After spending some time mocking around with the rocket’s electronics bay’s (ebay) layout and taking in account several good inputs I received from some of you guys (merci!), it turned out that despite all my efforts, not all of the electronics will fit. Bummer. So, I made the decision to add a secondary ebay into the rocket’s nose cone! Indeed, I could easily add the Joule and all the components of the experimental platform, as well as its XBee radio and antenna in there. There’s plenty of space, so let’s use it smartly. While in the original ebay, I will keep the flight computer. And this is great because I can free up space now for the camera and more importantly to house the ejection hardware. Indeed, I’ve decided to go with a pressurized CO2 ejection system instead of the traditional black powder explosive charges. Next week, I will show you in detail what it means and how it works. As for now, the good news is that this CO2 system will be easy to deploy. Last but not the least, having some extra payload in the nose cone, will bring the center of gravity toward the top, above the center of pressure, which is always a good thing for the overall stability of the rocket in flight. Finally, I could not resist adding a few pictures of my previous “biggest” rocket I’ve built so you can gauge the step-up this experiment represents to me! Who said that a big nose is not advantageous? Certainly, not Cyrano 😉

Pin