Our rocket design was very simple yet we designed it around our parachute being able to deploy easily. Our key engineering features that we had used on our rocket was our fins, nose cone, parachute and half domes.  As you can see the two half domes that we put on the side of the rocket were made so that air would shoot into the parachute on its way back down.  We had added four fins to our rocket to have it keep a straight path on its accent into the air.  The fins were attached by duct tape and tacky glue.  Our parachute was made from a large black garbage bag.  Instead of making a circle we left the bag as it was and attached strings to the bottom.  I believe that the way we folded the parachute played a big role in it opening right.  We had folded it in half 5 times (hot dog style) and then folded it in half three times the other way.  Our original nose cone was made out of the top of a soda cap and a golf ball for weight.  We were forced to change our design to a cone because our original nose cone and parachute was lodged in the koa tree.  On the last day that we launched we were not successful of reaching ten seconds because our parachute didn’t deploy and our rocket ended up on the roof of midkiff.  We also had made some adjustments from Thursday by taking off weights that were designed to make the rocket fall to the ground the right way.  With filling our rocket with 80psi and 800ml of water it might have only reach about 30 feet in the air; while without the weights our rocket reached about 100 feet in the air.  Throughout our rocket launches our times has increased and then toped out around six to seven seconds.   Looking back at our first launches we were only able to reach about 4 seconds without any modifications.  If we were to have another chance to build a rocket we would make our parachute into a circle and add a weight to our nose cone.  We feel that if our nose cone had come off on our final launch the parachute may have deployed.  Although the weather conditions were not the best on our launching days I would say that it helped a lot of other people reach their goal of ten seconds.  I believe that if we had taken the wind shifts into consideration on Thursday we might have reached our goal of ten seconds.

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Launch 6 Caught By The Tree

For todays launch we decided to first fill our bottle with our usual 750 ml of water and pump to 40psi on our first run.  We were able to reach 6.2 seconds in the air because our parachute helped slow our rocket down by a lot.  Our second launch was the most sucessful because we reached 7.1 seconds with 750ml and 60psi.  On our final launch we decided to pump until 80psi with 800ml of water because our rocket was not reaching a height in which our parachute would open on time.  When we first launched the rocket, it seemed like it had a good chance or reaching the ten second goal.  The parachute deployed at the top of the peak height.  It was in the air for 5 seconds until the tree ate our rocket.  We were lucky that our rocket eventually came down from the tree.  We plan to remake our parachute because it got stuck in the three and launch tomorrow on friday.

Launch 5 "Roofed"

Our launch today was very unsucessfull.  The most time that we were able to reach was 4 seconds and our rocket ended up on the roof of Konia.  I think that we should add more psi to our rocket so that it would go higher in the air.  Today we also decided to add 750 ml of water than 500 ml.  Our parachute was not deploying properly, when the rocket launched it turned sideways and the parachute did not fill with air.  We plan to add tape to the cone and the parachute so that it will ensure that the parachute will fill.  From last week we used one big parachute rather than two smaller ones.  I think that if we are able to get the larger parachute to fill it will increase our time by at least 5 seconds. When we finaily retreaved our rocket we were able to reach 6 seconds.  Our rocket did not go that high but our parachute slowed our rocket down a lot.

Launch 4

Our fourth launch went semi sucessfull.  We were able to get our parachute to deploy properly and have it slow down the decent of our rocket.  We also had added weights at the bottom of our rocket so that it would fall to the ground the right way.  The only problem that we encountered is that the pump came off when we were applying pressure into our rocket.  We plan on pumping until 60 psi and keeping the 500ml of water in our bottle for launch.  We watched Corey and Pono's launch and they reached 10 seconds in the air without a parachute.  I feel that if we were able to apply a lot of pressure into our bottle it could reach up to 15 seconds in the air with the parachute.  I feel that our rocket is ready to be put to the test of 10 seconds in the air by the next time that we launch.

Launch 2 and 3

The first video is our launch 2 and our second video is our launch 3.  For launch 2 we had added fins and a parachute to our rocket.  On our first attempt the rocket head ended up flying off and no deploying the parachute.  We had attached a golf ball to the top in order to have it fly off and pull the parachute.  We also had cut small slits in the bottle so that air would rush in and deploy the chute on its way down.  On our third launch we cut the slits bigger and put a piece of plastic to funnel the air into the hole more effciently.  We also added a weight to the bottom of our rock so that it would fall towards the ground in the right direction.  Although our third launched didn't go as planned the chute only didn't deploy because it was stuck to a piece of tape.  I believe that if it wasn't for the tape out parachute would have deployed effeciently because it was half out expect for the part stuck to the tape.  Our bottle seemed to stay in the air for about 4 seconds without the parachute.  Hopefully with the parachute we will be able to gain 6 more seconds to our time in the "AYER."

Today in class we had our first sucessful launch.  My partner and I didn't want our bottle to be lost over the cliff of Midkiff so we decided to only launch at 30 psi.  On our first attempt of pulling our string we failed but then continued pumping until our bottle finally shot up.  Our bottle stayed in the air for about 4 seconds.  I think that we need to add fins in order to keep the rocket going up in one direction rather than  tailing of to the side.  We also are going to need to add some sort of parachute and find a deployment method to reach or goal of 10 seconds.  We also need to add some sort of cone to the top to make the bottle more aro-dymanic.  We were thinking of putting a cone that would fall off when the bottle starts to decelerate, so that when the cone comes off it will pull the parachute which would cause it to activate.  

Water bottle rocket

As we begin researching different water bottle designs, I came upon this website. (http://lanceorloff.s5.com/rocket.html) The design of this water bottle rocket is very simple. However, there is useful information that we can all benefit from. This design tells us that fins are required for stable take off. Fins help the bottle rocket to spin in a straight line. Also, the website shares with us that there should be a counterweight in the front part of the rocket. This will also help keep the rocket balanced as it takes off. What the website doesn't have any information about, is the parachute. So we will have to come up with our own design about it.