Playing hide and seek with Science

I promised pictures yesterday of the huge rocket launchers, here is one:

Giant hydraulic rocket launcher, owned by ARR, inside a building that moves to let the large structure get to the required elevation angle for the rocket being launched.



And this is the building it is housed in:

Large movable building housing ARR's rocket launching structure.

In comparison, this is our launcher for the CRV-7:

Our rocket launching platform, it has a compass on it for azimuth control, and another for elevation control, which we will set based on wind parameters at the time of the launch (which we will know because we will be sending off weather balloons).

And here is David, along with Joren Grande and a CRV-7 rocket (payload in David's right hand, rocket motor in his left):

David, Joren and CRV-7. Show and tell.

The payload (the shiny object on the left in the photo above) screws into the rocket motor. It is made out of aluminum, and the tip is made of steel, the tip and the body of the payload weigh about the same thing, just to give you a comparison of the density of aluminum and steel.

I now want to share with you a general philosophy among the people here that I've met and spoke with or listened to this week.

Be an optimist. Poster on one of the office doors at ARR.

It may just be the romanticism of everything being paid for and the general passion of everyone to engage in new culture, with others that share their interests, but everyone is generally being an "Optimist Prime". I have not seen a "Negatron", and if there are any, they are keeping it to themselves.

You know how yesterday we made paper rockets? Well Eino and myself got third place! hell yeah!

Targets acquired. Note: this isn't our rocket, I didn't snap a picture when we were taking off, someone else did.

Our rocket travelled about 85 meters. Not bad for a bicycle pump and a paper rocket. Speaking of rocketry... They have bacon paste here, which is apparently a cheese that is melted and tastes like bacon. I was thinking we could somehow combine the two and then we could have bacon and rocketry, together at last!