the ground or on a structure, and you could only carry one missle ata time, so they had to be near an inventory station. My brother and I found a bug which allowed you to delpoy them on these floating, mid-air platforms with inventory stations. He'd fly a bomber waaaay up into the sky, I'd jump out, deploy the platform, fall to my death. He'd fly above the platform, jump out onto it, then set up a transporter. I'd respawn in the base, set up the other transporter, and wind up on the base in the sky. Then we'd set up missle stations and fly around destroying things. The best was when you had a missle in the air and you saw a scout car (really fast one-man vehicles). They were the same speed as the missles (except for one type) and catching them was a challenge. Occasionally, we'd get three people flying missles around. It took about 4 minutes to gain air superiority over most of the map. It took about 8 minutes for the other team to find our base in the sky and blow it up (or try, we'd defend it pretty well).

    Anyway, flying missles around is great in CTF-type FPS games, especially when they have ultra-large, indoor/outdoor maps like in Tribes -- it gives the game a "Gulf War" flavor.

    -B

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  12. It has also been done with Low Power Rocketry by er0ck · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here's another site with videos from both low and high power rockets:
    www.videorocketry.com
    (videos available Here)

    One prime candidate for a low power camera is the discontinued Intel Play Digital Movie Creator. You record video onto a chip and upload to your PC via USB. I believe I saw this camera resurface at Toys R Us under the manufacturer name "Digital Blue". Anyone?

    Here is an example of the Intel camera at work in an off-the-shelf Estes rocket with a payload bay added

    And here is a rocket with Gumby as the pilot.