Sugar Shot Weekly Activity Report: August 29-September 5, 2011‏

The plan is currently a GO for this weekend’s static firing of the DSS Boilerplate motor at the FAR test site in the Mojave Desert. As one of the final key preparations, Paul Avery successfully cast the “full” Delay Plug (recasting the “burnt” plug) and subsequently bonded it into place in the Midbulkhead. Two spare pyrogen igniters have been fabricated. Rick Maschek reports that he has procured the materials for  constructing two motor Transport Cradles. The plan for this weekend is as follows. Rick and Paul plan to arrive at the site on Friday. Assembly of the grain segments will then take place, which involves bonding of the twelve segments into two “grain assemblies”. Following assembly, the grains will then be transported inside their respective motor casings to an assembly station where the motor will be partly assembled, then transported for overnight storage indoors. Chris King and Tom Dittman will arrive early Saturday morning and proceed to set up the instrumentation for recording thrust and chamber pressure. Concurrently, the motor sections will be transported to the Large Horizontal Test Stand, where final motor assembly will take place. The water deluge system will then be set up and pressurized. Due to the large number of events taking place at FAR this weekend, it is not certain as to when the actual firing will occur, presumably some time Saturday afternoon or evening.

Photo of Midbulkhead with Delay Plug installed (prior to application of edge inhibitor). The "channel" is to facilitate gas flow to the pressure sensor:

Two new guidance documents have been prepared for the upcoming static test firing of the DSS BP motor:

1) DSS Boilerplate Rocket Motor Closure Installation Tool User Manual
2) DSS Boilerplate Rocket Motor Assembly and Firing Instructions

The Sponsor page has been updated to reflect the status of Markus Bindhammer as our main sponsor, replacing erstwhile sponsor Team Selene.