HORIZON. A rocket ten months in the making. Today was the day that I would finally launch. I would finally be able to say that I built a successful thrust vector controlled model rocket. Or so I thought.
Just a quick recap on the internals of HORIZON:
Avionics
HORIZON uses my very own STARLIGHT rocket control unit, connected up to two servos & a thrust vector control mount I also designed myself. STARLIGHT survived the entire launch, and I am currently in the process of pulling and decoding flight data from the launch to compile into another blog post in the future.
Structure
HORIZON uses 75mm diameter BlueTube. BlueTube is similar to cardboard, however it’s significantly stronger and can withstand much higher temperatures. It’s easy to work with, as you can simply cut it with a hacksaw, and it worked great for my application!
Parachute (or lack thereof)
Yeah, I didn’t equip HORIZON with a parachute. This is partly because this first flight was simply to test my thrust vector control system, and partly because I didn’t have the time or resources to include a parachute deployment system.
Engine
HORIZON was launched with an E6-4 engine with the ejection charge plugged.
The Launch
The launch of HORIZON was actually very stressful. We had a total of five igniters, and we burned through four of them without the engine lighting at all. Furthermore, it was beginning to rain, so we had to be fast. With our fifth and final igniter, we gave launching HORIZON one last try.
And it worked.
The engine, I mean. The thrust vector control system was a complete mess afterwards. HORIZON immediately banked and spun out, not even clearing the nearby benches.
Conclusion
HORIZON still has a long way to go. For my next launch, I’ll be running simulations & dealing with a lot more of the technical stuff than I did with this first launch. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some success on my second launch. Until then, it’s just a question of decoding data from this launch and figuring out exactly what went wrong and why.
