Eggonaut

Eggonaut toc

Team "Diversity"
 Diversity - An old, old wooden ship that was used during the civil war era.

Pictures of the rocket, trials, equipment, etc.
media type="file" key="DivRocket.mov"

Things tried so far...
When thinking of the original design for the rocket, we decided that the bottle in which the water would go could not be cut open. As soon as there's a leak, the rocket would be useless. We also came to the conclusion that the bottle would need fins in order to have a fairly straight path up. As far as keeping the egg safe, we decided to keep it in a capsule, which separated from the propulsion portion of the rocket. The capsule was made of the top and bottom portions of another 1-liter bottle. The bottom half of the capsule would lock into the bottle that held the water. To keep the egg safe and possibly add a couple seconds of air time, a parachute, made of a plastic, was added to the capsule. The parachute was kept on with kite strings, which all met at a metal ring around the mouth of the bottle. We also tried various amounts of water because there was either too much or too little. Too much will weigh the rocket down and too little will not launch it high enough. The ideal amount of water for our rocket is about one third of the bottle filled. We tried the parachute draped over the entire rocket. It didn't work since the parachute never caught any wind resistance. After multiple failures to launch or deploy its parachute and problems with tangling parachute strings, we decided to change our deployment system. the strings met and tied with a single string which was then attached to the bottle. This way, tangling of the strings would be minimized. We also decided to add a nose cone to cover the capsule and parachute so that the rocket would be aerodynamic and that the parachute would stay inside until the rocket fell back down. We also tried multiple folding methods of the parachute, none of which worked. The final way of folding that we tried was to fold it like an umbrella, which didn't work either. Also, we were able to successfully save the egg and parachute deploy in a trial run. Unfortunately, the two times for the actual thing the parachute didn't work.

Suggestions for future builders
The parachute is a vital role to the Eggonaut. You must find a perfect way to fold the parachute so it deploys and actually catches the in the air. Once you find the right folding method to the parachute, figure out a way to get the parachute out of the nose cone. Also, do not get caught up on how high the bottle goes, the main objective is to keep the egg safe. Keep the water in the bottle between 1/4-1/3 full. This amount of water could vary on the mass of the rocket. Next, it is important to have fins and an aerodymanic design. i.e. a cone shape. Another good suggestion would be to tie the parachute strings to another single strand that goes to the capsule to avoid tangling. You may also want to play around with different types of padding and foam. We only tried foam so maybe different types of padding will optimize egg protection. Record methods you try so you can work backwords if need by and also it helps to see what you have tried, what has worked, what hasnt work, and what could work. While doing this project, enjoy yourself and have fun. This project can get very frustrating at times. So the best advice we can give is to relax and try to figure things out calmly. And most importantly, dress warm.

Team "THE Your MADRE"


Pictures of the rocket, trials, equipment, etc.
Trial 1: Medium Parachute (It separates from the fuel source) :) media type="file" key="SteveRocket.mov"
 * || From the funnel idea to the almost final product. ||

Things tried so far...
To begin, the group created designs and discussed ideas. Drew out what we thought was what the rocket would look like. Designs that would be the beginning of our "eggonaut."

In addition to our designs, we took away some ideas but to make up for it by adding new ones. Relatively, our base designs are still common to the rocket that we are launching today. One of the ideas taken away are the long wings that we had planned for the rocket. Another idea, was the funnel use as the rocket's nose with the thought of it detaching from the rocket after launch, thus deploying a parachute for safe landing. In addition to those failed ideas, we also wanted to cut the 1 liter bottle that we were using and fuse it together with heat, glue, or tape with another bottle in order to increase the size to fit everything we wanted in it. Though there were many ideas that seemed ridiculous and good at the time, we've overcome most of our obstacles to form what we are using today and named as "THE Your MADRE." Instead of using a funnel as the tip and trying to cut part of a bottle, we are keeping the air sealed in our original 1 liter bottle AND using half of another 1 liter bottle as the nose. The nose would hold not only the egg but the parachutes. The reason for parachutes begin plural is because, we've tests a medium sized parachute but the airtime was too short. Thus, using the medium parachute and creating a larger parachute to umbrella the medium-sized one.

In explanation for the parachute, we began with a medium sized GLAD bag. The process of creating this parachute is as followed: 1) Spread out the bag of choice across a table (preferably a lab table at school); 2) Find the center point; 3) Use the white board marker with string wrapped around nozzle for adjustable alignment; 4) Draw your circle; 5) Cut out the circle and make four (or eight) holes evenly distributed around the circle; 6) We made sure that the strings were all the same lengths; 7) Attach strings to the inner release capsule with a type of adhesive; 8) Fold it and insert the parachute into the capsule. After you've done that, you NOW have a mediocre parachute. This was our idea that we thought would work, but the "hang" time in the air was too short; NARLEY. Even though we are not snowboarding or skateboarding, the drop was too sudden and abrupt. Though we thought the size of the parachute would be a success, it didn't turn out the way we planned. Getting in detail with the deploy of the parachute during launch, we put the bottle upside-down before launch so that the air would travel through the bottle opening and force the parachute out; this was a great idea from "THE Your MADRE" team. Since the parachute did not last long in the air, we thought of adding another more larger parachute to "umbrella" the smaller one. So, in this case, grab a larger-sized trash bag; repeat the process of creating a parachute steps 1 to 6. Then after that is completed with, run the strings through the holes of the first parachute, while creating knots where the first parachute holes are for reinforcement. Once you've done that, follow the remaining steps 7 to 8. Wait a bit, before you go and shove the parachute in, we'll give you some insight as to how to fold this parachute. With the circle, fold the circle into half a circle, then fold THAT in half, then keep folding in halves until you have a form of a pizza shape (sounds delicious); this will make the parachute easier to open. Then fold that in half and THEN shove it into the parachute. Just kidding about the shoving, you don't want to ruin your plans, so fold it and then gently place it into the capsule. After all of that nonsense in order to make a parachute, YOU NOW HAVE A WORKING PARACHUTE! Congratulations.

We launched. Failed. Added foam patting for the egg. Thinking that the parachute would deploy and the egg would be safe, but no one should ever be 100% sure. We don't know what happened. Before deploy, the patting seemed to work and the air was tested to see if it went through the bottle and it did. Seeing how we thought the everything would be fine, though with an unlikely turn of events during the launch, nothing came out the way we planned. Big time failure. The egg broke into minute pieces and the parachute didn't even make an attempt to get out because the top half of the rocket seemed to have been on too tight with the fuel bottle. Though it was a failure, we will look our designs over and relaunch one more time.

Test 1 commenced! Failed another time. It saddens not only us, but for both groups because both groups were failures. Eggs cracked. Parachute didn't deploy thus the egg cracked. End of log.

We launched the eggonaut a second time. This time we replaced the parachute with a larger parachute. It became very tight in the part of the bottle with the egg in it. This made it very hard to attach to the rocket. We decided to sit it on to of the rocket. Wrong move. The rocket part went maximum height but the top part fell off four feet in the air. Our egg was destroyed... epic failure.

Trials are still being done....(to be cont.)

Suggestions for future builders
You should get ideas from your partners. Mold them into a single rocket. Make parachute. Then you're all set to go. Also, make sure your parachute has a diameter two times larger than the circumference of the bottle. To achieve maximum height for your rocket, fill your bottle with water at a 1:3 ratio (11.3 onces).