| SPRING NEWS LETTER 02 April 2000 |
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Dear Rocket Enthusiast, Sorry for the delay in sending out this newsletter, both Alan and I have been fairly tied up with our paid jobs over the last few months and we also have had a slight set back, more about that later on. Well what is happening with the White Rose Rocket Society? The good news is that we are still here and we still intend to continue with the project and build to first amateur rocket to go into space. The next launch is still intended to be an attempt on the British height record, unlike the rockets you may have seen on Tomorrows World, we are looking at building the entire rocket and fuel ourselves. Unfortunately we have had a slight set back in that at the end of last year we had a visit from the health and safety executive, who have asked us to get our fuel qualified by their scientist and a UN number allocated to it, because it is technically an explosive. We are actively looking into this as we speak and hope to have some news in the near future. Since the last newsletter went out we have continued to get excellent support from the media with a number of articles locally on both television and radio but more importantly the White Rose Mk2 was featured on Tomorrows World. The intension was that we would then launch that rocket at the end of 1999, unfortunately we were never able to fill the motor due to the health and safety restrictions. PLANS FOR THE FUTURE At present Alan and I are looking at various options to enable us to take the project forward and show the world that we can build rockets and launch them successfully. Our primary concern at present is to ensure that we comply with the HSE as we don't need them hindering our plans, so to this end we our looking at options, which will not break health and safety rules. The down side to most of these options is that the rocket motor becomes more complex, so increasing cost and build time. We have three basic options; Option 1 - Solid Fuel We continue along our original route getting out existing fuel qualified by HSE and design rockets around this fuel. The down side is that we then have to make the fuel at a licensed explosive factory (we already have been offered the use of a factory, so this is a possibility) This however means that we will not be able to work from home so cost could start to go up and we would have increased travelling time. We would also have to ensure that the fuel was transported, stored and used as per explosive regulations, more headaches! Option 2 - Hybrid The next option would be to go down the hybrid route, this would over come many of the health and safety issues as the fuel would not be classed as an explosive and we would have far less problems with storage and transport, due to the fact that the Oxidiser and fuel would only be mixed at the launch site when the rocket motor is ignited. The down side obviously is that this is a new area and we are going to have to carry out a number of tests before a flight test can be even contemplated. Option 3 - Liquid Liquid motors, the most complex option, but also the most efficient option. At present, with our expertise and funding, we feel that this has to take a back seat but it has certainly not been discounted, as many of the ideas and designs we are presently working on will be applicable to a liquid motor. Both Alan and I are of the opinion that the simplest option for us is to look at developing a simple hybrid motor using our existing motor and fuel designs to form the start point. At the same time we will obviously continue to refine the solid fuel motor, once the HSE give us the relevant UN number and approval to manufacture the fuel. This should then in the future give us two motor options for simple rockets, but also enable us to produce our own boosters, with a high specific impulse compared to the motors being used by other rocket groups throughout the UK. We intend to develop a new motor over the next few months and once this has been successfully tested on the ground we are going to build a flight test vehicle, this will be a single stage rocket, which we intend to launch to approximately 25,0000 feet breaking all current records. Depending on how the testing goes we will be launching a rocket in front of the media latter in the year but we will only do this after we have had another success in private, we do not want a repeat of last years attempt on the Yorkshire Moors. SPONSORSHIP AND FINANCES We are still getting good support from a number of companies and organisations, which without the whole project would still be a pipe dream, only talked about by us in the pub, so we would like to pass on our thanks to all our sponsors and supporters and hope that they will be able to support us in the future.
Currently the White Rose Rocket Society has two bank accounts one for membership funds and a second for donations and sponsorship. These are available for inspection by society members upon your request. We are planning to try and raise £5000 this year through sponsorship. This will give us sufficient funds to cover not only the development of the motor, but also the building of a new launch tower, insurance and range fees for test launches. We would also like to leave a slight surplus to cover administration and promotion of the project. We also have a new email address, jago@jpacker.fsnet.co.uk, so if you would like to contact us in the future please use this address as opposed to the old one as it is now not working. I am also moving house in the near future so I will be changing the mailing address as soon as this is confirmed. We both look forward to seeing you all this year and please remember if you want to get more involved please give me a call we would greatly accept any offers of help or ideas. Yours truly, Jago Packer & Alan Bullock |
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