[Dick Pierce[_2_]]

On 7/19/2012 7:05 AM, Barkingspyder wrote:
On Wednesday, July 18, 2012 5:45:18 AM UTC-7, Arny Krueger wrote:
Not exactly rocket science.
You never know, get a nose cone and some fins................ :-)

I once sat down and went through the exercise of designing and
simulating a rocket on a 36" diameter, 40 foot long sonotube
loaded with about 3/4 ton ammonium perchlorate/polyurethane
solid fuel. With an optimized thrust profile, optimum cone,
glass-smooth finish, etc., I figured I had about a 20% chance
of putting the carcass into on unstable earth orbit.

Now, the issue of the illegality of launching such a contrivance
from one's back yard came up, but I figured that when the town
police showed up in my driveway to investigate, the fact that
I was sitting at the bottom of a pretty substantial column of
smoke 30 miles high might raise the though that, indeed, I
was a force to be reckoned with. The first question they should
probably entertain is: did I have another one at hand.

Ironically, I did this work about a month before the Oklahoma
Federal Building bombing: right after that, getting a half a
tone of ammonium perchlorate on the open market got a bit more
difficult :-)