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This was a successful test that used 0.2 grams of black powder in the piston and 3x 6-32 shear pins. Webbing was used to connect the sections and the rocket contained a drogue and main parachute. Webbing lengths were not representative but were merely a mock-up of the planned webbing lengths (excluding a load path for the tender descender, which was not included in this test). This test did not implement any form of flight avionics. Following the test, we also performed a tug-test on the parachute (which was packed in a loose z-fold inside the deployment bag; Unknown User (janssonm@mit.edu) check terminology on this), the results of which are summarized below.
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- Admittedly this math is sensitive to the volume, which we only estimated.
- The BP calculator assumes an ideal gas, which isn't true.
Media
Video of test: Ground Test 1012-2.MOV
During the previous ground test, the large amount of force applied (estimated at 3500 pounds), damaged the fin can coupler's bolt holes, pushing the coupler further into the fin can. This made mating the fin can with the mission package difficult during integration.
Image of the rocket after separation.
Close-up of the rocket after the ground test.
The black powder did not travel very far up the bore of the piston.