This Model Rocket Lands Itself Better Now

[@sunkid86]

This is exceptional. Joe Barnard didn't use a leg dampening with a ratchet that probably could've granted him a landing sooner. Also, the fact that you could launch again the same day shows a great approach to your design process, and proves that simpler, quicker testing is more important than almost anything, as well as that the product is not the product itself but the whole process of testing and the production.

[@feelincrispy7053]

So a dude who donated his kidney to save a dying child, donated 50k to the homeless and donates blood every month is a narcissistic egotistical hack ey?

[@astrodarsh]

Joeyb is the greatest after elon!!!

[@youtubeenjoyer-x4x]

​@astrodarsh yall need to stop riding elons d. No one cares about him.

[@thegameroptimus140]

​@@youtubeenjoyer-x4xyou definitely do that's why you replied😂 mo*on

[@ImmortalGMD-xr6gq]

For it to be spacex style now you need to catch it on chopsticks

[@Huntley-Playz]

He's trying to land it in falcon 9 style

[@tango_mango.11560]

@@Huntley-Playzyeah

[@MangoIite]

@@tango_mango.11560I’ve seen you somewhere before..

[@FidelWyn-wn9np]

​@@MangoIitebro💀

[@jrdpropulsion5021]

That's a really creative leg design! I'm super exited to see what's next for the project!

[@julianchee2894]

Congratulations landing it AGAIN !

[@captjohnny]

Take a look at what the RC car market does with shock absorbers. You're on the right path.

[@codysp]

I was thinking the same thing. You could use adjustable shocks and take the rebound out.

[@captjohnny]

@@codysp Correct...take a look at 'any' RC car...they don't bounce when dropped

[@simonabunker]

Very nice engineering! The lunar module had similar dampening to this - except theirs didn't need to be reused. They absorbed the impact using aluminium crumple zones. I think this is also the reason the ladder was so far off the ground as the landing impact was less than they expected, so it didn't crumple all the way. Can't wait to see your next project!

[@AirCommandRockets]

Awesome work Mark! The dampening worked really well.

[@JohnCillis]

Very cool. Back in late '74 while I was in the eighth grade I bought a Centuri Eagle which included a launch pad. The original launch wire bent so I replaced with one that had spring steel. The rocket was great--plastic fins, plastic nose cone, and chute which I later replaced with a streamer. With a C6-5 it could reach 1100 feet and with a C6-7, 2000 feet but I preferred a C6-5 so I would not lose the rocket on the way down. Sometimes the chute would not deploy but the rocket, with its strong plastic fins, never broke. Called a 'beginners' rocket, that depended on engine choice and the size of the launch field. I always used my high schools launch field, and I flew the rocket until 77, so I got in an amazing number of flights until the rocket was lost when it got caught by an odd thermal. Your rocket is quite cool. Where I live now, in Phoenix Arizona, I can see the Space X launches from Vandenberg depending on their flight path--amazing since the base is 500 miles distant as the crow flies. This link is a bit of history about the Centuri Eagle, which I also demonstrated once for my grammar school, and the minute it reached just below the cloud base, it started to pour so my principal--still good friends in his late 80's, said I and my assistant 'seeded the clouds'. I graduated from that school the following summer and still have my eighth grade diploma. www.rocketreviews.com/centuri-engineering-co-screaming-eagle-john-lee.html

[@KofiAsare0]

Nice work, it's awesome to see Eagle flying again!

[@deanjones2525]

This is the second channel I've seen attempting this SpaceX-type landing with model rockets. The main difference in the model rocket landings and SpaceX is that you guys use solid rocket motors that don't have trust control.

[@DarsanRobiJugganadum]

Awesome work Mark! The dampening worked really well.

[@chiparooo]

Great job! Love your iterative design process. Thanks for sharing!

