Intro on Lab ” All models are wrong; some models are usefull” -George Box Learning about concepts in class can only take you so far. They present the world, often in simplified terms, as a totally understandable place governed by simple, knowable equations. They say things like, ignore viscous drag, assume acceleration due to gravity…
Starting on Truck Doors Have you ever seen words on the door of a truck? You know, the words that say it’s from ABC Plumbing, located at XYZ boulevard, and having some phone number? These words are often made out of vinyl and are stuck directly on the side of the door a few letters…
Part 2 of a series on the math behind suicide burns.
Last Second Lunar Lander This post begins to to over the math behind a suicide burn maneuver. It covers what is a suicide burn along with generating the systems governing equations. What is a suicide burn? A suicide burn is a colloquialism for any powered landing that you turn your engine to full thrust at…
I found an old spotting scope that my grandfather used for bird watching. It has a variable zoom and can go between a magnification of 9x to 30x. The weather was nice, and I decided to mount it to my camera’s tripod and use it to look at the moon. The mounting system between the…
Series Overview You can split any project into two parts. The part that you really are excited to do, and everything else. The part you’re excited about often gets most of your attention, and everything else usually gets “just enough” attention to get it done. For example, the question of “What screw should I use…
Free Post Processing In this post I will walk you through post processing a set of astrophotography images using only free programs. Getting the Data Let’s start with getting our raw images. I’m going to be using a 8-in Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with a Cannon EOS Rebel T2i. I am using an advanced GT star…
Rockets are hard. Even when you’ve checked every joint, tightened every screw, and re-rolled your parachute 3 times something can still go wrong. During the same launch as my level one cert flight, there was a catastrophic failure in a different rocket. Just as it was coming off the launch pad, it burst apart into…
Background If you are in a rural part of Tennessee or south-east Asia on a warm summer night, you might be treated to one of mother natures original light shows. Staring into the dark of night, you will see a flash of light from a firefly. It will soon be followed by a second, and…
Introduction Growing up I really liked swings. I liked to pump the swing up as high as I could go. Young me would always try to go over the top pole for a full 360 degree swing. Unfortunately, I never went fast enough and the chain link arms, holding the seat to the pole, would…
