Launch #4

Photo from: http://www.paksc.org/

Today, launches were successful: we tinkered with 4 factors that greatly affected our goal-launch-time of 5 seconds or more. Nicole and I perused various websites on “how to deploy parachutes.” One of the websites said to make tabs, attached to the top of the water bottle rocket, ones that kiss the circumference of the nose cone; so, we cut out small rectangular tabs, covered them in duct tape, and duct-taped them to the bottle rocket, all equidistant from each other. The tabs allowed the bottle rocket to tip, while at the top of its trajectory, so that the cone would fall off, allowing the parachute to deploy. We also did the “trail and error” routine when it came to folding the parachute: the best way was to scrunch the parachute, loosely stuffing it into the cone, making sure that they don’t get stuck to the exposed, sticky tape on the tabs. After 2 or 3 trials, we tightened the nose cone to maximize the amount of time it stays on, allowing a greater trajectory height. Adding more water helped increase the time, along with more pressure pumped into the rocket. We are looking to adjust the size of the next parachute, hoping that it will increase our 6-second launch.