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Big, Bad Black Rock. or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love . . . Dust Dave Lindbergh – CMASS. Contents (or, questions to be answered). What is the Black Rock Desert? How do you get there? Is it a good place to fly rockets? (yes) What happens there? Do you want to go there next year?. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Big, Bad Black Rock
or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And
Love . . . Dust
Dave Lindbergh – CMASS
Contents (or, questions to be answered)
•What is the Black Rock Desert?
•How do you get there?
• Is it a good place to fly rockets? (yes)
•What happens there?
•Do you want to go there next year?
CHAPTER 1
Where is the Black Rock Desert??
Planet Earth
U.S. of A.
you are here
Black Rock Desert
In north western Nevada
Black Rock Desert
Launch Launch SiteSite
Nearest city = 80 milesNearest city = 80 miles
Nowhere Central
CHAPTER 2
OK, what’s so great about it?
The Black Rock Desert
• Dry lake bed, “considered one of the flattest surfaces on earth”
• 100 miles long, 10 to 40 miles wide
• 4000 feet high
• 80+ miles from nearest city
• Owned by the Bureau of Land Management (public land)
• Wikipedia: “See also - High Power Rocketry”
playa (“ply-ahh”)—
Spanish word, meaning “surface of incredibly huge and flat dry lake bed”
The “playa”
CHAPTER 3
How do you get there?
We did it this way
Vehicle & Operators•1986 Coachmen 28’
motorhome
•3 drivers, in shifts 51 hours door-to-playa
Route
• I-90 to Chicago
•Then I-80 to Nevada
•Or, you could fly •to Reno, then drive
–But then how would you get your rockets and motors there?
–And what would you live in there?
Good place to store Good place to store rockets & stuffrockets & stuff
Is that the same place they do that Burning Man
thing?
Yes.
CHAPTER 4
OK, what does it look like already?
First view - dawn
Setting Up
Blowing Dust
XPRS Launch Site
•Waiver to 100,000 feet (& they use it)
•Closest power line – 20 miles
•Closest object > 3 inches tall – 5 miles
•No plants, no animals, no insects
•No rocket-eating trees (no trees)
•XPRS = eXtreme Performance Rocket Ships
•September each year, hosted by AeroPac
– Association of Experimental Rocketry of the Pacific
•http://www.xprs.org
ARLISS launch
Another ARLISS flight
Toward sunset
Flightline
Cars making dust
Surface of the playa
Walking out to the pads
ARLISS HQ
Lonely porta-potty
Porta-potty under the stars
Porta-potty in space
Flightline at night
Milky Way
Smoke from cookfire
Your presenter
Our campsite
Dust in the morning
Waiting out the dust
One way to keep out dust
Rocket stuff storage tent
The next morning
Dust gets everywhere
Starting to clear
But still windy
Finally, clear visibility
And flying!
My camera/GPS rocket
Flies well (F40-4)
But takes lousy pictures
Landing
LCO table
A nice HPR flight
2nd stage ignition
Tony & Adam w/first rocket
It flies great!
Vendors
More flights
Vendors
Vendors
Flying rocketeers
Night launch evening
Ready for first night launch
CATO over LCO table
Strobe light on descent
Camping on the Playa
•Bring everything you want to have
–Water, food, power, gasoline, rockets…
–There is nothing there. Nothing.
•Cookfires are OK (not on the ground)
•$8/day to the BLM for camping fees
–Plus launch fee (about $40???)
Advice
• Bring water, lots of water
• Read the website carefully for tips
• Drive carefully and slowly on the playa
– Don’t kick up dust
• Be prepared to camp in the middle of nowhere (the precise center, actually)
• Bring water, lots of water
THANK YOU
More info:
http://xprs.org
http://areopac.org
http://nerdfever.com (my web site)
(all maps & satellite imagery courtesy of Google)
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