http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/tags/backyardexperiments/ Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:30:46 -0700 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:30:46 -0700 http://www.flickr.com/ http://farm1.staticflickr.com/1/buddyicons/44124348109@N01.jpg?1197255176#44124348109@N01 http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/tags/backyardexperiments/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/462206324/ <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/jurvetson/">jurvetson</a> posted a photo:</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/462206324/" title="Icarus"><img src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/213/462206324_1393a72c01_m.jpg" width="235" height="240" alt="Icarus" /></a></p> <p>This flight went wildly unstable… just as I predicted on <a href="http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2007/03/you_may_remembe.html">GeekDad</a>…. but I had to give it a try. =)<br /> <br /> “Flower Power” (R.I.P.) was a mélange of three rocket kits, with altimeter nosecone, and festooned with flower stickers. This flight added a D12-0 with booster fins, taped to a D12-0, taped to a E9-8.... Each motor ignites the next at burnout.<br /> <br /> Soon after liftoff, it went into an upward spiral, but when the booster fins on the first stage fell away with a burst of blue smoke, it started to wildly flip about overhead (cue Devo: <i>Whip it Good… Jerkin' Back 'n' Forth</i>).<br /> <br /> When the weight of the second booster stage fell away, the E9-rocket combo finally stabilized, but the random walk left it pointing down... So it hit maximum acceleration in a straight zoom back at us.<br /> <br /> It landed about 15 ft. from the pad, a lawn dart under thrust.</p> Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:30:46 -0700 2007-04-10T12:17:28-08:00 nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) tag:flickr.com,2004:/photo/462206324 Icarus <p>This flight went wildly unstable… just as I predicted on <a href="http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2007/03/you_may_remembe.html">GeekDad</a>…. but I had to give it a try. =)<br /> <br /> “Flower Power” (R.I.P.) was a mélange of three rocket kits, with altimeter nosecone, and festooned with flower stickers. This flight added a D12-0 with booster fins, taped to a D12-0, taped to a E9-8.... Each motor ignites the next at burnout.<br /> <br /> Soon after liftoff, it went into an upward spiral, but when the booster fins on the first stage fell away with a burst of blue smoke, it started to wildly flip about overhead (cue Devo: <i>Whip it Good… Jerkin' Back 'n' Forth</i>).<br /> <br /> When the weight of the second booster stage fell away, the E9-rocket combo finally stabilized, but the random walk left it pointing down... So it hit maximum acceleration in a straight zoom back at us.<br /> <br /> It landed about 15 ft. from the pad, a lawn dart under thrust.</p> jurvetson sun topf25 spiral duck rocket launch icarus flowerpower estes unstable intothesun eliminator threestage spselection superaplus aplusphoto cgcp dynamicinstability 18000secexposure backyardexperiments aphotocontest32 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en