01/22/07 - General Update & New Launch Date
Okay then, I'm not so great in the website updating department, albeit I've been dementedly busy with work and grad research and whatnot. But this update marks the new Daedalus year and with it a promise of not procrastinating....well, not too much anyhow. So let's get to it:
New launch date for TLA! That's right, I think we finally have everything squared away and are ready to get this supersonic rocket off the ground! Launch site is the same as it was several months ago: near San Diego and it can be found by accessing the DART website. Launch date is scheduled for Saturday, February 3rd. I hope to get some pictures of the rocket on the website before then, but we have lots to do before then. Much thanks go out to Gary, the Q.A. at Stinger Welding (my on-again/off-again full time job during my school breaks for the past four years). He was nice enough to spend some time TiG welding up our aluminum fincan whilst showing me the process all the while. Thanks again Gary!
Also in the works is our solid motor mixing up to the M-impulse range. Not sure what impulse really means? Click here! I'm antsy to talk more about that and the subsequent motor testing, but we'll save it for another update when I have more to share.
~ James Kendall Villarreal; Project Director
11/28/06 - Launch CANCELLED
The original plan called for a Sunday, December 3rd Launch, but will have to be postponed until further notice. Dr. Mignolet, our senior level Vibrations professor, has scheduled a timely test on the following Monday and since he just released the FIRST and only test the class has taken to date THIS week (with a 24% as the average), then I can understand why the students are taking this next test very seriously. At least five of these vibe students were planning on attending the launch (including Daedalus members Thomas, Rob, and Mark L.), so I thought it best to postpone.
But as an update, the rocket is just about ready to go. SatTeam brought their payload over for an integration test on 11/27/06 and everything went smoothly except for the fiberglass case which was in fact not smooth and required some sanding. Their payload is looking gorgeous and those new custom fabricrated boards are looking very not-amateur. They also managed to fit a digital camera, GPS, and a whole slew of fun measuring goodies in their small allotted space, all at the expense of less than 1.5 pounds. All that is left to do is drill a couple of holes in the rocket for set screws and their lookdown camera, as well as get the fincan welded back up to perfection, then we can just sit on the rocket until we get a new launch date.
And as for the website: it's taking a bit longer than expected to develop all of the content for the projects and outreach pages, but I'm getting there. I hope to have a plethora of pictures and movies available at the very least for each rocket soon published on the web. I very well may just post what I have and add more as I get the time. Stay tuned...
~ James Kendall Villarreal; Project Director
11/16/06 - Upcoming Launch
Don't let the title date confuse you....you haven't missed it yet. Daedalus will be traveling out towards the Yuma area for this one with TLA, our latest rocket. TLA (Three-Lettered-Acronym), was originally designed as the upper stage to our two stage rocket ExCd. Unfortunately, our rocket motor supplier was not able to finish the four large impulse (three 'Os' and one 'N') solid rocket motors in time, so the ExCd bottom stage will have to collect dust until we can come up with an alternative (like, mixing our own solid motor grains perhaps?). But that doesn't mean the second stage has to go unused! We redesigned quickly for an on-hand 'M' motor, moved the fins around a bit, and we're ready to go. Read more about TLA here.
The launch site was chosen based on the fact that TLA was designed with nothing but having the optimum weight in mind (see "Malewicki Plots" for more info on optimum weight design). As such, this thing will easily break the 10,000 ft altitude waiver at our normal Estrella launchsite. However, the new site allows waivers up to 25,000 ft. Our expected altitude is somewhere in the vicinity of 16kft and just over Mach 1. Likely, we'll be there on December 2nd or 3rd (actual date will be announced shortly). And once again, we'll be bringing along a SatTeam payload.
More information on the launch site can be found at the DART website:
~ James Kendall Villarreal; Project Director
11/14/06 - 'New' Webpage
You might have notice the single astericks around the word 'new' in the title of this handy little news story. Those are there specifically to address the fact that Daedalus has attempted on multiple occasions to get a website up and running, but it was not until now that it came to be a realization. Much thanks to the efforts of Daedalus members Ryan Rahn and Thomas Villarreal for putting in the effort to motivate myself to do anything about it. So go ahead, snoop around.
~ James Kendall Villarreal; Project Director
