October 17, 2015

Dutch students break European rocketry record

Filed under: Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 7:00 am

DARE

On 16 October in the afternoon, the Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering (DARE) student society of the Delft University of Technology broke a European record in amateur rocketry. The students successfully launched a rocket into space that attempted to reach the Kármán line at 100 kilometers in altitude.

The first attempt made by the students on Thursday was thwarted by problems with a motor valve, which is why after fixing it, they made another attempt the next day. The seven-meter-long Stratos II+ rocket uses a mix of sorbitol and paraffin for fuel. It reached a speed of 100 km/h in 0.85 seconds, with a top speed of 3000 km/h.

In a few years, the DARE team wants to go into space, and to be able to do that they need to reach the Kármán line. The sky’s the limit now.

(Links: www.ad.nl, dare.tudelft.nl)

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November 25, 2010

Dutch not amused by overpriced lolly at amusement parks

Filed under: Food & Drink,Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:40 pm

The rocket (raket), the Dutch lolly invented in 1962 that never crash landed, is apparently way too pricy for the Dutch at amusement park Kabouter Plop in Coevorden, Drenthe, a Belgian ‘invention’.

For a Dutch treat that is often handed out for free around the country, the Dutch have complained that they just couldn’t get themselves to pay EUR 2,50 for it. The same themed amusement park also exists in Belgium where the price of the rocket is not an issue.

There have been so many complaints from the Dutch that not only it is news, but the solution has been to pull the product from the Dutch amusement park. Dutch kids will have to wait until they get home to have a rocket and stick to whatever other overpriced junk food the amusement park has to offer.

(Link: zibb.nl)

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March 19, 2009

TU Delft breaks record with experimental rocket

Filed under: Dutch first,Science by Orangemaster @ 3:18 pm
statos

Students of the Delft University of Technology launched their Stratos rocket in the North of Sweden which reached a height of 12 kilometres and 551 metres, breaking the old European record of 10,7 kilometres set by British students.

“We’re really happy with this win,” Jasper de Reus, a student of Project Stratos told Elsevier.nl from the Esrange Space Center in Sweden. “It was our first record attempt.”

The British had their motor built by other people whereas the Dutch did it themselves. The Dutch designed a unique rocket motor made from carbon, which “in theory is strong enough to launch a small car.” They did, however, except the rocket to fly 15 kilometres, which it did not.

If you want to see what happens when BBC programme Top Gear try to launch a Robin Reliant into space, then watch this video with a cup of tea.

(Link: elsevier.nl)

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