Rocket Experience

[private_hell]

for those that are interested - the Copenhagen Suborbitals arelaunching there first actively guided rocket in about 40 minutes time - you can watch the event via live youtueb stream here:



remember these guys are basically a group of guys in a shed - based of previous launchers i have seen them do, it should be pretty epic

[Dr. Acula]

Looks rather interesting, cheers for the link.

Edit: Counter got reset, 99 hours to go! Haha I think I heard the guy say the counter was off by half an hour to an hour or so.
Edit 2: Counter reset again to 43 minutes..

[private_hell]

8 minutes to launch

[private_hell]

reset to T-10:00

[Pitchey]

Still @ 10:00

[BeNZene]

Now 12 min.

[Dr. Acula]

Timer was reset a few times. It was a successful launch though and made it to about 8km.

[Pyromanik]

is there a flightpath map?
Also define 'actively guided'...

[private_hell]

has a system of fins/vanes to steer the rocket straight up and to make course corrections - rather than horizontal like their first couple of rockets they fired

[Pyromanik]

So like military missiles?

[Bounty Hunter]

So like military missiles?

passive guidance would be (as I imagine) the fins are set at a predetermined angle of attack and the rocket is fired, the fins act and whether you hit your goal/target is a matter of how good your mathematical model is (it's always wrong to within some degree of error)

Active guidance would be one where processors on the rocket receive feedback about it's current trajectory and it's planned trajectory, the processor can change the angle of the fins to minimize the error between planned and actual trajectory (this is the basis of controls engineering which I briefly touched on in the random images thread)

So in terms of actively guided it may mean that the processor on board the rocket can alter it's course to a predefined course, or it might mean that an end user can control the rocket (the rocket still performs the same task of trying to reduce the error - only difference is you're actively changing the error on the fly (pun)). In terms of military, yeah sure, but using active guidance would be the same whether it's military or civilian, difference is the target.

I don't know what the difference between a rocket and a missile is, I've heard missiles are guided, rockets aren't, missiles carry a payload, rockets don't etc etc

[Pyromanik]

Yeah I know the difference between active and passive, I just thought that this was all about something new and cool. But really it's just cool because it's home built, or whatever.

[Bounty Hunter]

Yeah I know the difference between active and passive, I just thought that this was all about something new and cool. But really it's just cool because it's home built, or whatever.

Oh well consider this a refresher course then.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

I don't know what the difference between a rocket and a missile is, I've heard missiles are guided, rockets aren't, missiles carry a payload, rockets don't etc etc

from Wikipedia;

A rocket is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle that obtains thrust from a rocket engine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket

a missile is a self-propelled guided weapon system, as opposed to an unguided self-propelled munition, referred to as just a rocket (weapon)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile

A rocket is a self-propelled, unguided weapon system powered by a rocket motor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_(weapon)



So a rocket is a missile, that obtains thrust from a rocket engine. And a missile is self-propelled guided weapon system, as opposed to an unguided self-propelled munition, referred to as just a rocket, which is a self-propelled, unguided weapon system that obtains thrust from a rocket engine. Much like a missile.

[Pyromanik]

A missile is something intent for destruction.
Thus rocks can be termed missiles, eg when flung from a trebuchet at a city wall.

Modern missiles are just generally rocket propelled.

That's how I understand it anyway.