Orbital, Sub-Orbital, Karmen Line, Kepler Force, G-force, Micro-gravity?

When you begin to look at the big rockets flown by NASA, SpaceX, Blue Origin and others, we often here these terms thrown around. But how how they related, and what exactly do they mean? Over at the Everyday Astronaut YouTube channel, Tim Dodd provides a really nice overview about all of these terms, what they mean, and how they are used.

This video is typical of the types of videos Tim put up on YouTube. His goal is to “help remove the barriers of intimidating subject matter to help foster an excited public to cheer on those who are pushing the boundaries and help inspire future generations. The point is, rocket science is awesome, and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to be excited.”

The other interesting fact about Tim is that his background is not in technology or engineering – it is in photography. Kinda reminds you of another popular YouTube channel – BPS Space with Joe Barnard. He is another individual known for his rocketry videos yet didn’t study engineering. In college he studied music.

I hope these videos can help inspire you as well as let you see that it doesn’t take an engineering degree to really enjoy rocketry. It just takes desire!

 

Build a Altazimuth Mount Tracking Scope

Years ago, before the proliferation of small electronic altimeters in model rocketry, altitude tracking was done the old fashion way – using math! For the most accurate method you needed a tracking scope that could measure elevation and azimuth, and the gold standard was the Centuri Sky-Trak.

Today, you can find several ‘Elevation Only’ trackers, both commercial and for free on the web. These do allow you to learn the very basics of calculating altitude using the basic triangle. However, there is nothing available today like the Sky-Trak. The result is that students start with the simple tracker, and then jump to the electronic altimeters. The more advanced optical tracking methods are simply ignored, along with understanding the underlying math that makes them so accurate.

So while the Sky Trak may no longer be available, there are some homemade solutions available if you take the time to look deep into the web. One of the best ones I have found is over at the Instructables web site.

The project, “Cheap and Reliable Altazimuth Mount” (https://www.instructables.com/Cheap-and-Reliable-Sextant), was designed to assist seventh-grade students measure ascension and declination of stars during the night. However, this same project can be used by rocketeers to optically track their models (you will need to add a set of crosshairs inside the optical tube).

For a good explanation of the two types of formulas (geodesic and vertical midpoint) used in two-station optical tracking, we suggest the web page “Model Rocket Dual-Axis Altitude Tracking Calculator” at https://www.translatorscafe.com/unit-converter/hr-HR/calculator/rocket-dual-axis-altitude. You can also view the formulas and a BASIC altitude reduction program in the 2014 NAR Pink Book at https://nar.org/pdf/pinkbook.pdf. The formulas are on page 57, with the program on page 56.

Finally, there’s a good NAR research report that compares the accuracy of optical tracking versus electronic altimeters. Called “A comparison of altimeters and optical tracking” the report was presented for the Research & Development competition at NARAM-46 on August 1, 2004. You can download a pdf version of the report from the NARHAMS web site at https://www.narhams.org/library/rnd/Altimeters.pdf.

Happy tracking, everyone!

Initial Release-Rocketry Research Assistant

We are pleased to announce the release of the Rocketry Research Assistant Database Project, Version 0.1.0. This database is created using LibreOffice Base and the embedded HyperSQL database engine.

This release starts building the foundation of this database. It includes three basic forms (Projects, Team Members and Tasks) and the foundational tables. Included in the SourceForge download is a copy of TR-11 “Introduction to Database Design” and the accompanying Project Manual, “Creating the Rocketry Research Assistant-Part 1”. The Project Manual takes you step-by-step through the design and creation of the database. The Project Manual has a number of screen shots and a detailed appendix.

Every research project will collect a multitude of data. Some of that data will be on the performance of the launch vehicle, some may be on the sensor readings in the payload, and some will be on the development of the research project itself. This database project is designed to get you started in understanding, designing and creating databases. To make you aware of how databases work. To help you understand how they can be helpful in your research projects. To let you know that you can develop basic database programs and skills that can be immensely beneficial to you and your team.

The initial release of the project can be downloaded from our SourceForge repository at https://sourceforge.net/projects/rocketry-research-assistant. The Zip file includes the database, the Project Manual and TR-11 “Introduction to Database Design”. You will need to download LibreOffice (https://www.libreoffice.org) to allow you to design, create and run this database.

Creating an Educational Project

When developing an open source database program it is typically developed in sections and then released to the public. This is the process we used during the development of Flight Logs. This time we decided to do something different. We wanted the development of the Rocketry Research Assistant to be used not just as a database, but as an educational project as well. This would allow us to not just provide a new database that students and rocketeers can use, but also show how the database was developed. The result is the creation of a Project Manual to accompany the development of the RRA.

