A few weeks from now, more precisely between August 10 and 14, the international hacker community will gather in Finowfurt, right next to Berlin, for the annual Camp organized by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC). And we, the Part-Time Scientists are right in the middle of it all. We will have our own Village, we will launch model rockets, and we are even hosting a rocket-building workshop, where you will be able to make and launch your very own. In order to wet your appetite a little, we will treat you to some sneak peaks in this blog post and those to come.
Part 1: Preparations, Preparations, Preparations
In order to host an awesome model rocket workshop, a lot of preparatory work has to happen first. Part-Time Scientist Vizzy is responsible for the design and construction of the rockets. He has been working continuously for the last 3 months and has developed the rocket we are going to present, all the way from the first drawings to the final arl rocket kits (arl = almost ready to launch).
The first weeks of the design and prototyping phase were devoted to finding the right materials and the right processes to make the rocket parts. The main structural component of the rocket is balsa wood, which is very light and frequently used in building all sorts of models. It is so strong that even entire full-sized airplanes have been constructed from it. The wood was selected to be of high and almost uniform quality, and from sustainable sources. Some of the wooden parts of the rocket are machined from the balsa, which saves us a lot of manual work, and is also much more precise. Other parts, such as the body tube and the engine mount are hand-made, and every rocket has its own unique serial number.
Another important part of the preparations involved building the ignition device, and the launch ramp. The former consists of a lot of complex and very smart electronics to prevent that an accidental launch of the rocket happens. It takes care of the pre-launch checklist and uses an additional dead-man switch as a failsafe. The launch ramp is based on a camera tripod, which allows one to adjust the direction of the launch (that doesn't mean that you can use the rocket as a ballistic missile, though).
Stay tuned for some more details about the Camp, the PTS village and the rocketry workshop. Next time we will tell you a little more about the rockets and post some more pictures from the trial launches.
