Building Lookalike Falcon 9 SpaceX Landing Legs
by RC Lover san in Outside > Rockets
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Building Lookalike Falcon 9 SpaceX Landing Legs
Hi guys and welcome to my "ible" #49.
I've found another video I published a while ago on my YouTube channel...
that clearly has caught your interest, therefore needs an explanation.
I was doing some experiments with the deployment of the legs of my Rocket Drone...
https://www.instructables.com/Landing-a-Rocket-Ver...
(please watch my videos about it), to simulate the deployment of the Legs of the well known Falcon 9, built by SpaceX.
Supplies
1xA4 sheet Correx
Bamboo Skewers
Popsicle Sticks
Rubber bands
Tubing (from soap dispenser)
Permanent magnets (2x5mm square shape)
Superglue
How the Legs of Falcon 9 Work Vs What I Need for My Rocket Drone
On Falcon 9 there are 4 major components:
2 of them operates simultaneously.
The latches on the top of the legs that hold the legs in place during the flight and the pushers at the base of the latches, that hit the leg before landing, letting gravity pull it right down.
The landing legs of Falcon 9 operate mostly using gravity, once they are unlocked the pushers push the legs down. Inside the leg there is a cravice that fits a telescopic deployment arm, that locks the leg in place.
My Rocket Drone doesn't have a gimbal on the model rocket motor, as I have to keep it as light as possible (to control it in the air, in order to land it straight).
This means I have to put some fins at the back of it, to stabilize the Rocket Drone during the launch.
My First Version of It
I've tried to build something similar, but as I always do, instead of making it simple, I've made the most complicated version of it... sorry, my fault!
Anyway, plans are available here.
As you can see there are rubber bands that pull the leg down with a deployment arm, that instead of being telescopic, is foldable. Again, just to complicate a tiny bit more my life.
Basically there is a sleeve (tubing), taken from a soap dipenser that locks the foldable arm in place (aka straight).
The sleeve is stopped by the little piece of esagonal Correx.
Regrettably, this version of it doesn't solve the problem I have launching my Rocket Drone.
Last Version Installed on My Rocket Drone
The 3rd version of it, was the simplest I ever made.
The shafts of my Rocket Drone keep the landing legs in place during the flight (using some permanent magnets). Once I've reached apogee, I can release them activating motors on the shafts of my Rocket Drone.
At the bottom of the fuselage I placed very thin fins, that once the landing leg is deployed create a triangle structure, that increase the robustness of these type of landing gear.
Not bad, uh?