[119061] in Cypherpunks
Re: Thieves steal six ballistic missiles in Poland
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steve Schear)
Wed Oct 13 22:58:09 1999
Message-Id: <4.1.19991013182022.04a5fb10@popserver.com21.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 19:42:50 -0700
To: Sean Roach <roach_s@mail.intplsrv.net>
From: Steve Schear <schear@lvcm.com>
Cc: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.19991013123754.00858100@mail.intplsrv.net>
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Reply-To: Steve Schear <schear@lvcm.com>
At 12:37 PM 10/13/99 -0500, you wrote:
>And I always thought all it would take would be a piece of PVC pipe
>for the body, a trip to an RC model store for the actuators, maybe a
>few BASIC stamps, and then the payload itself. Making the propellent
>shouldn't be any harder than preparing the explosive. Sensors
>wouldn't have to be complicated, the first guided missiles probably
>didn't have anything more complex than what is found in consumer
>electonics on the low end now.
Seemless aluminium or steel tubing is easiest to obtain for the motor
casing. A metal working lathe or milling machine is all you need to machine
steel nozzels, bulkheads, fins and attachments to fix them together.
For fuel zinc dust mixed with sulphur (mixed 2:1 by volume) is the safest
to handle (it won't burn well at atmospheric pressures) and easily
obtained. After afixing the bulkhead turn the rocket motor face down. Mix
the propellent with a volatile liquid (like acetone) and mix slowly until
its the consistency of a shake. Let stand for a few minutes to allow
bubbles to escape. Pour the propellent slurry into the chamber till its
close to the where the nozzel mounts. A massage vibrator attached to the
chamber will help eliminate air bubbles. Allow to throughly dry undisturbed.
You'll need to block the nozzel's port from the inside with a plug holding
the initiator (e.g., an electrically acctuated squid using gun powder).
This plug must be made to be blown out during ignition after chamber
pressures have reached a few atmospheres. I found a thin copper circuit
board worked well.
This basic design can produce motors capable of 500 lbs. thrust. With a
pure (regressive) end burning grain, burn times will be about 90 in/sec.
Two foot rockets of this type have reached altitudes of 10,000 ft., with
maximum velocities exceeding 900 mph. Multistage designs have reached
altitudes of over 100,000 ft. and speeds exceeding Mach 3. Ususally a
slower burning first stage, using Galcit-58 or a similar ammonium/potasium
chlorate oxidizer and asphalt fuel, are used.
>
>It SEEMS like this has been possible for quite a while, of course, I
>can only speculate as I've never developed such a device. Making a
>rocket drone to test the feasibility could be fun though. My luck,
>the manufacture of the rocket motor would be construed as making a
>bomb.
Building a viable guided missile has gotten much easier with inexpensive,
high performance, computers and sensors. What's needed is a
propellent-less kit with all the actuators, sensors, controller, etc. "THE
VISIBLE MISSILE" to serve as a testbed for amateur experimentation and
improvement.
Another interesting project I've written about on this list is an amateur
cruise contest. Vehicles could run a closed or open course to a target,
much as pylon racers. Minature jet engines have recently become available,
although they are still rather pricey. If the MIT microjet project ever
bears fruit we could see many interesting amateur and hobby applications
--Steve
