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NZ Space Shot Discussion (Patreon)

Published:
2025-04-30 00:15:22
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Hey all!
Next week, Dean Spittle from the New Zealand Rocketry Association is joining us next week to talk about rocketry in sweet az and their space shot!

Drop questions below!

Comments

Eric Beavers

Awesome! I assume this is two stage so here I go… 1. Charges at altitude. How are you testing this? 2. Separation and coast phase - how long will you coast before lighting the sustainer and have you calculated ignition time into that? If this is drag separation, do you have any concerns with the sustainer spinning faster, slower or the opposite direction of the booster during the boost phase? I’ve imagined that a key groove would resolve but I’m curious. 3. HEI? Are you doing this and if so, can you walk us through the components required and how they are put together? Awesome and good luck!!!! Edit: at what altitude do you expect the fins to lose control authority? Is loosing fin control a big issue so long as the motor is no longer burning? These are the things that keep me up a night. Haha

Quentin Trull

I'm curious if the rocket was simulated at sea level. How much altitude was gained from launching at such a high starting altitude?

Dean Spittle
>>172514181

A good question - i'll check with Ethan. Compared to the launch ranges at Black Rock Desert, the launch site at Mt White was around 600' lower.

Liam

Okay here is my list of questions. Mainly so that Dean can't answer them all before the podcast. 1. Booster configuration. Is it two stage single stage, three stage, one and a half stage? 2. Motor design if it's a multi stage is there any difference between the motors? 3. Propellent Fast, Slow, Super Fast? 4. On the motors what is the core shape? End Burner, Finical, BATES, Moon Burner, C slot? 5. What does the ascent profile look like any faster portions any slower portions? Is there a thrust bucket during MAX-Q? 6. What does recovery system deployment look like? CO2, Black Powder, Pyrodex, some secret fourth option? 7. What does recovery look like chute sizes deployment patterns? Single step dual deploy, Dual sep dual deploy? 8. Active control is there any? Roll control, Pitch Yaw control? Cold Gas thrusters for in space? 9. Any payloads? Cameras satellites with cameras for 3rd person views? 10. Rocket design minimum diameter or sub min? 11. Avionics what does that look like?

Ben Williams

1. How was the rocket designed 2. How did you get the components for the rocket 3. How did you get CAA approval for this flight

Dean Spittle
>>172865873

1. Booster configuration. Is it two stage single stage, three stage, one and a half stage? A) Standard two stage. 2. Motor design if it's a multi stage is there any difference between the motors? A) Booster is a 109mm OD 39.7kNs O7800. Sustainer is a 70mm OD 11kNs N3100. 3. Propellent Fast, Slow, Super Fast? A) Fairly standard. The formulation is identical in solids loading and metal content as Propellant X. 4. On the motors what is the core shape? End Burner, Finical, BATES, Moon Burner, C slot? A) Both motors are case bonded with NBR insulation. The booster has a forward finocyl, with the remainder conical. The sustainer is a simple conical core. 5. What does the ascent profile look like any faster portions any slower portions? Is there a thrust bucket during MAX-Q? A) Nothing fancy. The booster is a mildly progressive burn. The sustainer is semi neutral with a long tail off. 6. What does recovery system deployment look like? CO2, Black Powder, Pyrodex, some secret fourth option? A) Black powder contained in sealed cavity, vented to into a circumferential ring between the two conical joint components. 7. What does recovery look like chute sizes deployment patterns? Single step dual deploy, Dual sep dual deploy? A) Single sep dual deploy. Both separated as above at apogee, with the mains retained in the airframe via a pyro release device. 8. Active control is there any? Roll control, Pitch Yaw control? Cold Gas thrusters for in space? A) None. We just tried really hard to make the entire stack rigid and straight with the concial sep joints and radax fixed joints. It could be supported at the booster motor with no deflection of the NC tip. The roll rate was less than <2 Hz even at Mach 5.6 and the tilt at sustainer ignition was less than 2 degrees. It held that until about 100kft and then slowly fell into a flat spin. 9. Any payloads? Cameras satellites with cameras for 3rd person views? A) There were 2 x 4K side looking cameras, as well as 300mL of booze (beer & gin) 10. Rocket design minimum diameter or sub min? A) Sub minimum diameter. The air frame was the motor casing. 11. Avionics what does that look like? A) Dual "Mega38s" - derived from TeleMegas, but with a modified RF section and ability to accept an external GNSS antenna. The primary unit ran modified AltOS software to get data from an external GNSS. It's output was also fed through into an RF amplifier to extend the range.

Dean Spittle
>>173036327

1. How was the rocket designed A) OpenRocket and a fair few test bed iterations. If you have a look at this video (from May 2022) -https://youtu.be/ZoKSI5T0HGQ - there is early onboard footage of an M to L 2 stage that reached 120K. This rocket was recovered 11Km (that magical figure again) down the road from the Orini site. 2. How did you get the components for the rocket A) Airframe locally sourced & machined. Parachutes imported. Propellant, locally cast by VTP, Electronics were Altus Metrum derivatives. 3. How did you get CAA approval for this flight A) Paperwork, a crap tonne of paper work. Process took best part of 18 months to complete. The bigger head ache was the insurance costs & coverage - not cheap and per launch attempt.