Preface:
This L3 project was inspired 39 years ago when I got a GI Joe Mercury Capsule
for my birthday. I always imagined it flying (even orbiting) and it kept me out of my
parent's hair for days on end. Fast-forward to the mid 90s when the GI Joe
Capsules are re-issued by Toys-R-Us -- naturally I picked up one (well 3).
After the popularity and success of the Gumby flights I simply had to look to
the shelf above my workstation to be inspired for my next big project.
When I found a tube that was 9.25" (the exact diameter of the Capsule base),
this project was set into motion.
Project
goal: To send a full GI Joe capsule aloft (with Astronaut), have the
capsule free-fall and deploy its recovery system safely. The entire flight
will be recorded by three different on-board video systems.
Note: This ISN'T a
scale project; the "Mercury Booster" will be much shorter than the
real thing. The "Mercury" capsule, being built from the GI Joe unit, is under scale as
well.
The big
challenge of this project is to perfect a system that allows the capsule to free-fall to a safe altitude before deploying its parachutes. Technically this is no
more than a dual deployment flight, but the added complication of extracting the
tower so the capsule can free-fall is anything but simple.
At apogee
the capsule (with tower) will decouple from the booster. This also
releases the hold-down straps for the Tower.
The
capsule has a deployment bag attached to the heat shield which will pull out
the drogue chute for the booster.
The
decoupling activates an ejection charge timer inside the tower, allowing for
the capsule and tower to drift away from the booster (which should be
unfurling its drogue chute).
Once the
tower charge has fired and its chute has inflated, the weight of the capsule
should cause it to fall free off the tower base.
The capsule will free-fall to
about 1000' before deploying a drogue that will subsequently deploy the main
chute.
With all
going to plan, the Tower (fitted with fairly large chute) should record the free
fall and recovery of the capsule and the booster, but a lot of that depends on
how the tower swings.