(Part 2) Top products from r/rocketry

Are you asking about purely the shape? This is actually an exceedingly hard and narrow topic of interest. Specifically, mostly military in nature.

The best open literature resource I have found regarding this top is Simmons' book: [https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Exhaust-Plume-Phenomenology-Simmons/dp/188498908X]

There's a huge piece of the puzzle that is based on radiation - excitation of species (dependent on propellants) in the exhaust plume and the associated spectral emissivity. It helps that you have one piece of the puzzle, the engine side (geometry, operating conditions, propellants, exhaust gas properties (from simulation)). The other piece of "visual properties" then depends on what type of detector you are using -- human eye, IR detected, space based detector. Then you have to account for attenuation of the different spectral lines in the atmosphere.

> is there anyway to calculate, for example, the total length of the plume?

Here you is where you start to ask, "as seen by what/whom?".

Of course, a great place to start is to just approach as a purely gas-dynamics problem. Even then you are starting to get into turbulence modeling due to mixing with ambient air at some downstream point. If you are approaching this problem, I would start simple (ignore all the hard stuff and improve from there).

Programming is a great background to have, but as you wander into the realm of CFD (fluids-physics based programming), I recommend reading up on numerical methods and modeling! The resource I used was an old purple-covered book about Numerical Methods in Fortran. Modern day resources are likely both more accessible and up-to-date. Coding is one piece, numerical methods is another piece, computational fluid dyanmics (representing physics/fluids with equations) is another piece. It's a long and fun road, good luck.

One interesting story that is brought up in the plume identification problem from space-based detectors is: How do you distinguish between a rocket launch and an oil-pipeline fire? Hydrocarbon/Oxygen|Air combustion products are similar and bright. One instance of this was when US-based space-detectors identified a large rocket launch out of a foreign territory that turned out to juts be a large oil fire. Obviously modern improvements have been made, but interesting cross-over phenomena.

I use "The Original Super Glue" brand, here's an inexpensive bulk-pack of the Gel stuff Super Glue 15185 Gel, 12-Pack, .07oz tubes. You go through a LOT of it this way. On my Super Bertha I went through something like 6 or 7 tubes for the papering.

My honest opinion is find a local club NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ROCKETRY (NAR) or Tripoli (TRA) certified go to a launch and a club meeting this will be your best way to get started and make new friends in the process. Just a FYI though NAR is geared more towards the low to mid power with a little high power, Most of the high power stuff in my experience is in TRA. I almost made the mistake of choosing the wrong one then my new friend and mentor corrected me. I'm now a very happy Level 1 High Power certified Tripoli member working towards my L2. As far as books I started with make: High-Power Rockets by Mike Westerfield and was later suggested to read Modern High-Power Rocketry 2. Another good book but very heavy is The science and design of the hybrid rocket engine M. Newlands, Richard. no matter what you decide remember have fun and know that Aerospace is an ever expanding field right now.

Buy a swagelok valve from here (paying full price is for suckers and these guys ship faster than Swagelok anyways). For reference you can get a brand new swagelok for less than $40 from this site. Just compare the part number to the swagelok website to check seal/o ring materials.

Buy a high torque stepper motor and hook it up to the valve. You will also need a stepper motor driver that can deliver sufficient amperage. This is pretty much the simplest/cheapest way to get 150 in-lbs of torque delivered to the valve. Theoretically you'd only need about 50 but better safe than sorry.

This is the cheapest and simplest way to get what you want. If you already have gear for pneumatic control (air tank, solenoids, regulator, etc) pneumatic might be cheaper but you also don't get fine position control with pneumatic so take that as you will.

From a "how do you build it" point of view, this is a great book:

https://www.amazon.com/Make-Rockets-Down-Earth-Science/dp/1457182920/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?keywords=make%3A+rockets&qid=1570893860&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyQ1pORFY3TzM2UFc0JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwODQ4ODIxMTdFVFExN1U0UjBNRSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNzE2ODg5OE9UTTY4NktBRlZWJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfcGhvbmVfc2VhcmNoX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Should you get into high power Rocketry, there's a similar book for high power.

It's a fantastic hobby. I've been launching smaller rockets since I was 10 or so (dad was an engineer, and I've become one as well). Start out small, take your time, learn as you go...it's good stuff.

A little late on this one. But Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War was a solid read.

Edit: Also, if you are interested in more space race stuff, this book is one of my favorites, Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age

This is an awesome book for scratch building rockets:
https://www.amazon.com/Model-Rocket-Design-Construction-Exciting/dp/0890245614/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=Timothy+S.+Van+Milligan&qid=1571886499&s=books&sr=1-3

> PVC Pipe to act as the fuel/engine

Need an oxidizer.

http://www.amazon.com/Mini-30fps-chewing-shaped-camera/dp/B004Y3PH20/ref=pd_cp_p_0

Just affix the camera to the outside of the rocket, then you don't have to have a clear body tube (unless you are bent on that).

But yeah, everything /u/Kallahan11 said.

Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz is an excellent memoir of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.

https://www.amazon.com/Saturn-1967-1973-Apollo-Skylab-Workshop/dp/0857338285/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=haynes+saturn+5+workshop+manual&qid=1567495926&s=gateway&sprefix=haynes+sa&sr=8-1

Not very practical for amateurs ,but it is one of my favorites

Go look up sugar/candy motors.


This book is a decent place to start - http://www.amazon.com/Still-Have-All-My-Fingers/dp/0983523029

https://www.amazon.com/Space-Propulsion-Analysis-Design-Website/dp/0077230299/ref=sr_1_1

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My coworker has it.

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Ignition! by John D. Clark.

It's also linked on the subreddit sidebar.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004W86GQS/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1479447051&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=808+camera&dpPl=1&dpID=31e6MqETlUL&ref=plSrch

Says it should ship by Nov. 21.