[@jameskelly1680]

I was thinking about the motors. Model rocket engine design is simplistic, with a hollow cylinder of fuel grain burning on the inside face. There are two processes in motion: one, the engine gets lighter over time, increasing acceleration towards the end of the burn. And two, the burning surface is larger toward the end of the burn, which means more thrust and higher acceleration. It seems if you are willing to put in some work, you could taper off the thrust in a predictable manner. The Space Shuttle SRBs start with a star-shaped (more like sprocket-shaped) core cast into the grain. This gives it way more surface area at the beginning of the burn. If you were to make a clay star-shaped (sprocket-shaped) casing, with the teeth on the inside wall, when the grain is cast into the casing, it would have a tapered acceleration toward the end. The burning surface would decrease over time. Tinkering with the number of teeth in the sprocket, the depth and taper angle, you would be able to fine-tune the thrust to your liking. I've never seen anyone try this. If anyone has a video on it, it would be fascinating to watch.

[@hagerty1952]

James - You've just touched on a subject that has religious ferocity in amateur rocketry almost as intense as the motor/engine one in model rocketry! I actually got to crawl around inside the bore of a Shuttle SRB engineering mockup (well, the top segment, anyway) as part of a job I was quoting. This was a completely accurate casting, it just didn't have any AP in it (only the PB rubber and aluminum powder). I had to stick my head into the narrow neck-down at the top to look down the slots in the grain. There were 11 of them (always an odd number so that no two openings face each other) and more that a little awe-inspiring, considering what this machine does!

[@noorsabasayed5602]

That's some rock-solid engineering.

[@MrHichammohsen1]

This is hot stuff! Love how Joe comments and encourage the community to produce people like you with this beautiful work!

[@Project-Horizon]

Agreed, Joe is the GOAT!

[@anthonyhitchings1051]

A masterclass in design (and occasionally an error) - well done

[@u9Nails]

Congrats on that landing! That's a great success.

[@divyajnana]

Great work, IBM process, "Plan your Work, Work your Plan."

[@jurajpavlica]

Amazing work and great idea for the dampening mechanism! Looking forward to your next project!

[@Gwenydd]

Really impressive work there Mark. I would love to see details on all the systems you incorporated into this project. I used to build model rockets many years ago and I still do all sorts of RC projects. Your project is really inspiring me to consider working on something similar and perhaps working toward precision landings on a target platform just like SpaceX. Keep up the incredible work!

[@antonnym214]

Dude! WOW! The first time I saw SpaceX succeed with this, I was dumbfounded! Like a pogo stick coming in from outer space and landing straight up! Amazing. That you have come this far is truly fantastic AND you should be working for an aerospace company. Try a small company that is flexible and thinks outside the box like Dynetics, RFA, Rocketlab or Sierra Space. All good wishes!

[@GimbleOnDew]

This is a really cool project. Well edited video too.

[@CarlWinter-oy8uf]

Well done --your persistence on damping the landing --paid off !

[@garymucher4082]

May even consider using five legs. Five legs make it even harder to tip over. The government had tons of four leg chairs they bought for everyone in the electronics repair shop. And so many were easily able to tip them over trying to slide them around. So they got rid of all the four legged chairs and bought five legged chair and that stopped the tip over instantly... Just an idea!

[@icarossavvides2641]

Yes but five legs is more weight, three legs, though is more forgiving on uneven ground?

[@hytralium]

You actually did what Joe didnt! 🎉 Also, thank you for your help on my flight computer last year!

[@Project-Horizon]

@@hytralium No problem, glad I could help! I’m sure Joe could do it again if he focused on it, after 7.5 years on a project I don’t blame him at all for moving on to other things.

[@anon_y_mousse]

Okay, that is legitimately cool. And the fact that you did that solo is cooler still. I can't wait until you launch something into space, if you haven't already.

[@Positive_Altitude]

Very cool, Mark! I was thinking that you need shock absorbers watching your landing attempts. I like the design, very simple and efficient. Also, I would recommend to stay away from PLA for any parts under dynamic load and use PETG instead. Especially for parts that are supposed to bend like this locking thing. Good luck with future projects!