The database project created here is intended to be the foundation of your future database projects. By creating this project you will learn the basics of database creation. The next steps are up to you. Do you want to expand the project with additional forms, tables and reports (we will discuss this in more detail during the review process at the end of the manual)? Do you want to create a new database that helps with the project you are currently working on? You might want to look at how to share the database among other team members by taking the database and splitting it into a front end and back end.

There is also the option of incorporating the spreadsheet program Calc into the project to crunch numbers from a data collection research project. Or include it in the word processor Write to help create your research project reports.

Development Issues with Microsoft Access

Our previous database development efforts had revolved around Microsoft Access. The Flight Logs database was developed using Microsoft Access 2010. It used the Access runtime module to allow anyone to run it on their Windows computer without having to install Access on their computer. We recently several issues with continuing to develop the software using Microsoft Access in a previous post.

It is very discouraging to invest the amount of time in developing a program such as Flight Logs and see a warning banner indicating it is “security risk.” Such “warnings” can give the impression the other items I provide through the web site are also a security risk. When we combined the limitation of Access being Windows only along with the updates by Microsoft to restrict the use of Access (and Access 2010 in particular), it was decided that we would begin to transition to another database management system.

Transition to LibreOffice Base and HyperSQL Database

LibreOffice Base helps us address the issues that have been identified with Access and the Windows operating system updates. LibreOffice is able to run not just on Windows (Version 7 or greater) but Mac OS, and Linux. There are unofficial version that run on Android, iOS, Chrome, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Haiku and Solaris. It is also available on a number of platforms including x86-64, IA-32, ARMel, ARMhf, ARM64, MIPS, MIPSel, PowerPC, ppc64le, S390x, and VLIW (a version of LibreOffice runs on my Raspberry Pi 400). This extremely wide variety of systems and platforms makes LibreOffice a very flexible and wide ranging program, and makes Base available to a wider audience of users. It is also free and open source, so there is no need to purchase a license to use the software.

LibreOffice Base also has the ability to create a database project as a single file using the embedded HSQL database engine (it can also use the embedded Firebird database engine). For small teams, single users and others, this has the advantage of not requiring a full database server to be set up. If the user is working with a larger team or on a network, the LibreOffice Base project can be split into a front end and back end for use on a database server. Much like Access, it can be easily adapted to meet the needs of a wide range of users. All of this made the decision to transition to LibreOffice Base from Microsoft Access not only easy, but it really is an upgrade for the users who will be using the software.

Having resolved to transition to a new database engine, the next question was to decide if we wanted to recreate the Flight Logs program in Base, or should we start a new database program. We decided that given the educational direction of the AAEN that it would be better to start development of a new database called the “Rocketry Research Assistant.” This database will have an initial focus on tracking research project teams for various projects. Later it will be expanded to cover other areas involved in research projects. You will no doubt be able to see where certain parts of Flight Logs will be incorporated into future releases of the Rocketry Research Assistant.

We hope that you agree that this transition to LibreOffice allows us to meet so many more objectives than could ever be obtained had we continued to use Microsoft Access. We also hope that you agree with our decision to use this database development project as an educational project in itself. Finally, we hope that you agree with these decisions and will join us as we begin this new series of database development projects.

Model Rocket Calculator Spreadsheet Released

We are pleased to announce our initial release of the Model Rocketry Spreadsheet Calculator. The Calculator is available through our SourceForge repository at https://sourceforge.net/projects/model-rocket-spreadsheets. The spreadsheet includes:

• Single Station Altitude Reduction
• 2-station Inline Altitude Reduction
• Parachute Size Calculator
• Parachute Descent Rate Calculator

The altitude reduction calculators are based on the following technical reports:

• Tech Report 3 “Single Station Tracking”
• Tech Report 4 “Two Station Tracking”
• Tech Report 6 “Using Spreadsheets: Single Station Tracking”

The parachute calculators are based on Tech Report 9 “Calculating Predicted Altitude”.

This Project is released under the Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0. The spreadsheets were created in LibreOffice Version 7.5 using the Open Document Spreadsheet (ods) format. Both LibreOffice and the OpenDocument standard are open source. The spreadsheets should open in any spreadsheet program that can read the *.ods format, including Microsoft Excel.

Tech Report 11 – Introduction to Database Design – Released

Our latest Tech Report is now available. Tech Report 11 “Introduction to Database Design” takes you through the basic steps for designing a database. It explains the difference between a spreadsheet and a database, it describes the 8-step design process, what relationships are in a relational database and an overview of database normalization. This is a brief overview of the design process that will work with any database software.

Why a tech report on database design? Because databases and data management are key to any research project. We see time and again that the need to understand how to use tools such as databases and spreadsheets are key to a successful rocketry research project. This tech report can start you down that journey.

Visit our Tech Reports section to see all of our available reports. Or you can download TR-11 directly.