SLI Videos

This page includes videos taken that involve major events in the SLI project. This includes launches that we have done as well as testing of the black powder charges and the altimeter.  Click on the photos to the left of the text to start the .wmv file video.

HUNTSVILLE LAUNCH VIDEOS (April 17, 2011)

This 18.5 MByte video shows the launch of the full scale rocket at Bragg Farms near Huntsville, AL.  This launch used a Cesaroni K635 Red Lightning motor carrying the full recover electronics and payload.  The rocket travelled to over 5,500 feet.  Both drogue and main deployed as planned – after each of these parachutes deploy you can see a second puff of smoke as the back-up electronics fire their charges.  They payload tested the latency time of writing to a conventional electro-mechanical hard drive (NOT a solid state drive) under the “G” forces during the flight.

This 10 MByte video shows the interview of the team during the live streaming via USTREAM (the day was recorded in several segments and may still be present at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc ). 

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FULL SCALE ROCKET (4″ DIAMETER 84″ TALL)

This 10.7 MByte video shows the first flight of the full sized rocket using a Cesaroni 1597K400-14A Green Motor with the motor ejection charge remaining as a back-up.  This flight carried the full electronics – a G-Wiz partners HCX and Perfectflite MAWD flight computers on board to deploy the drogue and main parachutes.  In addition the scientific payload was on board.  All four ejection charges fired.  The drogue successfully ejected at apogee (plus 2 seconds) and the main fired at 900 ft, but the parachute did not fully eject. The rocket reached an altitude of 3339 feet, the wind was very strong at about 15MPH.  Despite the relatively hard landing, there was no damage to the rocket except two plastic tabs on the 9V battery holders broke.  We launched this rocket at Lucerne Dry Lake during the March ROC launch.


This 7 MByte video shows the first full sized rocket launch (above) from the full sized rocket’s point of view.  We taped a small video camera on to the side of the rocket so we could see the earth fall away from the rocket’s point of view.

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This 11.3 MByte video shows the second flight of the full sized rocket using a Cesaroni 1596K500-18A Red Lightning Motor with the motor ejection charge remaining as a back-up.  This flight carried the full electronics – a G-Wiz partners HCX and Perfectflite MAWD flight computers on board to deploy the drogue and main parachutes.  In addition the scientific payload was on board.  All four ejection charges fired.  The drogue successfully ejected at apogee (plus 2 seconds) and the main fired and ejected at 900 ft. The rocket reached an altitude of 4090 feet, the wind was moderate at about 5-8MPH.  We launched this rocket at Plaster City during the April Tripoli San Diego launch.

For the following two black powder charge tests, we used the pressure table at http://www.info-central.org/?article=303 and the ejection charge calculator at http://www.aeroconsystems.com/tips/Ejection_ChargeCalc.xls .  Tests were conducted by connecting a 15 foot wire to the ejection charge terminals in the avionics bay – fed through an altimeter port hole, and wiring the black powder charges as if the electronics were present.  The other end of the15 foot wire was connected to a 9 volt battery to activate the charge.

This 1.7MB video shows our black powder ejection charge test for the main parachute on the 4″ Full scale Black Brant rocket.  As you can hear from the countdown, we are a truly international team learning together while having fun.  We wanted to develop 200lbs of force against the bulkhead (cross section area of 12.6 square inches) for our three #2 nylon screw shear pins, which requires 28psi each.  The length of the main parachute body tube is 17″.  This required 1.74 grams of black powder.

This 2.8MB video shows our black powder ejection charge test for the drogue parachute on the 4″ Full scale Black Brant rocket.  We wanted to develop 200lbs of force against the bulkhead (cross section area of 12.6 square inches) for our three #2 nylon screw shear pins, which requires 28psi each.  The length of the drogue parachute body tube is 17″ – same as for the main.  This required 1.74 grams of black powder.

