Saturn 5 Launch

bomelia · #1 (**permalink**) 05-28-2009, 07:33 PM

Actually, a model, 1/10 scale (36 feet tall), 10 years in the making, $10,000 in fuel alone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHnk6ulSNSo

Too cool.

Mike

bomelia · #2 (**permalink**) 05-29-2009, 07:28 AM

...oh, btw, its not a Chrylser.

trularin · #3 (**permalink**) 05-29-2009, 07:54 AM

Excellent video.

1/10 scale is huge!

Joe Wicked · #4 (**permalink**) 05-29-2009, 10:36 AM

Nice. I did a little model rocketry (very little) and it was a lot of fun. I just have too many irons in the fire so to speak to do a lot of what I like to. Not enough money to spread around.

Dan40 · #5 (**permalink**) 05-29-2009, 04:25 PM

Would anyone else call the cameraman standing by the rocket at launch, foolish?

Silverback51 · #6 (**permalink**) 05-29-2009, 04:28 PM

How many people dream of doing something and how many actually do it?

Congratulations to Steve Eves for being a man that follows through on his dreams.

bomelia · #7 (**permalink**) 05-29-2009, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan40

Would anyone else call the cameraman standing by the rocket at launch, foolish?

I SO agree with you. I have a friend who has this same hobby (well, used to until his first kid came along

) and he told me the guy was further away than he looks (the rocket is 36 feet tall!). However, if you watch the launch, it looks like the smoke cloud is just engulfing him has the rocket clears the gantry. My friend did tell me that protocol for a rocket of that size would be well over a thousand (more like 2-3) standoff distance. But the crowd is no where near that distance away. If you look closely, you can see debris falling very near or into the crowd. They are all so very lucky that it all went well.

Mike

bomelia · #8 (**permalink**) 05-29-2009, 08:35 PM

Another thing that is interesting is the chute at the bottom of the rocket. I gotta believe he was trying to land the thing on its side, but it landed straight up! Maybe that WAS the goal. Least damage possible orientation. Maybe the bottom chute was to stop the bottom from nutating (gyrating). There WERE two chutes at the top which would seem to create an imbalance. I would love to hear the theory behind this. It is so amazing that it landed like it did! BTW, most of my rocketeer friends were positive that the complicated chute and separation system would not work. Too many complicated interactions. They were wrong! As for the engine, it was a "one off" so test data was very limited (due to cost as I understand it).

Mike

Ronbo · #9 (**permalink**) 05-31-2009, 08:02 PM

The last Saturn V is in a building down at Kennedy. Huntsville has most of another (the last two Apollo missions to the moon were cut). They had to move it indoors about 10yrs ago as the weather was taking it's toll on it. Truely massive scale of that stuff. The crawlers are about 5 stories high and have a surface area of almost two acres.

When I was at Redstone in Alabama we saw the testing station for the engines, there were 7 water pumps for cooling. 5 were needed for a Saturn stage one engine (two reserve). By comparison the Shuttle main engine needs two pumps. The platform was anchored several hundred feet into the mountain and during tests seismic instruments registered earthquakes in ten surrounding states. Housewifes in Huntsville compained about broken dishes, stuff knocked off walls and shattered windows after each test.

The Russians built two, even larger rockets. Both blew up on the pad.

bomelia · #10 (**permalink**) 05-31-2009, 08:05 PM

Ronbo! You are correct. I live here and work onthe Arsenal (bldg 5400, McMorrow Labs)

We just had a new building built at the Space and Rocket Center to house a complete Saturn 5. Damn impressive.

Mike

Ronbo · #11 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 11:59 AM

I thought the one in Huntsville got cannibalized for the Soyez project, didn't know they had the whole rocket.

They still got the SR-71 out front? (been a while since I was up there)

Part of the tour was going through the section where they were assembling the modules for the space station. They had a really cool welder that first hit the joint with a plasma cutter and followed behind with a TIG. They claimed it would do about 50ft of weld before an air bubble might happen. They showed us a sample weld, it was unbelivabley perfect.

There were a couple guys sitting in there, doing nothing.

(you'd think they'd tell them when a tour goes buy to try to look busy)

My brother worked at the Lewis research center in Cleveland, heck of a wind tunnel there. I especially liked the "fruit fly" test.

bomelia · #12 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 12:25 PM

Click here for info on the Davidson Center where the rocket is housed. You are thinking of another one that was out back of the museum.

Mike

Ronbo · #13 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 06:42 PM

Jeez didn't know they had two...

Here's Kennedy's : http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/ap...81b1fe36fc.jpg

Amazing what these guys did with slide rules and some rudementary computers, not to mention big brass ones.

bomelia · #14 (**permalink**) 06-01-2009, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronbo

Jeez didn't know they had two...

Here's Kennedy's : http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/ap...81b1fe36fc.jpg

Amazing what these guys did with slide rules and some rudementary computers, not to mention big brass ones.

The "brass ones" were on the dudes sitting shotgun at the top.

Mike