Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/28/nasa-astronaut-bob-behnken-lau.html
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And stuffed sheep!
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My dog’s squeaky toy. With which we play Animal Tossing.
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That’s pretty cool, but it’s nothing compared to the ISS docking simulator Behnken linked to.
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TIL you can buy model rocket engines on Amazon.
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And he didn’t launch a level 3 rocket??
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It’s a wonder anyone will ship them! Used to be like pulling hens teeth to order them.
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When I make big orders, I use AC Supply, Hobbylinc, or Bellvue Wholesale Hobbies.
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Have you found Q-Jet to perform acceptably? I’m a little biased towards the Estes brand, but that’s probably a bit misguided in the modern era.
There’s something quite charming about an actual astronaut still enjoying playing with model rockets. I dig it.
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I have only used 2-3 Q Jets thus far.
They’re a little hard to light, and have a “progressive” thrust curve rather than an initial spike.
I like the idea of a C or a low-D that packs some “oomph” than a C6, for bigger models.
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Anyone else wishing it was a scale model of Falcon 9?
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L2 is fun, getting to work with dual deployment and avionics, maybe have some fun payloads, still get a big roar with a 38 mm. L3 just costs too much money. $500 a pop for an 54 mm M refill, only a few times a year with an appropriate FAA waiver, gotta drive all over god’s green the parched and barren desert to recover. At this point I prefer MPR flights so it comes down within a mile of the pad.
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I didn’t know the price but I knew it got pretty expensive at that point. However, he’s about to ride an AE rocket, if he’s going to launch one of his own it should be something beefy!
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I always liked the engines with relatively low thrust for their impulse class. You have to be careful to make sure you have enough thrust to get the rocket up to a stable speed by the time it clears the guide rod, but in general a slower liftoff is more exciting and “realistic” to watch. Too forceful of an engine, and the rocket just disappears in a puff of smoke - boring! That “progressive” curve on the Quest/Q-Jet ones gives nice fun slow liftoffs, as I recall.
It would be tricky to make an accurate Falcon 9 model which is stable in flight, since the Falcon 9 relies on active steering rather than aerodynamic stability. I think I’ve seen some with transparent plastic fins. A friend I used to build silly, simple model rockets with went deep down the rabbit hole of building models with active steering and was trying to do a SpaceX-style vertical landing. not sure if he ever succeeded, but it looks like he got close:
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Nothing wrong with transparent fins! With fresh butyrate plastic, you can hardly see them.
(The fins on my Titan II are original material from 1977!)
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A8-3 first flght? Hell, lets go straight for the C6-7
great video of his nearly landing at the tail of this podcast:
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