DebConf10/RocketLaunch

What's Up

Bdale notes that there will be a high-power rocket launch on the weekend after DebConf10 in Pine Island, NY.

Since Bdale and KeithP collaborate on open hardware and open source avionics for such rockets, the temptation to stay in the area over the weekend and go "play with rockets" at a new-to-us launch site is irresistible.

Bdale and Keith will skip the last day of Debconf (Saturday) to go fly rockets on Saturday and Sunday. We have a hotel reservation for Saturday night at the Hampton Inn in Middletown, NY, which is reasonably close to the flying field. We will pick up a rental car early on Saturday morning, use it to drop Bdale's daughter Elizabeth off at LGA, then continue to the launch site. We will return the car to JFK airport in time to catch flights that depart around 20:30 local time on Sunday the 8th. Keith will be heading home to PDX, Bdale will continue to BOS to attend LinuxCon the following week.

We might be able to take one or two additional people with us in our rental car. Other than that, transportation to/from the launch if you want to attend is completely on your own.

Bdale brought 3 un-built rocket kits to Debconf: a Madcow Momba, a Quest Lil Grunt, and a Semroc SLS Lil Hustler. The kits were chosen because they're suitable for suitcase transport, are in stock at a local retailer in Colorado Springs, and are likely to be well scaled to the size of the launch field we think we'll find. As of Thursday morning, the Momba has been assembld, the Lil Hustler is about half done, and the Lil Grunt has not yet been started. We will re-convene on Thu after dinner in the main hack lab to continue building.

Bdale has purchased more swirl decals from Luca... we still need to locate a source of something like Kilz spray primer and/or some spray paints. Anyone interested, please join us on Thursday evening in the main hacklab to continue constructing and decorating the airframes!

If you want to attend either or both days of the launch this weekend, *please* come to the Thursday evening build session so that we can discuss logistics for getting to and from the launch site, etc. If you can't make it, we will certainly try to take lots of photos to share later!

Interested Persons

• Bdale Garbee
• Keith Packard
• Anthony Towns
• Luca Capello (will probably abandon, should be in Boston on Sunday afternoon)
• Raphael Geissert
• Safir Secerovic
• Riku Voipio
• Adnan Hodzic
• Edgar Becerra
• Philip Hands
• Michael Fladerer
• Jeremy Baron (I'd like go but thought it was 7 days later than it is; don't think it will work out)