Types of Rocket Flight we considered

• Air

  • Simple model-- exit velocity with no additional propulsion, constant mass

  • Nonconstant drag (modeled)

• Chemical

  • More complex model-- additional propulsion

  • Nonconstant mass (not modeled, assumed constant)

  • Nonconstant drag (modeled)

Air Rockets

We calculated height estimates using step-wise simulations in excel. You can view that here.

We then verified those calculations with drone footage. We initially had very high error (around 60%), and we hypothesize that this came from imperfect airflow during launch. After empirically measuring the launch velocity using a high speed camera our error dropped to a remarkable 3%.

Chemical Rockets

To measure the height of the chemical rockets we took a rocket engine and turned it upside down so it pushed into a force sensor (fig 1). Our data was remarkably similar to data published by NASA, and so we are confident in it (figs 2-3).

With the (much) greater height of the chemical rockets we struggled to measure launch height. Ultimately, we were unable to as we ran out of time.