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Need help with a rocket motor ID
I've just received a few pics of a small rocket motor, from a friend of mine. It's about 2Kg and about 45cm long with a 10cm wide nozzle. It's a liquid fuel motor and doesn't look like it has any electrical connections. We're all guessing it could be some form of reaction nozzle for (maybe) a Gemini or Apollo capsule. Can I buy a vowel please ? -- Cheers Dave Kearton |
#2
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Need help with a rocket motor ID
While playing "Stump the Bland," "Dave Kearton" wrote:
I've just received a few pics of a small rocket motor, from a friend of mine. It's about 2Kg and about 45cm long with a 10cm wide nozzle. It's a liquid fuel motor and doesn't look like it has any electrical connections. We're all guessing it could be some form of reaction nozzle for (maybe) a Gemini or Apollo capsule. It doesn't look like a Gemini or Apollo article. They had ablative nozzle linings and assorted electrical components attached to the top of the unit. The spiral exterior of the casing suggests that this rocket uses a regenerative cooling system, which I don't think appeared on Gemini or Apollo. My best guess is that an amateur rocketeer built it. Failing that, it *might* be a secondary propulsion motor from an Agena upper stage or--remotely--a midcourse correction motor from a Ranger/Mariner test article. (I'd suggest asking Henry Spencer on sci.space.history, but jeeze, who wants to despoil ssh with something on-topic?) --Bill Thompson |
#3
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Need help with a rocket motor ID
On Fri, 2 Feb 2007 18:38:32 +1030, "Dave Kearton"
wrote: I've just received a few pics of a small rocket motor, from a friend of mine. It's about 2Kg and about 45cm long with a 10cm wide nozzle. It's a liquid fuel motor and doesn't look like it has any electrical connections. Well, I have looked at my share of rocket stuff, and you sure have me stumped. First thing I notice is that the combustion chamber seems quite long. That is always a compromise but usually they wind up being shorter too much shorter than this. Second is the helical wrap of the flow passage in the thrust chamber wall. It is obvious what they are doing there, but I never saw one like it, except maybe on the back of an envelope. The nozzle looks to be maybe a 25 to one expansion ratio, so it is designed for vacuum conditions. The lip on the nozzle skirt looks very thick to me. Usually spacecraft nozzles are very thin at the lip. I have been much exposed to nozzle lips that were maybe a meter in diameter that were not that thick. It looks American, not Russian, but sometimes that is hard to tell. No. xx495 has some writing in it. Looks to me like part of it says "Sy6xx". So, it isn't Russian, I guess (they get along without those letters). The "y", if that is what it is, is very funny shaped. Any writing is very important for ID's. (I remember many years ago there was a paper in some technical journal which was written by some Australians in which they described an object found in the "outback". They considered whether it might be a bit of reentered space debris. Part of the description was an ink stamp of a small circle with "CVA263" inside it. That is a "Convair Astronautics" inspector's stamp. I was convinced already.) The tube fittings are typical AN, American "Army/Navy" standard ones. The propellant lines are about the same size, probably lox something or hypergols, no hydrogen. It might produce a thrust of a few hundred pounds, a bit large for reaction control. We're all guessing it could be some form of reaction nozzle for (maybe) a Gemini or Apollo capsule. I am not familiar with all the thrusters in those spacecraft, but I will bet that this is not one of them. For one thing, just as a general observation, "the further up the stack" you go, the bigger the "dollars/pound" trade factor becomes, and the more "sophisticated" the hardware looks. Even if it saves no weight, the designer will try to make his part look more expensive so that it goes with the surroundings. But, sometimes, a "boat anchor" manages to sneak onboard. This think looks to me like a piece of GSE or a test article that may have flown on some "primitive" vehicle. I will also say with some certainty that it doesn't belong to an Atlas, Thor, Delta, or Saturn vehicle. The Atlas had a Rocketdyne thruster somewhat similar in size; it didn't look anything like this. And, I don't think it is from Rocketdyne. Can I buy a vowel please ? My first suggestion would be an "A". As in "Aerojet". They built a lot of stuff I don't know about. But it doesn't really look Aerojettish, either. RMI? TRW? I am very interested in what you find out. Henry H. |
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Need help with a rocket motor ID
Thanks Bill & Henry, It's sounding more interesting all the time. -- Cheers Dave Kearton |
#5
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Need help with a rocket motor ID
"Dave Kearton" wrote:
Thanks Bill & Henry, It's sounding more interesting all the time. One obvious question--can you find out if those nuts are metric or SAE? --Bill Thompson |
#6
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Need help with a rocket motor ID
William R Thompson wrote:
"Dave Kearton" wrote: Thanks Bill & Henry, It's sounding more interesting all the time. One obvious question--can you find out if those nuts are metric or SAE? --Bill Thompson I'll ask the question and see what happens, if it's a confused mixture of metric and imperial, does that mean it's a NASA rocket ?. ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) -- Cheers Dave Kearton |
#7
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Need help with a rocket motor ID
"Dave Kearton" wrote:
William R Thompson wrote: One obvious question--can you find out if those nuts are metric or SAE? I'll ask the question and see what happens, if it's a confused mixture of metric and imperial, does that mean it's a NASA rocket? Only if it's from a project that NASA wanted to kill. NASA has recently announced (see http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...metricmoon.htm that all manned operations on the moon will use metric measurements. This is probably NASA's way of telling the American public that we won't return to the moon after all, not if we have to go without our 3/8 inch socket wrenches. --Bill Thompson |
#8
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Need help with a rocket motor ID
"Dave Kearton" wrote:
William R Thompson wrote: One obvious question--can you find out if those nuts are metric or SAE? I'll ask the question and see what happens, if it's a confused mixture of metric and imperial, does that mean it's a NASA rocket? Only if it's from a project that NASA wanted to kill. NASA has recently announced (see http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2...metricmoon.htm that all manned operations on the moon will use metric measurements. This is probably NASA's way of telling the American public that we won't return to the moon after all, not if we have to go without our 3/8 inch socket wrenches. --Bill Thompson |
#9
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Need help with a rocket motor ID
"Dave Kearton" wrote in
: William R Thompson wrote: "Dave Kearton" wrote: Thanks Bill & Henry, It's sounding more interesting all the time. One obvious question--can you find out if those nuts are metric or SAE? --Bill Thompson I'll ask the question and see what happens, if it's a confused mixture of metric and imperial, does that mean it's a NASA rocket ?. ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) Depends... was the motor found in a fresh crater on Mars? =} |
#10
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Need help with a rocket motor ID
"Dave Kearton" wrote in
: William R Thompson wrote: "Dave Kearton" wrote: Thanks Bill & Henry, It's sounding more interesting all the time. One obvious question--can you find out if those nuts are metric or SAE? --Bill Thompson I'll ask the question and see what happens, if it's a confused mixture of metric and imperial, does that mean it's a NASA rocket ?. ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) Depends... was the motor found in a fresh crater on Mars? =} |
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