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Backyard Rocketeers Keep the Solid Fuel Burning

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bureaucratic-nincompoop-idiot-handwringers dept.

Jamie Clay points out a New York Times article about one sticky wicket faced by members of the Tripoli Rocketry Association, whose members are some of the private citizens trying to bust into the space-launch business (or just having fun) by financing and building their own rockets. An excerpt: "On Tuesday, lawyers representing Tripoli and the National Association of Rocketry and officials of the firearms bureau will head to Federal District Court in Washington to resolve the seven-year-old dispute over the hobbyists' use of a flammable propellant, ammonium perchlorate composite, or APCP. The chemical is the main ingredient on the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters. ... The firearms bureau classifies APCP as an explosive and, amid post-Sept. 11 security concerns, requires that anyone who uses more than two ounces of propellant undergo federal background checks."

4 of 334 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Well, they *are* making ROCKETS! by edusmoreira · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I disagree. Perhaps this is nonsense, so excuse me in advance. I am not american. I've been hostilized in airports when I needed to visit some relatives in the US. I don't endorse the so-called "war on terror", nor the suppresion of civil rights and liberties that I believe is happening there. But if paranoia is now the standard, one should understand that the government is being at least coherent. Better than having bad rules, is to have no rule at all, as this would be institutional schizophrenia. The last thing you want is to undertake thorough investigations that violate your privacy, to have your phonecalls tapped, to board a plane with your essential belongings in a plastic bag, and all that to have in the end a "rocketeer" blowing up your kid's school bus.

  2. You ALL miss the point by Sooner+Boomer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The point of the lawsuit against the BATFE is not whether they should regulate explosives or conduct background checks. The point is that APCP is NOT AN EXPLOSIVE and SHOULD NOTT BE REGULATED AS SUCH.

    --
    Chaos maximizes locally around me.
  3. Gasoline by Mark_MF-WN · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Dear god, peoples' laissez-faire attitude towards gasoline is incredible. Working as I do in petroleum retail to pay for school, I see some appalling things. There was one woman who said that she accidentally spills gas on herself all the time. Aside from the hideous level of incompetence that this implies, what about the fire danger, the very real possibility of her washing machine bursting into flames when she throws the clothes into it later? People will stick a gas can in the back of a pickup truck and try to fill it up, ignoring the fact that they are then allowing gas vapors to pool in a metal basin. Motorcyclists who fill their tank while sitting on the bike. You think a crotch full of gas would be fun? It doesn't even have to ignite to make this unpleasant. Gasoline + skin = bad day.

    I feel MUCH better about letting a rocket hobbyist have some regulated propellants than I do about letting random jackasses buy a considerably more energetic and unregulated one. Particularly given that most rocket fuels are designed to NOT detonate, something gasoline is more than happy to do under even the slightest confinement.

  4. Paraffin/LOX hybrids by Josh+Triplett · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I work with the Portland State Aerospace Society. We build open source rockets, in every sense of the term: you can find all the details of our work on our site, including software, avionics designs, airframe schematics, and engine/propulsion work. We currently use ammonium perchlorate engines, and we do indeed have to deal with these issues, which prove quite onerous. For this reason, our propulsion team currently has as their primary project the development of a hybrid paraffin and liquid oxygen motor. Both of these components have no regulatory issues whatsoever: the paraffin wax came from a craft store, and the liquid oxygen came from a welding supply store (or with the right equipment, you could make it yourself). Their test-fires have gone quite well; in addition to testing paraffin/GOX, they've also test-fired salami/GOX, which actually provided more thrust than the paraffin prototype tested that particular day. :)

    That just leaves us having to deal with any restrictions on active guidance that get thrown our way, which we'll deal with when we finish our active-guidance prototype.