This page will give prospective teams some examples of payloads to get the
creative juices flowing.
Biological Projects:
1. Find out how the forces associated with launch and landing would affect
fish eggs.
Obtain some fish eggs from a science supply house. Save half of them as a
control. Fly the other half as the experiment group. Hatch all the eggs and look
for any differences between the two groups.
2. Find out if the forces associated with launch and landing would affect
where earthworms would travel.
Construct several sealed containers of soil with earthworms, each identical
except for where the soil is moist. Normally the worms want to go
towards the moisture but g-forces might make the worms move differently.
3. Send up some live brine shrimp (Sea Monkeys) to see how they handle the
forces.
Physics Projects
1. Determine the relationship between altitude and temperature
Send up an altimeter and a temperature probe. Graph the relationship
between the two.
2. Use small weights to test the tensile strengths of toothpicks, balsa
sticks, plastic rods, string, etc.
3. Fly capillary tubes partially filled with liquid to see if the g-forces
move the liquid.
4. Fly various consumer electronics and see how they stand up to the forces.
5. Construct a simple accelerometer and record the g-forces during flight.
6. Construct a simple vibration detector and record vibration during flight.
Sample Instruments
Back in the late 1960's Model Rocketry Magazine published a series of
articles on building a transmitter small enough to be carried in a model
rocket. This transmitter has a number of plug in sensors that can be used
with it. The links below are for just the articles, if you are interested
in seeing more of the magazine, go to the site www.ninfinger.org.
The above links are to PDF files you will need a copy of Adobe Reader to view
them. Obviously since these articles were first printed in 1969 some of
the parts used may be slightly different that those available today.
However, the basic electronics are still just as correct today as they were
then. It should not be too much trouble to adapt the circuits to the
devices that are available today.
Copyright © 2007, Tulsa Rocketry
Page last modified Thursday, February 22, 2007
