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Amateur Rocket to Carry Ham Radio Payload to Space
n1ywb writes "An amateur rocket team this month will attempt to send a 21-foot-tall rocket carrying a ham radio avionics package into the fringes of space. The launch by the Civilian Space Xploration Team (CSXT) could occur as early as Monday, May 17. Some 20 months ago, the last CSXT try to reach space ended some three seconds after launch when the rocket's engine exploded. Avionics Team Leader Eric Knight, KB1EHE, says CSXT has since rebounded from that devastating blow with a newer, bigger vehicle. In terms of Amateur Radio, the GoFast rocket will transmit telemetry on the 33-cm amateur band and Amateur TV at 2.4 GHz using a high-quality color camera. The avionics also incorporate multiple global positioning system (GPS) systems to record the vehicle's precise location and flight path, redundant data acquisition and storage systems, and a variety of data sensors. Plans call for the solid-fuel rocket to zip upward from the desert floor and reach a speed of more than 4000 MPH in about 9 seconds. The suborbital vehicle will attain an altitude of 100 km or 62 statute miles--high enough to be considered 'space'--linger there for a couple of minutes then arc back to Earth some 26 miles down range. The whole thing will take somewhat less than a half-hour. If successful it would mark the first amateur rocket launch into space."
I think most people don't realize the this is the FIRST non- governmental private ametuer vehicle to reach space. That by itselt is a VERY important milestone. I wish them well. !!
*--- Sometimes a majority only means that all the fools are on the same side. ---*
...to get my license ;)
:)
On that note, hams and electronics geeks in the midwest should note that it's time for Dayton Hamvention this weekend!
Holy shit, this is cool even if it's very suborbital. I wonder how many years it'll be until the amsat launches are truly amateur-done
I realize that Ham radio seems passe' to the "basement full of Linux boxes" people, but its cool and this project, while rather unlikely to completely succeed would be cool to listen in on. For those of us who go outside, Ham is a great source of communication, as many people live where cell phone towers don't and many of the really cool places are not where cell phone towers are.
Recovery is a big problem for high power rocketry - how many hours downrange do you want to drive to get your rocket back?
Normal approach is to eject a small drogue parachute near the apex of the flight, which is intended too let you lose lots of altitude without going to fast. It also keeps you from drifting too far from the launch site. Once you're close to the ground (via redundant altimeters) you eject the main chute to set it down 'relatively' gently.
I've chased an Estes rocket launched with 2D's in stages nearly 1 mile before it came back to earth, and I don't believe it got over 3500Feet (damn air currents).
;)
I cant imagine what a 62 mile arc would give it
RTFAs. It has parachutes (plural). It wouldn't deploy them until it's close to the ground. They're expecting it to land 30+miles downrange.
Ham radio is advanced. They're using Ham frequencies most likely because they can do so without requiring special liscensing from the FCC for the transponder channels. All they need is one person who is a liscensed Ham radio operator on the ground.
Yes, linger. The vertical velocity of the rocket decreases to 0 at the top of its trajectory and then accelerates downward due to gravity, therefore the rocket will spend a longer time at the top than at any other point in its journey (besides the ground...). Thus linger is the appropriate term.
If God had had a computer it would have taken him 7 months to create the earth...if he even bothered to do it at all.
APRS: Automatic Position Reporting System. It's a great way to use a ham radio to connect two devices together, especially for telemetry data.
Not even close yet. The R-7 rocket that launched Sputnik weight 280 tons and was 28m long.
Liberty you never use is liberty you lose.
Plus, you can run 802.11b/g with MUCH greater power and range than unlicensed users, provided you stay within the limits of Part 97 operation.
Yeah, ragchewing is pretty lame when you've got the Internet. Never did much for me in the first place. My primary interest is in AVL, telemetry, and weather applications. The 'net doesn't do you much good when you haven't even got cell phone coverage.
Check out Edge of Space Sciences and Arizona Near Space Research for some good examples.
Balloons are a great opportunity to experience the engineering challenges of launching, tracking, and communicating with a payload under harsh conditions without the risk of things blowing up.
I haven't built my own yet, but telemetry encoders (site down at the moment, freaking DSL) I've designed have flown on a couple of flights, and I've got a K-size cylinder of helium in the garage begging to be put to use, so it's probably only a matter of time.
Bear in mind that the launch site is far away from populated areas on purpose. Over there in the deep desert, that presents a survival issue for anyone who comes unprepared. There is no city infrastructure that most people are used to - it's a wilderness. If you wander off and get lost and stuck, you may survive for days but not be discovered for weeks. That's why you should take this seriously.
Cell phones do not work out there. It's well over an hour's drive from the nearest cell site. Amateur Radio and satellite phones are the only reliable communications out there. If you don't have those, don't wander away from the paved roads and the launch site.
So if I haven't scared you away yet, here's some info that hopefully will help you survive out there. Remember that in the desert, bring your own drinking water - and lots of it. I have a web page about the Black Rock Desert. I have a page with a minimal camping checklist. Even if you're planning to stay in a motel, bring enough camping gear to survive overnight and wait for a rescue if you get stuck. (Overnight temperatures are usually in the 20's and 30's this time of year.) But don't go wandering off where no one knows to look for you. And lastly, see our page about "How to avoid needing a rescue at Black Rock", which we wrote after participating in many rescues of stranded people out there.
I'm going to be out there with the Stratofox Aerospace Tracking & Recovery Team. We consider it an enormous privilege that CSXT has invited us to assist at their launch.
A good primer can be found here:
http://www.choisser.com/packet/part01.html
Please keep in mind that Amateurs have primary use of much of the 2.4GHz spectrum.
Amateurs have co-secondary use of channels 1-6, and no use of 7-11. They have primary use of a portion of the spectrum used by channel 1, so they can interfere with ISL use on that channel (and 2,3,4 actually), but probably not with unmoded 802.11b equipment (A filter that cuts out the high end, or better yet a mod that lowers the "carrier frequency*" a bit.) Now this still lets hams transmit at much higher power on channels 1-6 than part 15 users, but they still have to accept interference, respond to complaints of interference, and also can't allow commercial or encrypted traffic to be transmitted over their system. And, hams must transmit their license id periodically and prominently; this lets you find the cretin that transmits 100 Watts through their dipole.
* 802.11b is a spread spectrum technology so there isn't a carrier frequency per say, but actually a set of frequencies per channel, some of which are above the frequency allocation for primary use for hams even on channel 1.
The reason for this is because an orbit is where your rate of escape from the Earth equals your rate of fall. So anything which is in orbit effectively falls in an endless circle around the world.
This is true of any object in space - larger objects have stronger gravity which increases the rate of fall, requiring faster speeds to orbit them. i.e the Earth takes a year to orbit the Sun, by definition, but covers enormous distance in that time. But orbits can be slower around smaller objects like Mars or the Moon.
So even in orbit you haven't escaped gravity. You'd have to go about 25,000 mph to escape the Earth's gravity, which would just put you in orbit around the Sun. So gravity is always a factor.
Anyway, back to the subject of the CSXT launch... The press release said that CSXT's rocket will go 4000 mph, better than any previous amateur launch. So since that's less than 17,000 mph, it's a suborbital launch and it will fall back to the ground. It'll land less than 30 miles away from the launch site.
I'll be part of the search team who goes to retrieve it.