[@Project-Horizon]

Thanks Dima! I was thinking of moving to PETG or ASA as well after those first few failed attempts but was surprised swapping PLA colors made such a significant change. Will definitely keep that in mind though for future projects.

[@JimMcGrath25]

Great job Mark! I love this video.

[@sutsuj6437]

Instead of having a suspension, wouldn't you be able to have landing spikes instead of legs. If the rocket comes down, it would drive the spikes into the ground, preventing it from jumping back up, because of the sliding friction with the ground. Just a thought, don't know if this is viable. And this would obviously only work when landing on soft surfaces.

[@JonathanSchrock]

That would be pretty likely to just tip over if there were too much lateral velocity. It's also questionable whether the thing weighs enough to drive itself deep enough to secure itself.

[@CADKid-q7c]

I have a feeling that that would work pretty well but they might think of that as cheap or cheating

[@krelsys7861]

This comment reminds me of what the rules are for the highest jumping robot . Things like this have some criterias that put them in certain categories. I'm not sure what it would be for landing but if you look into the rules for jumping robots it would sort of show the fundamentals of why limits are put in place

[@feelincrispy7053]

That’s just cheating

[@edvorisek1128]

Jarts!

[@charlesblithfield6182]

I love watching the legs extend at just the right moment prior to landing.

[@Project-Horizon]

Same here! I actually spent some time figuring out the right delay for leg deployment to achieve that cool looking affect.

[@thehuston]

Thank you for the honest development.

[@thomasmelvin1333]

Man, I must say -- this is awesome! Well done, congratulations!

[@aaryananand7288]

Ayyyyy! More landing rockets after that one joey B vid!! Great job! Imma hop on the train too sometime this year...

[@zillboop4687]

so happy too see this project again 😊

[@ExpoSolco]

The fact you're able to controllable land using solid boosters is quite amazing Good job y'all

[@randywolf4080]

Nice job Mark, that was great.

[@ImBudook]

Now catch it like starship

[@CoryC54]

I'd change one bit of the suspension: A delayed reset. After deployment, if it bounces or takes off again, it'd allow you multiple tries at landing instead of the one-shot catch mechanism. A piston would let you control the reset timing with air orifice size. Spring to absorb & dampener to extend the release time of that absorbed energy.

[@Ruudberg]

all the hardware, software filming etc etc respect you're a real smart cooky

[@leedex]

Keep up the good work. And you will reach orbit before Blue Origin 😉

[@reMusic-songs]

try making a rocket that will get to a thousand meters and then land like eagle

[@CalMariner]

Nice! Natural PLA for the win

[@muddyblokjes9753]

Rocket science and T rips i love it!

[@danbenson7587]

Browning A5 shotgun uses short recoil operating principle. The barrel reciprocates to cycle the action. Its damper is a split bronze ring that slides on the magazine tube. The barrel has a guide ring that also slides on the magazine tube. This ring has a female internal chamfer which mates to the bronze ring’s external chamfer. When the gun fires the barrel starts back and the chamfers squeeze the bronze ring on the magazine tube for friction damping. (Also the barrel recoil spring is between the bronze ring and the receiver…so the ring always has a bit of force on it) The system in the video does not dissipate energy, but transfers it to the spring.

[@shagmesilly78]

Honestly..... so cool mate! Well done

[@typxxilps]

subscribed - really good video and project explaining a lot in a clear way even understandable as a non native speaker greetings from Germany

[@doveboyz857]

Great engineering ❤👍! Thanks 😊

[@Meep.14]

Oh nice now Catch a model rocket super heavy style:3

[@tomernst8595]

i’m awarding you the contract to bring butch and suni back. your methodology is clearly better than boeing’s.

[@AhmadAlshafei-vx1uj]

How did you learn all of that?

[@Lxttledxrkness]

I’m excited everytime I get a notification from you

[@jsalsman]

I love this whole topic area, and this example is such a good video.