This 1.4MB video shows our final black powder ejection charge test for the main parachute on the 4″ Full scale Black Brant rocket.  On our first full scale flight, the main did not fully deploy – so more testing was needed – this time with the main in place.  We made several changes – packing the parachute tighter and wrapping the shroud lines around it to keep it packed, moving the ejection charge, moving the attachment point, changing the Nomex shield wrap.  And we increased the blackpowder charge to 2.0 grams to develop 250lbs of force against the bulkhead.

SCALE ROCKET (2.6″ DIAMETER 62″ TALL)

This 16 MByte video shows the first flight of the scale model rocket, the rocket used a Cesaroni 276H152-15A Blue Streak Motor drilled to an 8 second delay and had a MAWD flight computer on board, but not set for ejection charges. The rocket reached an altitude of 1938 feet, the wind was calm (2 mph).  This launch was with the San Diego Tripoli near Plaster City, California.

This 9 MByte video shows the second flight of the scale model rocket, the rocket used the same Cesaroni 276H152-15A Blue Streak Motor with the ejection charge removed and had an MAWD flight computer on board to deploy the drogue and main parachutes. The drogue successfully ejected at apogee (plus 2 seconds) but because of we did not use shear pins on the body tube with the main (planned, but it was declared not necessary on such a small rocket by the help we received at the launch), it deployed with the drogue. The rocket reached an altitude of 1749 feet, the wind was calm (2 mph).

This 8.7 MByte video shows the third flight of the scale model rocket, the rocket used the same Cesaroni 276H152-15A Blue Streak Motor with the motor ejection charge remaining as a back-up and had an MAWD flight computer on board to deploy the drogue and main parachutes. The drogue successfully ejected at apogee (plus 2 seconds) and the main at 900ft. The rocket reached an altitude of 1581 feet, the wind was calm.

This 7.8 MByte video shows the third scale model launch (above) from the scale rocket’s point of view.  We taped a small video camera on to the side of the rocket so we could all “go for a ride”.

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For the following two black powder charge tests, we used the pressure table at http://www.info-central.org/?article=303 and the ejection charge calculator at http://www.aeroconsystems.com/tips/Ejection_ChargeCalc.xls .  Tests were conducted by connecting a 15 foot wire to the ejection charge terminals in the avionics bay – fed through an altimeter port hole, and wiring the black powder charges as if the electronics were present.  The other end of the15 foot wire was connected to a 9 volt battery to activate the charge.

This 7MB video shows our black powder ejection charge test for the main parachute on the 2.6″ scale model Black Brant rocket.  We wanted to develop 150lbs of force against the bulkhead (cross section area of 5.3 square inches) for our #2 nylon screw shear pins, which requires 28psi.  The length of the main parachute body tube is 13.3″.  This required 1.01 grams of black powder.

This 4MB video shows our black powder ejection charge test for the drogue parachute on the 2.6″ scale model Black Brant rocket.  We wanted to develop 150lbs of force against the bulkhead (cross section area of 5.3 square inches) for our #2 nylon screw shear pins, which requires 28psi.  The length of the drogue parachute body tube is 15.1″.  This required 1.14 grams of black powder.

OTHER TESTING

This 11 MB video shows our test of the flight computer, we built a vacuum chamber from an old pickle jar.  We drilled a hole in the top and added some plumbing out to a clear plastic hose.  We programmed an MAWD flight computer to have the drogue e-match to fire at apogee and the main ematch to fire at 900 ft.  In our simulation we replaced the e-matches with Christmas tree bulbs.  We created a vacuum by sucking on the tube and watched how the flight computer lit the bulbs when the e-matches were programmed to fire.

WEBEX PRESENTATION TO MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

This 210 MB Video (35 minutes long) is of the WebEx between the AIAA OC Section SLI Team and technical members at Marshall Space Flight Center.  Each SLI Team is required not only to write several design reviews, but also present them to the technical team at Marshall.  This video is of the WebEx on February 7, 2011 where the team presented their Critical Design Review.  The PowerPoint being presented can be found under the SLI 2010-2011 tab on the Documents page.