I am considering sponsoring a capstone project at Florida Polytechnic this year. I believe I have a compensating nozzle that could be checked out within the two semesters the project would last. I had an intern from the school this last summer to work on remote control and robotics for small construction equipment. If I can get them to move on hardware, we should have cold flow tested before Christmas.
If Verification of compensation with cold flow is done, does anyone have a connection with hot fire testing capability that could be done at little or no cost? If so, what sizes and what propellants would be allowable?
I have lost touch with the people that I would have asked a decade ago. And several of the companies they were associated with are gone.
johnhare
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Glad to see any work on altitude compensating engines. One thing that hurts further research on them is there is no simple way to estimate the payload possible using them like the rocket equation does for fixed nozzles.
So one facet of your students proposal might be to estimate what would be the payload increase if alt.comp were given to existing rockets, such as the Falcon 9, Atlas V, Delta IV, Ariane 5 etc by doing a full trajectory simulation using alt.comp. There are programs available that can do this from NASA such as POST and OTIS.
About help with hot flow testing, I know Robert Zubrin’s Pioneer Astronautics offers to assist researchers with their projects, and according to their web page they have a rocket test stand available:
http://www.pioneerastro.com/contract-research-and-development-services/
Bob Clark
These guys at Parabilis (former SpaceDev then SNC Dreamchaser folks) have a test stand. They will be cheaper than the big companies and more flexible, but rocket testing isn’t exactly a cheap endeavor, and they are a business, so they have to charge a reasonable rate to cover their costs. http://parabilis-space.com/test-facility/
You might also try FAR out in the Mojave for some real primitive test space but you’d want to bring your own adult supervision. https://friendsofamateurrocketry.org/
Thanks for the links. Unfortunately, I have about decided that the student projects don’t seem to be hardware oriented. They are working on one of my construction requirements and don’t seem to get the idea of using something off the shelf that works right now. Halfway through the school year and it’s just computer graphics and reports. Glad I didn’t get involved in a rocketry one with them.
Of course that could change real fast if they have just been perfecting something awesome. The project is to put remote control on a tiny (<500 pounds) bulldozer that I built.