Hi Trey,

Welcome to the club. Minuteman 3, Wow, sounds like I will be the one doing the soaking of info.

Lots of great vendors.

September 11 is our next launch, there be vendors on site, for actual touching. Website photos only do so much.

Just wanted to say hi since I will be soaking up some info here. I'm trey, in Cheyenne, WY. I work on big rockets for a living (Minuteman III). Haven't played with any rockets since I was a kid. Any hints on where to get started with the adult size rockets? Thanks everyone.

trey

Sounds your already playing with "ADULT SIZE ROCKETS" 😯

What Class is That Guys?

More than any single letter impulse class - that's for sure. SSRB's do 1.5m# for 120 seconds or so... and I believe in our system they are like WZ class motors... I saw that somewhere or something like it. Be interesting to see.

The shame about the Minuteman is because of the thrust vectoring system, they don't have fins - making them a bitch to do a flying scale model.

Warren

More than any single letter impulse class - that's for sure. SSRB's do 1.5m# for 120 seconds or so... and I believe in our system they are like WZ class motors... I saw that somewhere or something like it. Be interesting to see.

The shame about the Minuteman is because of the thrust vectoring system, they don't have fins - making them a bitch to do a flying scale model.

Warren

Certainly you engineer types can work on that thrust vectoring thingy. 😀

With the club contacts, for kit companies there are

http://www.3dogsrocketry.com/
http://www.therocketgarden.com/
http://www.giantleaprocketry.com/hpdefault.asp

Giant Leap is our on-site motor vendor too -- Joe Hinton.

Somewhat affiliated:
http://www.apogeerockets.com/

I also like http://publicmissiles.com/

http://stores.whatsuphobby.com/StoreFront.bok

http://www.wildmanrocketry.com/default.asp?groupid=1&groupid1=4&prodid=95

And a good local chute maker http://spherachutes.com/

Peruse these for fun. Ask questions. Welcome. Join TRA.

Of note, we don't allow things that go bang in the nosecone...

Previously, I had estimated the following for the REALLY big rockets:

Continuing the progression of model rocket motor classifications into the high-end single-letter motors:
W = 5,242,880 - 10,485,760 N-s
X = 10,485,760 - 20,971,520 N-s
Y = 20,971,520 - 41,943,040 N-s
Z = 41,943,040 - 83,886,080 N-s

...Then, assuming that a ZA = 2 Z motors, ZB = 2 ZAs, etc...
ZA = 83,886,080 - 167,772,160 N-s
ZB = 166,772,160 - 335,544,320 N-s
ZC = 335,544,320 - 671,088,640 N-s
ZD = 671,088,640 - 1,342,177,280 N-s

Then:
Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Motor (SRM) total impulse ~= 1,300,000,000 N-s
Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) total impulse ~= 1,016,000,000 N-s

....so a Shuttle launch is a cluster of 2 solid and 3 liquid ZDs.....

And as for the Minuteman III, based on Encyclopedia Astronautica ( http://www.astronautix.com):
1st stage ~= 47,520,000 N-s impulse
2nd stage ~= 17,668,000 N-s
3rd stage ~= 9,272,000 N-s

So, a Minuteman III is a Z, staging to an X, staging to a W

If Art wants to retain his "biggest motor" title, he'd better get to work!!! 😛

🙂 Working on it, gotta run 😉

Thanks for the welcome and the advice.

If you could see the size of the "motor" on a minuteman, you'd give up now!

Looking forward to meeting you on the range. Perhaps we can arrange a field trip visit to see a Minuteman up close and personal.

I call shotgun!

If Art wants to retain his "biggest motor" title, he'd better get to work!!! 😛

I thought I already took that one from Art this summer...

(That's only an S to an S though, so the minuteman definitely has it beat)

Oh, and welcome to the club 😀

You should definitely try to come out for our September launch - it'll be a lot of fun, and I promise we don't bite.