Rocketing Ain't Easy

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Interstellar Technologies, a startup company in Japan, came up just a little shy of its 100 kilometer goal on Saturday with the MOMO-2 rocket that it launched this weekend. Elon was overheard saying, "Rocketin' ain't easy."

Check out the carnage.

The MOMO-2 rocket, developed by Interstellar Technologies, was launched in Taiki town on Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island. It was supposed to reach as high as 100 kilometers (62 miles) into space.
 
Looks like a bit of a misfire. Honestly though, this is kind of terrible. Japan is extremely adverse to the startup culture, and tends to dump all of that potential startup funding in to maintaining aging establishments instead. This is one more "I told you so" win for the status quo.
 
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It sounds like the woman was still doing the countdown when it launched, maybe it jumped the gun and was called back for a false start ;);)
 
Looks like their chosen name - MOMO, should have been LESS-LESS.
 
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its soo cute.. a little model rocket ;>)



but yeah.. its not called rocket science for no reason
 
katanaD said:
its soo cute.. a little model rocket ;>)

but yeah.. its not called rocket science for no reason
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It is much less science that it used to be though. For example, we should not be using the traditional bell nozzle anymore...we should have moved onto a variation of an adjustable aerospike. But this risk of changing to a superior thrust mechanism is just too high even though the long term payoff is quite big. Hopefully one day though the cost of fuel vs the cost of the rocket will make this brilliant idea come everyday in that community.
 
"A good rule for rocket experiments to follow is this: always assume that it will explode."
–Astronautics Magazine 1937
 
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"“Momo” is a liquid-fuel rocket which propellants are fed by Helinum gas pressure."

Mhmmmmmmm Helinumnumnumnum. If the user manual has errors, I can only imagine the number of errors in rocket design.

BONUS Round: How do you provide gentler "acceletion"?
 
kju1 said:
If it was easy everyone would do it. You'd see amateurs launching these things out of their back yards! ;)
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you do realize you just gave someone in California the idea, right?
 
Al Capwn said:
As far as I can tell it doesn't have a turbopump as it's a Helium pressure fed ethanol & liquid oxygen (EA + LOX) engine.

http://www.istellartech.com/7hbym/w...img/technology/MOMOUsersguide_eng_ver.0.2.pdf
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Hmmmm well it definitely isnt a turbo pump failure then. Going back and looking at the video again closer it looks like the initial problem appeared about one second after the engine fired right as it began to throttle up and lift off the pad.

Here is a page on the engine. http://www.istellartech.com/technology/engine

A diagram of the engine. In japanese so I can't read it but it doesnt appear to use regenerative cooling or have any moving parts expect the control valves.
pic_engine3.png


My best guess is a fuel/oxidizer line failure.

They did a 100 second static testfire so the engine is proven in a static test.



These folks have a good team and I am sure they will figure out the root cause and fix the issue! They are actual rocket scientists after all!
 
Sovi3t said:
Hmmmm well it definitely isnt a turbo pump failure then. Going back and looking at the video again closer it looks like the initial problem appeared about one second after the engine fired right as it began to throttle up and lift off the pad.

Here is a page on the engine. http://www.istellartech.com/technology/engine

A diagram of the engine. In japanese so I can't read it but it doesnt appear to use regenerative cooling or have any moving parts expect the control valves.
View attachment 85981

My best guess is a fuel/oxidizer line failure.

They did a 100 second static testfire so the engine is proven in a static test.



These folks have a good team and I am sure they will figure out the root cause and fix the issue! They are actual rocket scientists after all!
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My guess is the parts were made in China.

Pressure failure!
 
FrozenSteel said:
"“Momo” is a liquid-fuel rocket which propellants are fed by Helinum gas pressure."

Mhmmmmmmm Helinumnumnumnum. If the user manual has errors, I can only imagine the number of errors in rocket design.

BONUS Round: How do you provide gentler "acceletion"?
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Less jerk?
 
Looked to me like there was a huge electrical arc to the rocket as it lifted off, followed by a fire onboard then the explosion.
 
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