Monday, August 13, 2007

Disapointing weekend.

We spent a long 16 hour day out at the test site and never got the igniter to light. We had some kind of sludge form in the ethanol tanks and it kept clogging the igniter solenoid and filter. It was a very discouraging day.

We test again in two weeks. We have a long list of things to try.

1)Change to isopropyl alcohol for less residue.

2)change to propane for the igniter fuel.

3)Possibly change to a pyro igniter based on a small solid rocket motor.
(This is a major logistics hassle, but simplifies and lightens the vehicle.)

If we do not get reliable ignition and throttling working by the end of that weekend, we are realistically done for this year.

The one bright spot was that we were sharing the test facilities with Garvey space and they had a successful test. Seeing a 5K motor running is a beautiful thing. I have some awesome video, and I will post it as soon as I get permission from Garvey.








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