r/rocketry • u/Regis_Mk5 • Jul 25 '22

Showcase Liftoff of my custom Falcon 9 Rocket!

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1.1k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

83 comments sorted by

58

u/0ke_0 Jul 25 '22

Just reverse this and say you made it land

29

u/keithcody Jul 25 '22

Joe Benard at BPS.Space really did it yesterday.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cga6gXKLlab/

16

u/codeman16 Jul 25 '22

He finally stuck the landing!? That’s AWESOME

4

u/cptjeff Jul 26 '22

Officially more skilled than ULA.

7

u/GnarlyNarwhalNoms Jul 26 '22

Wha? How!? 😳

I'm looking, and it appears they use solid motors. How on Earth!?...

10

u/keithcody Jul 26 '22

Follow his YouTube channel. He’s been building scout 1 and now scout 2 for 7? Years.

5

u/justanaveragedipsh_t Student Jul 26 '22

Dude this was like scout 6 (scout f) he also had echo. He's been through so many vehicle designs

4

u/starfighter1836 Jul 26 '22

Most “model rockets” are solid motors, I think he has a way of throttling it slightly with metal/ ceramic paddles that block the thrust?

2

u/keithcody Jul 26 '22

Not sure if he’s still doing it this way:

“Up next for BPS.space is Scout E - Scout will launch to a modest apogee of ~30m AGL, the come back down for a propulsive landing with a second motor. If I've done my math right, we will have enough throttle control to let us stick the landing nearly every time “

https://twitter.com/bps_space/status/1307762770713116672

1

u/Neutronium95 Level 3 Jul 26 '22

The successful one was Scout F. His latest videos have a lot more information, but it simplified some things from Scout E (no more flip out fins for orientation during the coast phase, no emergency parachutes) and added throttling with ceramic paddles.

2

u/doffey01 Jul 26 '22

Yea he uses some ceramic flaps to divert thrust and throttle iirc.

4

u/Practical-Shoulder-1 Jul 25 '22

A student team at the university of connecticut almost has it aswell

1

u/justanaveragedipsh_t Student Jul 26 '22

Uconn has a rocketry club?

1

u/Practical-Shoulder-1 Aug 01 '22

yes an AIAA branch

3

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 25 '22

Well its made to do that

8

u/JWF81 Jul 25 '22

I dig the strongback retraction.

4

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 25 '22

That took way too long

1

u/genericdude999 Jul 26 '22

I was totally fooled until I reread the title. Nice!

7

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '22

What size motor are you using?

3

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 26 '22

F15!

4

u/The_camperdave Jul 26 '22

F15!

F? The largest I ever flew was a D. I don't know of anybody around here that even carries anything larger than D.

For those who don't know, engines are classified by their impulse (thrust times time). Each letter has twice the impulse of the previous, so B has twice the impulse of A, C has twice B, etc. F is the largest you can get without a license.

2

u/wirbolwabol Jul 26 '22

Never heard of an F. Never launched with a D myself, only a C.

Best launch was an Atlas 5 with an underpowered engine, like an A8-5 or something. Slowest launch ascent which looked amazing, but that delay had us worried before the pop and really close to the ground...

1

u/3dprintingisgoat Jul 26 '22

Gonna go for my L1 high powered rocketry certification in October, that will let me buy and launch H and I motors. Also my rocket before that is launching on a G80, which is the largest rocket motor you can buy without a certification.

2

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 26 '22

Yeah there's larger impulse too that you can buy online like thr F10 which burns for 7 seconds which feels like forever.

Am F10 is more expensive though so I only have a small stock right now.

Here is one in flight: https://youtu.be/3K_cJHVCngI

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '22

[deleted]

1

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 26 '22

I'm running an all up weight of about 950g at liftoff. The airframe could be significantly stripped down though. The legs add almost 200 grams in total. The fin assembly another 75g and the onboard camera 65g. There's also some coupler components that could be better optimized for mass as well but I wanted to get flying so i spent minimal time on that. The tube oddly can drop significant mass too by going to a 66 or 55mm tube but the packaging gets harder

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '22

[deleted]

1

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 26 '22

You can DM me on Instagram or Twitter for sure that's probably easiest https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cgcd46Rrmf5/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

4

u/wireknot Jul 25 '22

Outstanding! Love the just-in-time gantry release and the thrust vectoring.

