USC: HARP-001

[diogom]

The HARP-001 flight has been completed. Mission was a day after than planned, due to some technical problems, but everything went well.

The flight plan was:

Information about the flight:
The small "Martlet" will fly in a suborbital flight with an apoapsis of 80km. The goal of HARP-001 is to take agricultural data over south america and land into water.
The Minisat will:
-- Use the 1st and the 2nd stage of the Martlet to get higher to 30km.

-- Fly with the 3rd stage of the Martlet until it reaches 50-60km
-- Use it's engine to reach water at the mission's end
-- Take photos and get the data during atmospheric cruise-phase
-- Get re-entry data
-- Crash into water.
After the crash, it will stand with it's equipment on water and bring the data to a station near it. For this mission, there's no recovery planned.
Pilot for this mission is Kevin A.
The flight report, the data and the photos will be released at 26th of June, 2011.


Here's the mission report:

The HARP-001 Martlet was loaded into the HARP gun with the Agri-Sat as payload.
Shooting was delayed first due to some technical problems, but they're fixed now.
Shooting was at 12.00 PM UTC (8:00 AM EST). Target of the mission is to collect agricultural data over south america.
The shooting occured with no problems, the Agri-Sat collected the data and sent it, and will now be analyzed by agricultural scientists in Europe.
Apoapsis was 84km, flight path went over the north-east of South America.
There were no problems during flight, but the Agri-Sat fell closer to the South American coast than was planned.
-Kevin A.

Photos here: http://unionspacecommand.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=11820734

 

[fireballs619]

What were the technical problems that caused the delay in launch and shooting?

 

[Eli13]

Did you ever see this thread? Anyways, he reinstalled his orbiter installation and add-ons essential to the mission.

 

[garyw]

After the crash, it will stand with it's equipment on water and bring the data to a station near it.

So it's going to crash into water at around 200G and then walk to a station? What station? how does it get from there to your base?

What data is this mission supposed to be getting? What is its purpose? Where does it fit in with the overall goals?

Wouldn't a sounding rocket be better?

You say that there were no problems with the flight but you went 20km higher than planned is that not a problem?

 

[kevin580]

Oh, of course I meant 80-90km.
With station, we mean sending it to the KSC. This mission should get agricultural data, please read before you say anything.

 

[garyw]

I did read that's why I do not understand:

-- Fly with the 3rd stage of the Martlet until it reaches 50-60km

Is the third stage the final stage? If so, you went 20KM higher than planned.

After the crash, it will stand with it's equipment on water and bring the data to a station near it.

If you meant transmit why not say that? 'Bring the data' suggests it's walking to the receiving station. Why wait until it's hit the water at 200G???

This mission should get agricultural data

Why would a HARP launch be better than a sounding rocket? What sort of data are you after?

 

[kevin580]

Sorry, I am not good in that, of course I meant transmit.

With the 3rd stage, cutoff and jettison is at 50-60km. The apoapsis was at around 80km.

We are using the HARP cannon because it's better for a short mission like this.
Bringing a normal satellite into orbit would not be a good idea for a 10 minutes long mission.

 

[ky]

Im thinking pictures or terrain data.

 

[garyw]

Well a satellite could observe the envrionment for longer period of time but I never asked that I asked about using sounding rockets.

Again I ask why you transmit the data AFTER hitting the water at 200G?

 

[kevin580]

What 200G? We are slowing down, of course!

 

[garyw]

How fast was the satellite travelling when it left the HARP and how fast was it going when it hit the water?

 

[kevin580]

A few moments after the shooting, it was very fast, like it should be with shooting. When it hit the water, it was around 200m/s fast.

 

[garyw]

Right.... So you don't know how many G it was pulling during launch or landing?

200 M/s means the impact would be in the ballpark of 200g. Enough to destroy all instruments on board. The launch would be many times that.

 

[kevin580]

Really? Hmm...It gets very slow at around 30km in the re-entry, then it is with around 100m/s and it gets faster later. I am retroburning, too.

 

[garyw]

Sounds like you didn't plan. In the real world the satellite would have been destroyed by the huge launch forces.

Hence why in the real world they use sounding rockets.

 

[kevin580]

Destroyed? There were real launches with the HARP and Martlets.

 

[garyw]

The only Martlet that was actually fired was the Martlet 2 and that had so many issues and problems as did HARP itself that the project was cancelled.

 

[kevin580]

Oh, thanks, I didn't know it.

 

[ky]

What sort of data are you after?

It seems you did.But I do agree sounding rockets would be good for the job.

 

[garyw]

So are you going to cancel Harp 02 and go for a sounding rocket or carry on with this ridiculous 'program'?