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back to article El Reg's NAOMI rocket throws launch-pad strop

We at the El Reg Special Projects Bureau have just about recovered from our trip last weekend to International Rocket Week (IRW), in the somewhat rain-lashed and chilly outskirts of Glasgow. Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic As followers of our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) project will be …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    That's some good field research there

    also, I love the Easter egg in the SPB masthead!

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  2. David Given
    Thumb Up

    Hey, I remember that

    ...I spent a highly enjoyable weekend there in my youth. Lots of fun. The main high points were:

    - Seeing a deeply impressive hybrid nitrous-oxide-and-perspex job take off.

    - Someone launching a home-made five-stager; we lost sight of it after the third stage, at which point it was already curving over for a trajectory towards the nearby RAF base.

    - Getting the range safety officer drunk and trying out experimental (and highly illegal) solid fuel rocket mixes.

    - Building rockets out of baguettes (they fly quite well). The recovery mechanism was a tomato duct-taped to the top.

    I bought a bunch of half-As and built a few badly-made waverider rockets, which mostly failed to do anything interesting. Alas, I expect the event is better regulated and much safer these days.

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  3. Winkypop Silver badge
    Alert

    "Somewhat rain-lashed and chilly outskirts of Glasgow"

    The guy in the back (left) of the last photo clearly thinks it's summer.

    Or is that the obligatory El-Reg hair shirt?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Coat

      Nah just a local

      " rain-lashed and chilly" describes most Augusts in the West of Scotland - people take their tops off to get their annual Vitamin D dose in case the sun makes an appearance.

      Taking the unnecessary coat off ...

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  4. Michael Shelby
    Thumb Up

    Loved the Pringles rocket...

    The words at the top, "Instant Win", said it all...

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    FFS...

    ...c'mon...it's not exactly rocket science is it!

    <--take a 2nd look at icon in case you missed it the first time.

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  6. F111F
    Thumb Up

    Two Things...

    A) Love the duct tape on the Spirit of Columbia...

    B) Where do I get a Special Projects Bureau t-shirt? Surely sales of which would promote the rise of "LOHAN"?

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  7. cre@mstick360
    Megaphone

    Reflective jacket...

    I would like to see the job spec for The Range Safety Officer - that looks like a great job!

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  8. Christopher Key.
    Go

    Waveriders

    I guess you must've spoken with John Bonsor about Waveriders, and would like to add my vote for this as a design to use for LOHAN.

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  9. Danny 14
    Holmes

    hmm

    There is the wonderful site called youtube which lets you post moving pictures. I dont suppose you have such obominations do you? I would have liked to see the mad saucers 2.5 Newton-seconds impulsing at random times.

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Ugly rocket should win

    With LOHAN launching from an edge of space balloon, there is little need for aerodynamic efficiency. i.e. Two spherical tanks side by side a motor would do. Best text graphic I can do is...

    O\_____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

    O/

    :)

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  11. Andus McCoatover
    Windows

    @ David "The recovery mechanism was a tomato duct-taped to the top."

    Oh, God, this pub's going to charge me for wear-and-tear on the carpet for the time I spend rolling around on it in mirth...

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  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You're in fine company Lester

    Please don't feel down because NAOMI didn't rise to the occasion; even the mighty NASA has had its share of failures to launch.

    In fact you've actually beaten NASA. In 1960, Mercury Redstone I only made it 10cm from the pad before something horribly expensive went sproing! shut down the engines and brought the rocket gently back down to the Earth.

    So by my calculations if you keep up this rate of success you should be on the Moon round about 2020.

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  13. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Happy

    Great Stuff

    Good to see so many people having fun with the 'technology'. How well did the mum&daughter team do?

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    1. ian 22
      Reply Icon

      @Will

      +1

      The piccies look like more rockets were fired than at Iranian war games!

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  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    fffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.

    And I quote:

    "The flight statistics can be summarised thus: Maximum altitude 1.5 metres, downrange distance from pad 60cm:"

    All I can say is this: liquid no longer in mouth, walking to kitchen to get paper towels.

    And I'm still laughing....with you.

    Congrats on the 2nd attempt.

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  15. jaycee331

    Hmmmmm

    I really enjoy the reg projects.

    But I'm not quite feeling the amazement of this event. I mean come on, look at the photo's, at least half are your stereotype beardies and geeks. Some of those rockets look no bigger than a top end firework, and theres something cringey about folk holding their small dingers with such pride.

    I am myself a geek and I want so much to get turned on by this article and run to the nearest model shop, but fact you can just tape a rocket motor into a pringles tube just kind of shows an almost childish level of skill required to play with off the shelf stuff.

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  16. CmdrX3
    Go

    Get down Shep!!!

    We are definitely in Blue Peter territory. An empty milk carton and some sticky back plastic should do the trick. Throw in a ball of string and space is a definite possibility. There might even be a Blue Peter badge in it for you at the end.

    Go team LOHAN!!! We loves it.

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  17. rurwin
    Pint

    Love it

    You've got to start somewhere, and this was obviously mainly a fact-gathering exercise with the NAOMI as a fun after-thought. Well done on getting it up on the second attempt, and all the best for the LOHAN project. Leicester Amateur Radio Society loved my presentation of the PARIS flight. As for the International Rocket Week event itself, it is good to see that the art of personal experimentation with minimal commercial equipment is still going strong. So what if your rocket body is a pringles can with taped on fins? Experimenting with weight distributions and getting those fins right will be easier than if you used anything higher-tech.

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  18. Jan 0 Silver badge
    Flame

    Wimps

    This all seems to be the Disney sanitised version of amateur rocketry.

    Are even the polyethylene/nitorus oxide engines commercial?

    Oberth and Godard must be turning in their graves.

    Does nobody manufacture their own motors anymore?

    When I used to build rockets I first experimented with plastics blowing agents (long chains of mostly N!) then moved on to nitrocellulose, along the way learning how to vacuum impregnate glass fibre bodies and nozzles and the stunning effects of combustion using liquid oxygen.

    Has amateur rocketry really been legislated out of existence, or are today's enthusiasts just wimpy kit builders?

    How about a "high test" hydrogen peroxide motor for LOHAN?

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  19. Stuart Moore
    Boffin

    Pulse Jet

    Realise you may already have settled on propulsion, but this post made me think of you guys...

    http://hackaday.com/2011/09/05/engine-hacks-a-pulse-jet-uav-by-any-other-name-would-still-be-a-cruise-missile/

    A pulse jet might be a good option, possibly? Does it still count as a rocket? Does it matter if you get the end goal?

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