I want to build a rocket to take me into orbit from stuff i find in the scrap yards how are my chances?

Question

everyone says it's never going to happen, but i'm sure i could use my friends machine shop and fix up the parts i need when i find them.

I was thinking of using Hydrogen Peroxide as a propellant for my rocket, it's non toxic but can be unstable at times.

Answer 1

chances are pretty good your freinds and family will be attending memorial services.there wont be a funeral because they wont be able to find enough pieces of you to fill a baggie

Answer 2

Not good at all (the fact that you're even asking should provide a pretty good clue as to the possibility). If you can't handle basic calculus (which you'll need to calculate your course and program the guidance system) then you are completely and utterly screwed regardless of how good you are at building things.

You've also the problem of finding fuel and oxidiser for your rocket and you need a lot of it. Hydrogen Peroxide doesn't really have enough efficiency to be a good rocket fuel for orbital launch if used as a monopropellant (though it does make a decent if low performance oxidiser that would allow a three stage rocket to make orbit) which would also require a catalyst, typically silver. It's also rather hard to buy high purity H2O2, especially if the chemical supply companies know you want it for a rocket (and you'd be buying many rail road containers of the stuff for a manned launcher along with quite a bit of fuel). Though getting the propellant is the easy part compared to actually getting the rocket to work (look at real world rockets and you'll notice that the fuel for them is very cheap compared to the cost of the rocket).

Then there's the need for a life support system so you can survive in space (and it has to work, or you die) and a guidance system to make sure the rocket goes where it should.

Rocket equipment needs to be ultra-reliable, especially if you're doing a manned mission, and stuff from the scrap yard probably won't be good enough.

Don't worry too much about space launchers being very similar to ballistic missiles, that's for those who actually can build space launchers to concern themselves with, not you.

You also have the problem of how to get back down should you somehow manage to launch yourself into orbit although if you actually manage to get yourself in orbit without blowing yourself up or crashing into a packed shopping centre you could probably figure that part out yourself.

Answer 3

Well, if you had the technical expertise to build such a rocket I doubt that you could find certain critical parts in a scrap yard.

The reason a rocket can reach 17,000 miles per hour is because the jet of exhaust gases is moving at such a high speed that the reaction is strong enough to lift the weight of the rocket and accelerate it to high speeds.

The exhaust nozzle is a high tech engineering job that cools the nozzle with the fuel as it is on its way to the combustion chamber. This high tech item is not going to be made out of scrap parts. Sorry.

;-D Cool idea though. I did notice that you did NOT say you needed to come down again, only that you weere going to go up into orbit. Coming down is a whole 'nuther problem dude!

Answer 4

I don't think that you will find any materials in the scrap yard that can handle the heat of re-entry, since most stuff in the junk yard was never designed to take that kind of intense heat, so you will burn up in the atmosphere when you come back down.

And you will probably won't find a strong enough material to make a parachute out of, either.

Lastly, the FAA will have to approve the launch of any large rocket that travels high enough to potentially interfere with airplane travel, whether it is manned or not.

Just a few things to consider.

Answer 5

If you want to see how to build rockets in your garage, see the source. These guys are really doing it! Especially see the complete news archive (link at the bottom of the page) and see how they got started a few years ago and EVERY DETAIL of how they build their rockets. They started with hydrogen peroxide, but finally switched to LOX and alcohol. It seems LOX and alcohol are easier to get than high strength H2O2, and performance is better.

Answer 6

did no longer a infant on between the megastar wars build a rocket? You been observing too many video clips. in my view, i presumed that grew to become into the main unrealistic little bit of technological know-how fiction i'd ever seen. as a question of actuality that our maximum stunning technologies is maximum stunning through fact it has long gone gentle-years faraway from exterior industry. you haven't any longer theory this by using, have you ever? you may make an wonderful super firework rocket case in point, yet have you ever given any theory to the way you will instruction manual it. once you watch the return and forth take off, what do you think of retains it on the recommendations-blowing trajectory - tiny transformations to the ability output from the quite a few engines, and controlled by ability of computer, and overseen by ability of the controllers in venture administration. It took initially a collection of the brightest minds in Germany years to enhance the prototypes of the rockets we see on the instant. on the tip of WWII, the united states of a took all those rocket scientists to united states of america of america, and from there the yank area software grew to become into born. i'd say you will choose $10 m dollars and a collection of a minimum of 20 specialists to even gain getting an unmanned rocket into area. and don't ignore the V2 did no longer carry adult adult males. as quickly as you comprise manned flight, it truly is a extremely distinctive ballgame. hello son, shop on with computer video games.

Answer 7

You are more likely to get into orbit smoking the weed from your yard than building a rocket. It's more fun and less dangerous.

Answer 8

You shouldn't restrict yourself to automotive scrap yards. This will give you a greater choice in pickings. I'd say it's more than possible if you have the know how.

Many of the human races' greatest discoveries were made by people tinkering in their shed.

Go for it!!!

Answer 9

It's not the technology problem, rather it's the problem of you getting the fuel required for the rocket.

Answer 10

You could likely do it,but you would need about 50 million dollars in your pocket.