OpenRocket

We used OpenRocket for designing our rocket for UK youth rocketry competition UKROC[1].

It is great for getting a 'spherical cow in a vaccuum' idea of likely altitude with different motors, centre of pressure, center of mass etc. But it obviously doesn't take account of detailed aerodynamics etc and we found the maximum altitude estimates were about 15% too high. But it was still very useful.

[1] UKROC is an amazing competition for UK school kids. And there are equivalent competitions in the US, France and Japan, with an International competition for the 4 country winners. If you know any kids interested in engineering I recommend you look into it.

https://www.ukroc.com/

Does anyone know of something similar, but for aircraft and/or drones? I’ve been 3D printing model aircraft with my 8-year old but would be great to take it to the next level.

This application gets used a lot in the High Power Rocketry hobby. Most of the parts/manufactures are included as well as motor manufactures. The simulations are very good and accurate, I would sim my larger builds at the location where i was launching to get an idea of altitude and it was always pretty close ( within 5-10% i'd say ).

I use to have a website where you could upload an openrocket file and get back 2d drawings for your fins that could then be sent to my lasercutting service. The idea was design the rocket in openrocket, send me the file, and get back the wooden pieces you need cut per the design. Similar to sendcutsend but for the rocketry hobby.

Really cool seeing it show up on HN.

This is pretty cool. I remember having fun simulating my rockets using the BASIC programs from G. Harry Stine's "Handbook of Model Rocketry" when I was a kid. This looks like a way to recreate some of that fun.

I read the name and the first logical thought that came to mind was that of a platform to have AI agents iterating on rockets design. How doomed am I?

Well THAT's cool. I was just talking about getting back into model rocketry... I'm not sure my 6yo daughter will like it as much as I did/do but I want to get back into it and launch a few and see if she's into it. Timing here is great as I need to start looking at starting from scratch with kits etc.

Im guessing that all the sudden interest in rocketry and drones is related to the war in the middle east? Because I have found that very interesting too, that a country as poor and as heavily sanctioned as Iran is managing to hold out the mightiest human forces the world has ever seen.

I helped out with a user interface redesign of OR many years ago. It was pretty incredibly unintuitive back then, and many hobby rocketeers paid for Rocksim instead.

I wonder how crazy the scale here can get. How far can I go? The bps.space guy is heading into space. Can the community hit the moon? Literally.

you gonna need them!

Oh i've been looking for a project for my 11 year old... he's a very project oriented learner, which schools don't seem to do anymore.

With the current wars this will only gain more interest.

The miracle of 3D printing. First ghost guns, and now ghost rockets. Will be curious to see what prediction markets will have for these.

I hope this is for students' project and for sending a gopro to the stratosphere?

Is there a similar drone design simulator?

Bookmarked :)