Test Runs 
Saturday, February 24, 2007, 12:36 PM
The computer team worked with the propulsion team this week do execute many test runs. These runs were used to record pressure drops and determine flow rates. We captured all the data during these runs for further analysis by the prop team. Video available on the prop blog.
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Waterflow testing 
Saturday, February 17, 2007, 08:00 AM
Today we prepared for and executed a set of waterflow tests. The video can be seen here:

Video

We have been able to command all valves except two. Hopefully we'll find the problem with those this coming Saturday. All the sensors are working but we do have some ratty thermocouple readings that we need to investigate. The waterflow tests have allowed us to execute some much needed testing.


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Move to test location 
Friday, February 2, 2007, 10:39 PM
On Thursday we hosted an open house and had a good turn out. The facility was decked out with some nice graphics.


We were able to demo actuating various valves, show how the load cell is able to determine thrust, and had a demo strain gage for people to play with.


On Saturday we moved to our test location and set back up. We rolled out the tank stand on rollers (like the Egyptians did)


so that we could get it out of the facility without tearing it down (due to the height of the test stand and lack of height of the garage door).


Once we got it rolled outside we had to pull it up onto the trailer, well that was fun!


It was pretty wild seeing the tanks on the trailer being driven down the road... I wonder what people thought.


Anyway we're setup at the testing garage where we will do the igniter testing, pressure testing, and finally the cold flow testing.

Computer-wise, we have the tank side setup and can monitor all that data, we're commanding 5 out of the 9 valves (we'll setup the remaining ones this saturday) and we have to connect up the last of the sensors on the motor side (excluding the strain and temp sensors on the motor casing, which we will do once the motor casing is available). Lastly we have a little more logic to finish up on our automated firing sequence.

So we'll be participating in a lot of testing.. The rough schedule is 3 weeks at this test location then we'll be taking it out to GCRS for a short testing firing followed by the full firing.
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