Water Rocket Research & Development Menu:
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In June 2003, U.S. Water Rockets was founded with the goal of achieving the water rocket altitude record. Which was held by Anti-Gravity Research while following a standardized set
of competition rules set by the Water Rocket Achievement World Record Association. Follow our research & development logs, experiments, and new concepts as we worked towards the
water rocket world altitude record.
- Deployment
Systems- Dual Deployment System
The dual deploy system proved to be a resounding success and a quantum leap in safety. If either one or even both of the parachutes became tangled or failed to inflate, the separate rocket sections would be too unstable to fall ballistically to the ground. Instead, the sections would tumble slowly down, reducing the chance for injury or property damage on the ground due to a "lawn dart".
- Dual Deployment System
- Launch
Systems- Split Collar Launcher
Water Rocket launcher mechanisms are an important area of Water Rocket design which has received almost no attention by researchers for more than a decade. This Research and Development article introduces our completely new launcher design to the water rocket community, and the history of the evolution of this radical new design.
- Split Collar Launcher
- Tracking & Telemetry Systems
- Ground Test
A rocketeers worst nightmare is a lost rocket, to combat this we designed our own telemetry and tracking system. A ground test of our new telemetry and tracking system
- Live Test
A live test of the tracking system proved a range of 50,000 feet.
- Ground Test
- Tools
- Bottle Cutting Tool
The bottle cutting jig will cut a straight cut around your bottles to remove the bottom or neck when splicing or making nosecones.
- Bottle Cutting Tool
- Pressure Tests
- Compressor Failure
To construct a world record water rocket, we needed to do many pressure tests. On this test the compressor failed and caught fire. Then the test vessel self launched at 300PSI!
- Thermal Imaging
Pressure TestDoes a water bottle rocket explode because the plastic bottle heats and softens when the air inside is expanding and stretching the plastic? We wanted to find out. The purpose of this experiment is to determine if bottle burst pressure is reduced because of the heat generated by the stretching bottle as it expands.
- Compressor Failure
- Chase Camera
As early as 2003, we were experimenting with ways to get outside views of our water rocket. Back then we had been flying a camera inside a payload compartment that was meant to separate from the pressure vessel at apogee. This article shows the development of a new system which would record the entire rocket for the entire flight, rather than just the descent of the pressure vessel.
- 3D Camera
At that time, basic ordinary video cameras capable of shooting 3D were quite costly (and they never came down in price since 3D never caught on in a big way). Therefore, we decided the only way to accomplish what we wanted was to build a 3D Camera Rig that would allow us to use our specialized cameras to achieve the goal. The way to accomplished this is to somehow use two similar cameras in tandem to capture photos and videos for each eye, and then merge them in software to create 3D output.
- Tower Camera
We wondered what the view would be like to a person standing on the tip of a Water Rocket as it was launched hundreds of feet into the air, so we came up with an idea to make a tower to mount a camera on the top of a Water Rocket, so we could find out what it would look like from that point of view.