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Who will be the first to put a human on the Moon in this century? | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 63 comments | Search Discussion
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 08 2019, @01:31AM (1 child)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday June 08 2019, @01:31AM (#852932) Homepage

    I remember as a kid reading an Estes catalog around 1989 or 90, they advertised one of their medium-large rockets with a parachute-packed egg-shaped compartment as being large enough to carry a mouse*, then fucking literally:

    Please do not put a mouse in the compartment before launching the rocket.

    Pretty goddamn brutal, come to think of it. Well, that was right around the Waco and Ruby Ridge days so no big surprise there.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Monday June 10 2019, @06:29PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday June 10 2019, @06:29PM (#853790)

    These are the same kits that I made in the 1978-1985 timeframe, the ones that told you how to sand the balsa fins to airfoil cross sections, fill the roughness, fillet the fin roots to the body, etc. etc. I usually just slapped 'em together and sprayed 'em with whatever dad had spare in the garage, but... one time I really followed all the directions, got the fins profiled mirror smooth and filleted, glassy smooth body, etc. Put a C engine in that sucker and launched - it went so high that I could barely see the 18" parachute when it popped, and even that disappeared after a few seconds.

    After that I started making my rocket bodies out of paper towel tubes, cutting my own fins out of balsa stock, and leaving them square edged and rough faced - was much more fun when you could make 'em quick and cheap and get multiple launches per body. Even more fun when the rubber cement hadn't dried on one and it landed on the roof in flames. I had gotten a ladder from the garage, blown out the fire, repaired the damage and put everything away before the fire department (stationed about 1/2 mile away) showed up - seems a neighbor was concerned about the fire on the roof - gotta love that response time.

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