Launch Day 4

After a successful pair of launches last time out, our group set out to further improve our rocket. We learned from our last launches that the cone was an essential part of our rocket and that the cone needed to be heavy and durable, in order for our rocket to launch further. Thus, for this time out, we decided to construct a heavier duty cone, by cutting off the top of a separate bottle and attaching it to our launching bottle. Though our bottle was heavily damaged after our last launch, we were able to salvage the bottle itself. By cutting off the top of the other bottle and heavily ducktaping the top, to promote weight and durability, we were able to produce a cone that was sturdy and that added weight to our bottle. We also added a rock into our cone, in order to add more weight to our bottle. We also decided to construct a larger and more durable parachute for these launches, as we realized that our previous parachute was far too small and did not catch enough air to slow down our bottle.

For our first launch, we were able to successfully launch our bottle into the air without a hitch. At the top of its ascent, the bottle lost velocity and our cone came off, allowing for our parachute to successfully deploy on our bottle's descent. The heavier cone allowed for our bottle to travel very high into the air, and our sturdier parachute increased the hang time of our bottle. We were able to achieve an overall air time of 8.8 seconds, before our bottle was caught by the wind. This launch could be considered a complete success as all of our changes worked out exactly as planned.

Our second and third launch were very similar in that they had the right idea, but they both failed to work out as planned. We added a rock to our cone, thus increasing the weight of our overall bottle. For these launches, our bottle launched further than before and thus, seemed successful at first. However, though our cone successfully fell off at the top of the bottle's ascent, our parachute was tangled in both of these launches and failed to deploy properly. Although our parachute did not deploy as planned, all of the other aspects of our launch worked out as planned, which led us to believe that our last major hurdle is having our parachute deploy consistently.

We believe that if we make a few more minor adjustments to our bottle, that we will consistently hit 10 seconds in our air times for our launches. By elongating our bottle, adjusting our parachute, adding more pressure into the bottle and possibly adding more water into our launch, we can improve the initial launch itself and the hang time of the bottle as it descends. Our launches today were a success and gave us valuable information moving forward in our launches.