[@ptonpc]

Congratulations on the safe landing :)

[@adrianocamargo3193]

Nice well done! You've asked about ideas for a future project? How about landing the rocket using the chopsticks idea? You could do it even before SpaceX this time! 😁

[@kayboku7281]

CONGRATULATIONS! It is no small achievment!

[@diamondzfriend5262]

Might I suggest using torsion springs to not only extend the legs when released but also provide suspension?

[@adhdguy8403]

Your are one of those October Skys kids. Awesome

[@VDP207]

This is really remarkable. Wow

[@jdpg265]

Great job and landing but will the park charge you for burning the rubber infield surface?

[@Pr0toPoTaT0]

Dude thats awesomeness and a half!

[@jundergaming]

Time to add a second stage

[@stephenfranks1856]

Nudest

[@maxhugen]

Nice, very well done. When do you expect to get to LEO? 😎🇦🇺

[@SasiDunston]

Awesome work, subscribed.

[@godlugner5327]

The only thing better than BPS space Is giving him competition for innovation 🤜🤛

[@JesseTrevorOP]

Don't worry soon I ll too join their rivalry

[@mdoyle1981]

I wonder what a servo controlled aperture/blast deflector would do for throttling a solid rocket motor? Very nice work, I remember that first landing in your earlier video, such a great milestone.

[@alexanderfederowicz]

Well done 👍👍👍 is it at all possible to mount a small stabilization gyroscope in there so that your rocket is kept gyro stabilized.... Also, have you ever encountered electrically controlled solid fuel rocket motors ? They only burn and thrust as long as there is a small electrical current going to the fuel... In such a manner, could you not use a motor controller chip process for precise deceleration. Combined that with the gyros stabilization and you could have some very interesting precision flights as well as precision landings !!!

[@Gijs-t7p]

Love how you made it super realistic by having the rocket unable to hover... So it has to get it height and speed to zero, and cut the engines at the same exact moment.

[@TheKilerfish]

You can't hoover these types of rocket engines as you have no thrust control, you can only ignite the engine and hope you simulated it well and the rocket will decelerate to 0 at the right moment

[@Gijs-t7p]

@@TheKilerfish The SpaceX rocket does have thrust control but cannot go so low as to be able to hover, so it is has to do the same as this rocket, get to zero speed and height at the same time and then cut the rocket at that time too. Which is what i liked about this model rocket.

[@metropolis10]

Great work! I was really hoping you would go for a large number of successes. I know twice isn't a fluke, but some consecutive successes would be nice! Maybe even dial it in even more. Or land after a higher flight height. But I understand wanting to move on and calling it done.

[@Project-Horizon]

Thanks! I think all of that would be really cool too! After almost 4 years though on this project I was starting to feel burnt out on it (yes I intend all my puns) and wanted to pursue other fun rocket ideas. But you never know, I may end up doing more Eagle stuff in the future 😏

[@AstonRBLX_LLD7]

Congrats AGIAN

[@ankantah518]

Next time land on moon

[@TheZooloo10]

Hey just a suggestion on the software side of things. changes to your code can be wrapped in "feature flags" controlled by a config setting, so that if it causes major issues turning it off on the fly can be controlled via config changes rather than having to re deploy all of your code. Its something we use in the software industry very commonly and helps with mitigating risk, as well as allowing us to turn on experimental features in test environments while keeping the the old functionality available. Great job on the project and successfully landing with the newest changes!

[@Project-Horizon]

I work a lot with Software Engineers and they do this on a lot of projects. I have no idea why I never thought to do the same for this project... Thank you for the suggestion!

[@TheZooloo10]

@@Project-Horizon glad I could help!

[@888berg]

Amazing! What CAD software did you use - was that Inventor?

[@Project-Horizon]

Thanks! I used Fusion 360.

[@Yuko.hakase]

congratulations!!

