Smash Rocketry New Group Project – The Proton M

[RichWallnerParticipant]

I have most of the Proton parts at my house for trim & cut work this week, so I stacked it up and took a picture, and digitally sketched in the rest of the 3rd stage:

The outboard motors tubes are being cut down a few inches for scale, and they will each have nosecones which extend to within about 4″ of the top of stage 1.

We’ll of course be adding fins to all 3 stages for stability.

[BEAR]

Impressive Rich! And there will probably be about 8″ of nozzle cones on bottom also, at least on the outside tubes. Rich, you seem too mellow about this, do you think you jack up the excitement level a bit?! 😆

[Warren B. MusselmanModerator]

I LOVE it… and can’t wait to see it fly. Three actual flying stages with separate motors and staging systems?

[BEAR]

Seems to me as I recall, for mechanical devices, especially for those that fly, or might be part of the military, if it’s weird, it’s British; if it is ugly, it is French; and if it is weird and ugly, it’s Russian! At least that is what I have been told by American engineers. 😆

[new2hprParticipant]

Will stages 2 and 3 have flip-out fins, so as to not ruin the appearance or CG-CP relationship?

Lookin’ huge!

-Ken

[Bruce R. Schaefer]

Holy sh**, uh, goodness gracious! You can find the Proton-M plastic models on e-Bay occasionally–but you must always check that they are true scale, not so much, and I have K-1 somewhere in a box. But Holy Gracious of Goodness! SSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOO nicely done! I have a Russian neighbor, Dimitri, who was a mechanical engineer in their space program back during this time. Hmmmmm… maybe I should get to know him better. 😉 Or, at least, pass our club’s link on.

[RichWallnerParticipant]

I agree — stacking the tubes up and taking that picture really gives you a “WOOOOOW” moment.

We all know how much fun it is to watch a big project launch — and we all also know (most of you better than I) how much MORE fun it is when it’s YOUR project. Allow me to remind everyone of Warren’s post back on Jan 19th:

“I’d just like to say that Steve Mashburn took on a bare L1 (me) when he proposed the Delta II project. I had some skills, but had never been involved in anything like that level of size or complexity. He knows how to execute a large project and I highly recommend it as what may well be one of the seminal experiences of your rocketry career – it certainly was for me. I learned a LOT and had a great time along the way. When it finally flew, my heart was in my throat and I was jumping up and down like a 5 year old. An experience not to be missed.”

As a bare L1 myself (just got it at Oktoberfest 2011), having worked on the Proton for the last 4-5 weeks, I can attest to the good vibe that Steve instills, and his patience with a noob like me. Scott is letting us use his great hangar (heated, very well lit, every tool you can think of) for the project. And I’ve been bringing sodas, and sandwiches for lunch.

So, don’t let Steve and Bear and me (with help from James and Kevin and my neighbor Joe) have all the fun. It’s a great way to spend your Saturdays. And at the end, you can share in our jubilation as we watch it fly.

And, I’d think that this project has a good chance of being in Nadine’s 2013 rocketry calendar. And maybe even in Rockets magazine (anyone here know someone at the mag???)

I’m driving up from south of Parker each week, so I can be chauffeur for the Southeast metro carpool (PM me if you’d like to come along), and Bear has volunteered to carpool with those from the north side.

Please come help! And please donate a little if you can at Steve’s web site (www.smashrocketry.com)!

[RichWallnerParticipant]

Warren: Steve’s current plan is for 3 stages, though we may not install a motor in stage 3 for the first flight. Steve determined that the rocket needed to break apart around there any way for recovery, so he figured: why not put in a small, showy motor like a blackjack? The current plan is:

Stage 1: 3 M1300 (75/6000) and 6 K550 (54/1750)
Stage 2: 1 L1000
Stage 3: 1 K

Ken: No flip-out fins — too complicated and failure prone (as illustrated by the project at Plaster Blaster). Steve’s still working out the details, but it appears the stage 2 & 3 fins will be fairly small. Given the 6 outboards and the 3 fins on stage 1, I think we’ll be OK on CG/CP. We can always add some weight to the nose, too — it shouldn’t take much, since it’s such a tall rocket (stage 2 will be 10′ tall, and even stage 3 is 6′ tall).

[Warren B. MusselmanModerator]

On the Delta II project, we had underfigured the required nosewieght and at the pad on launch day we spent substantial time with Ed Wranowsky tearing down the nose to access the weight compartment throwing in a LOT of lead shot. Can’t remember the figure, but north of 10# as I recall.

[edwardModerator]

It was *at least* 10 pounds. The good thing is we had planned and built a compartment at the very front in case we needed some noseweight.

Edward

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