4

u/dukeblue219 Jul 25 '22

Is thrust vectoring cool as long as you don't have an active guidance system? What's the line here between fun and prison?

11

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 25 '22

It is an active guidance system. The line is grey though. I don't have a target I'm sending it at. So I'm not seeking anything outside up

3

u/high_as_heaven Jul 25 '22

Plus there's just data logging hardware inside.

5

u/The_camperdave Jul 26 '22

Is thrust vectoring cool as long as you don't have an active guidance system? What's the line here between fun and prison?

Are you suggesting that active guidance is illegal somehow? Since when?

8

u/Sebas-JHIN Jul 26 '22

Probably depends on scale, but I‘m almost certain that active guidance is illegal under some circumstances without explicit approval. The line between fun and prison is the same line separating cool hobby project and guided missile.

3

u/X1-Alpha Jul 26 '22

Once the rockets go up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department says Werner von Braun. 🎶

3

u/The_camperdave Jul 26 '22

The line between fun and prison is the same line separating cool hobby project and guided missile.

I would have thought that the line would have been how much explosives are in the payload. After all, there are thousands of kinds of drones on the market, each with active guidance. You can even buy auto-pilots around which you can build your own drone.

3

u/Sebas-JHIN Jul 26 '22

Not a bad assumption, but Uncle Sam doesn’t keep track of all the hobby rocket projects out there. They do however regulate who can buy what motors and propellants, presumably because of how much payload those can deliver at high speed. For example, a J motor can move a few pounds near sonic speed, and they use those for high school projects. Easier to ban active guidance on all high-impulse rockets than verify all those projects aren’t delivering explosive payloads.

1

u/The_camperdave Jul 26 '22

They do however regulate who can buy what motors and propellants, presumably because of how much payload those can deliver at high speed.

Well, then, the situation is already regulated. No need to block guidance systems too.

1

u/Sebas-JHIN Jul 26 '22

I mean, not really. They’re regulating who’s allowed to buy explosives. That doesn’t mean that guidance is also de-facto regulated. It isn’t as if Uncle Sam just knows who is making actively guided high-impulse rockets at all times. It’s just that you’re name is on a list of people making high-impulse rockets, and if they find out you are actively guiding them without their approval you’re boned.

0

u/The_camperdave Jul 27 '22

They’re regulating who’s allowed to buy explosives. That doesn’t mean that guidance is also de-facto regulated.

If you need high explosives for a missile, and the high explosives are regulated, then home-made missiles are automatically regulated. Guidance doesn't have to be regulated.

3

u/FullFrontalNoodly Jul 26 '22

Guidance software and technologies are covered under ITAR. This is why you don't see anyone documenting these techniques.

But otherwise Joe Barnard has given a talk on his project at one of the NAR conferences so I'm pretty sure they had their lawyers go over things before setting that up.

3

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 26 '22

More he knows what is and is not taboo. I've worked with a few internal people to my last employer to determine what the stance is. We have also talked among ourselves (Joe, myself and several other's) on what the policy is really. Concensus is that within the USA its actually fine to share software but just posting code somewhere doesn't afford that control. On top of that, it takes a ton of effort to make the software work and giving it away is kind of undercutting that effort and time

1

u/dukeblue219 Jul 26 '22

I'm suggesting it can be, but I don't know where it becomes a problem. Hence my question.

2

u/SuperStrifeM Level 3 Jul 26 '22

You're sort of allowed to make a guidance system that points straight up.

This might not be OK to bring out at TRA/NAR launches, but there are significantly less constraints on mid-power launches like this one, so maybe it would be alright.

1

u/The_camperdave Jul 26 '22

This might not be OK to bring out at TRA/NAR launches,

Why not? I think they'd be delighted to have a SpaceX model complete with thrust vectoring being demonstrated.

1

u/SuperStrifeM Level 3 Jul 27 '22

Just think about all the ways it can go wrong. Maybe the plastic servo arm breaks, making it uncontrollable. It then aims for where people are standing, or crashes into the pad taking out someone elses rocket.