[@floridafootprints]

Good job Mark

[@TshellAnimations]

We want longe range drone like us army

[@TheCiardellas]

Very nice work!

[@Creator-o7x]

You can use small nails .while landing they could dig in ground

[@joalingo6228]

Where did u got the rocket booster from?

[@jameswoodhull7045]

Great job! Did you design your launch pad? If you did, any way I could get the design files?

[@alwaysright8157]

Your landing gear is starting to resemble Piper Cub suspension. Super simple and has been doing its job for almost 90 years.

[@caploc]

no way hes back

[@Sup3rStyleHD]

underrated KZbinr IMO

[@bastifantasti82]

Can you build a Rocket with Rolerons like on the early Sidewinders?

[@silva-sir]

Cool project Young Sheldon changed Rockets for sure 😂😎

[@swooshjj]

well done ! 👍🏻

[@robertobissanti]

Excellent work. If I can suggest something: the dumping system should be made by spring and shock absorber, there are many shock absorber useful for this use, like as the gas spring used in the kitchen. The point, more difficult, it’s the use of aerodynamic stabilization system, like as that mounted in spaceX rocket, they’re a three grids opened sideways. Even more difficult would be a greater regulation of the thrust, which should not turn off completely until the end of the landing. Finally, why not just use three legs instead of four? You should get more stability and reduce weight, cost and complexity. Good work and congratulations again for your commitment.

[@Astronomator]

This is a spectacularly fun project. Thanks for all the videos. I'm curious, though: Did you make any use of partial differential equations to any extent in your analyses when designing this rocket or the control software? Thanks.

[@Project-Horizon]

Thank you! Altitude is calculated by integrating the vertical acceleration twice and I have an offline Matlab Simulink simulation model that represents an Eagle flight that uses some differential equation elements as well.

[@michaelcurley7801]

It was the Estes Mars Lander in my day. (Mid-70's)

[@JoeyBlogs007]

I think air bleed dampers might get a better landing result than springs. A bit like a bicycle pump type setup. You could 3D print them also, using solid and flexible filament for the piston seal. Basically make a miniature cylinder pump with bleed valve on each leg. It could have a gentle spring inside to return the piston when no load is present. i.e. When the model rocket is airborne. With a miniature setup on each landing leg, this system could significantly reduce impact forces, making landings smoother and protecting the rocket from damage.

[@Project-Horizon]

Great ideas, thank you!

[@trojanthedog]

Try small spade shaped feet slightly turned inwards. The spade feet might dig in better.

[@toanao1894]

it so cool ! great work man

[@robertpeters9438]

Perhaps you could have feelers that sense the ground and apply magnetic damping when all legs touch down. This should keep the lander legs from imparting such an angular momentum from uneven touchdown.

[@Rotem_Golan22]

Impresive your best video to date Next up- Starship rocket model belly -Flop and landing L😂L But seriously it would be amazing Or do a tower catch with a starship super heavy booster rocket model

[@icarossavvides2641]

Interesting, can I make a couple of suggestions? Get rid of the 'one way friction damping' mechanism, the friction variability is something you can do without, and install a proper, damped, shock absorbing system, look at RC cars. Second, have you tried TOF sensor(s) to measure the height above ground so you can trigger the landing rocket ignition more accurately?

[@TraderJam1]

How about putting remote control flaps at the top like Super Heavy to help control and slow the descent

[@peter360adventures9]

Awesome work.

[@ShanesGettingHandy]

A little late now, but the common washing machine rod suspension might have been an out of the box win. They're basically exactly what you needed, springs and damping built in, although not necessarily as light or easy to tune.

[@Neuralatrophy]

You need a landing shock that will absorb quickly like you have now but release slowly so the unit doesn't sit off balance if it makes a rocket hop or pitches sideways like landing 2.

[@bobmirror7164]

Cool times 10 to the 10,000. So much technology, so much fun.

[@harryrigdon8496]

Bps space has some competition