R-DAS FLIGHT #3 DETAILS
Flight #: 3
Date:4th of June, 2001
Venue: EARS, Elsworth, Cambridgeshire
R-DAS type: R-DAS Classic
R-DAS firmware: 3.0
R-DAS Recorded Altitude: 1758 feet (533 metres)
Apogee - Charge Firing Delta-t: -0.4 seconds
Apogee - Charge Firing Delta-h:0 feet (metres)
Descent Rate at Apogee Deployment: 0 feet per second (0 metres per second)
Total Time of Flight: 60 seconds
Apogee - Charge Firing h Variance: 0%
R-DAS Flight Mode: Apogee & Main Ejection
Launch Vehicle Diameter: 2 inches (54mm)
Launch Vehicle Length: 5 feet
Launch Vehicle Propulsion: R.A.T.T.Works I-80H Hybrid
Fins: 3 clipped Trapezoidal (Aerofoiled)
Launch System: Rail Launch (6 feet long, Black Sky Rail)
Finish: Smooth
Ejection Method: Electronic Deployment using apogee charge in SafeEject canister, then main charge in SafeEject canister as backup
Ejection Ignition Type: Daveyfire igniters (electric matches)
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| Comments This flight of the Blitzspear rocket was a text book launch, with the chracteristic arcing over towards apogee which is seen on most hybrids. At apogee, a Rocketman R3C-ProXP parachute was deployed via a Daveyfire igniter fitted in a SafeEject ejection charge holder. The Daveyfire was connected to the R-DAS output channel. A backup altimeter was also used (A Black Sky Research ALTACC), and this too was connected to a second Daveyfire fitted into a second SafeEject ejection charge holder.
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The rocket was also equipped with a 433 MHz RF tracker (courtesy of Chris Eilbeck), which meant that finding the rocket took relatively little time (about 10 minutes). Close in to the rocket, it was visible anyway due to the bright orange/red parachute, and the fact that some of the rocket is painted in a fairly bright red. |
Prepping the R-DAS
Photograph by Bob Arnott |
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| Thrust Section of Flight | |
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#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use CGI qw(:escape);
use CGI;
use lib qw(/home/rosborne/lib);
use Astro::Sunrise;
use Astro::MoonPhase;
use vars qw($query);
my $query = new CGI;
print $query->header();
#print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
my $sec = 0;
my $mday = 0;
my $mon = 0;
my $year = 0;
my $wday = 0;
my $yday = 0;
my $isdst = 0;
my $tz = 0;
my $hr = 0;
my $min = 0;
my @days = ();
my @shortdays = ();
my @months = ();
my @shortmonths = ();
my $longyr = 0;
my @cnts;
my $filename;
my $found;
my $counts;
my $cnt;
my $page;
my $showcnt;
my $cnts;
my $blk;
my $sunrise;
my $sunset;
my ($MoonPhase,$MoonIllum,$MoonAge,$MoonDist,$MoonAng,$SunDist,$SunAng);
sub determine_date
{
@days = ("Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday","Saturday");
@shortdays = ("Sun","Mon","Tue","Wed","Thu","Fri","Sat");
@months = ("January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November", "December");
@shortmonths = ("Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug","Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec");
($sec,$min,$hr,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) = localtime(time);
$longyr = $year + 1900;
if ($isdst == 1) {
$tz = "GMT";
} else {
$tz = "GMT";
}
}
sub display_date
{
print "$shortdays[$wday], $shortmonths[$mon] $mday, $longyr, ";
printf("%02d:%02d $tz\n", $hr, $min);
}
### Open File and Read All Data
open (FILE, "counts.txt");
@cnts = ;
close(FILE);
### Delete Old File Before ReWriting it with New Data
$filename = "counts.txt";
if (-e $filename) { unlink("$filename"); }
### Create and Open New File ReInput Old Data While Updating New
$found = 0;
open (NEWFILE,">counts.txt") || die $!;
foreach $cnts(@cnts) {
($page,$cnt,$blk) = split(/\|/, $cnts);
if ($page eq $ENV{'DOCUMENT_URI'}) {
$cnt++;
$showcnt = $cnt;
print NEWFILE "$page|$cnt| \n";
$found = 1;
}
else {
print NEWFILE "$cnts";
}
}
### First Time Counting the New Page
if ($found == 0) {
if ($ENV{'DOCUMENT_URI'} ne "") {
print NEWFILE "$ENV{'DOCUMENT_URI'}|1| \n";
$showcnt = 1;
}
}
&determine_date;
print "";
print "";
&display_date;
print "<\/STRONG><\/font>";
### Print the Count on the Page
print "";
print "($showcnt)";
print "<\/font>";
($sunrise, $sunset) = sunrise( $year, $mon, $mday, 0.1250, 51.3440, 0, 0 );
print "";
print " ![](\"../images/sunrise.gif\") ", $sunrise;
print " ![](\"../images/sunset.gif\") ", $sunset;
print "<\/STRONG><\/font>";
($MoonPhase,$MoonIllum,$MoonAge,$MoonDist,$MoonAng,$SunDist,$SunAng) = &phase(time);
print "";
print " ![](\"../images/moon.gif\") ";
printf("%02d\n", ($MoonPhase*100));
print "% ";
# print " Dist: ", $MoonDist;
print "<\/STRONG><\/font>";
print "<\/td><\/tr><\/table>";
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Richard Osborne - 1995-2006 |
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