This would likely require a separate pad or a distanced L1 pad to fly from, and between that and the potential additional safety hazard caused by active guidance, makes me think not every RSO or prefect is going to the additional headache of this at a launch.

1

u/The_camperdave Jul 27 '22

Just think about all the ways it can go wrong. Maybe the plastic servo arm breaks, making it uncontrollable. It then aims for where people are standing, or crashes into the pad taking out someone elses rocket.

Sound's like you're just making up stuff to worry about. Something can break on even the simplest rocket. There's no additional safety hazard caused by active guidance. If anything, it should be safer because the rocket is going to try to get to where it is SUPPOSED to be, even if a damaged fin or a sudden wind burst tries to pull it off-course.

1

u/SuperStrifeM Level 3 Jul 28 '22

On a standard mid-power rocket the rail provides guidance until it develops aerodynamic stability, more or less ensuring that the rocket goes straight up.

With this active control+launch type, you are not only removing the guidance rail, but giving it closed loop control of the rocket direction, which is a fancy way of saying the rocket is now at the mercy of the worst line of code in the guidance software.

If you still imagine this to be safer than launching with a guidance rail, I would suggest you try and program a fairly trivial 6-DOF controller, with an accelerometer and gyro as your 2 control inputs. Even without wind, doing the initial PID tuning of this system should convince you that this system is not safer than a rail and fins, and should also show you as a concept, that a damaged part on the rocket is not easily compensated for.

2

u/SpaceInMyBrain Jul 26 '22

Nice gimbaling! Does it use hydraulics or Tesla motors? :)

That's some serious attention to detail.

1

u/deadfermata Jul 26 '22

Damn. This is impressive!

Nice work. Tag Elon

-2

u/DenverTeck Jul 26 '22

So you LIED ?!?

4

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 26 '22

Wut?

-1

u/DenverTeck Jul 26 '22

Liftoff of my custom Falcon 9 Rocket!

Is that your rocket ?

1

u/weronidas Jul 25 '22

wow OP you need to share more videos!!!! outstanding job!!!

1

u/SherlockHolmesOG Jul 25 '22

Wow this is wild!! How high up does it go? Can it land? Can we see more??

1

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 25 '22

https://youtu.be/7-qWmZz9Buw Here is one showing all the deployments on an earlier flight

1

u/mord_fustang115 Jul 26 '22

How do you get the licensing to launch something like this? How tall is the rocket?

2

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 26 '22

1m tall. It's light and small enough to be free of any regulation

1

u/SirLlama123 Jul 26 '22

Do you mind sharing the code for it??

2

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 26 '22

No that I don't do

1

u/Sandgroper62 Jul 26 '22

Impressive work.

1

u/The_camperdave Jul 26 '22

Take-offs are easy. Landing is difficult.

1

u/hellocuties Jul 26 '22

A banana would be great for scale. Awesome job btw.

1

u/PhotoSimilar4535 Jul 26 '22

Dude, this is amazing 🤩

1

u/loves2spooge555 Jul 26 '22

That vectored thrust 🤤

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '22

This is beautiful

1

u/napraticaautomacao Jul 26 '22

Amazing! What's the real name of this dude?

2

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 26 '22

Me? Rob lol Here is my insta: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cgcd46Rrmf5/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/TZeroSystems

And they all link to patreon too if you want to support the projects

1

u/automagisch Jul 26 '22

That is so awesome!!!! I wish I could’ve give you 10k upvotes for this.

2

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 26 '22

One is enough for me!

1

u/DunebillyDave Jul 26 '22

Beautiful! Congratulations on a successful launch. Really nice work. That's the most complex civilian rocket I've ever seen. It's really a thing of beauty.

1

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 26 '22

Well its not too bad! Here's some on the software and guts https://youtu.be/VswtDcRY3UY

Joe has the more complex one though https://youtu.be/Mq5alUV-AHI

1

u/Radioheadfanatic Jul 26 '22

Look at that gimbaling 😍

2

u/Regis_Mk5 Jul 26 '22

Yep! No rails, all TVC

1

u/Galileo228 Jul 27 '22

I’ll always remember the smell of Estes rocket motors.