It has been a long year full of exciting new projects and products and a lot of global and national turbulence. At GreenSight we work hard but also try to take some time to tap into our personal creativity and sometimes our competitive spirit! We decided to host a company wide water rocket competition to welcome the start of winter and some of our newest team members!
The rules were simple:
- We provide the launcher and 80psi of compressed air.
- You can use as much water as you like.
- Rockets must be based on 2 liter bottles.
- Rockets must not exceed 400 feet altitude or leave the competition area.
- Rocket that stays up the longest wins.
Some of the rockets looked a lot nicer than others. Some were carefully prepared, painted and detailed. Some built minutes before the competition. A lot of duct tape was used. Despite the varied entrants, strategies and approaches, there was only one winner. It happened to be the one built at the last minute. “Keep it simple” and “don’t overthink this” were the winning mantras. Reliable, tumble recovery turned out to be the best strategy for max airtime. Photo below shows our official rocket competition organizer on the left with his rocket, and our “big winner” on the right!
A few lessons learned:
- Pretty does not rhyme with performance.
- If you are going to add a recovery system to your rocket, you’d better make sure it works.
- Haphazardly constructed and minimally tested recovery systems, as a rule, typically do not work.
A fun afternoon of low-buck, low pressure, outdoor aerospace testing. We got a little well deserved, socially distanced fun in before winter takes hold of the Boston area! Despite the simplicity, we learned a lot! We’ll be ready for next time. In springtime we’re planning to challenge some of our local partner companies to a water rocket throw down! Stay tuned!
Worth noting that GreenSight is always looking for great candidates to join our team. We’re biased, but we think it is a great place to work! We’ve got a killer team with big ideas. If you are interested in joining, check out our careers page and shoot us a line.
“It would absolutely have won…”
Winner of the “most ambitious parachute award”
Ground support crew providing prelaunch integration support.
7000 hours of CFD went into this rocket design. The wind tunnel was not available sadly.
Calm before the storm.
60% duct tape by weight, this rocket is designed with durability rather than performance in mind.
The award for best looking rocket went to this beast, painted elegantly in olive drab.
Their powers combined created a force to be reckoned with.
Voted “most ambitious recovery system”, this design was sure to win if the parachute opened.
No rocket launch is complete without a coordinated search operation looking for lost rocket components.
Demonstration of how recovery systems are supposed to work… when they deploy.
Readying the launch pad for competition.
