This weekend, I launched the prototype tractor rocket! It didn't go exactly to plan, but overall, it was a success, as I learned a lot.

I was previously having some issues with the igniters. Simple fix was to just wire the two igniters in series instead of parallel. This is a little less reliable, but it worked when I tested it, so I decided to go with it.

The relay I was using had 3 pins. One for ground, one for power, and one for input. I bridged the input and power pins together so that the whole thing could be activated by simply applying power and ground. This worked, except it meant that when power was lost, the switch in the relay would open up instead of remaining closed. This is a problem because the switch needs to stay closed at least until both engines are burning. To resolve this, I connected the igniters to the second output on the relay, so that the switch would close when power was cut to the relay. By doing this, I could keep the switch closed even when the rocket left the platform. The problem is that the rocket is prone to launch itself unless power is being applied to the relay. Again, this could be a problem, but it seemed the easiest and quickest solution at the time.

On the morning of the launch, I set up the rocket, turned on the arduino to apply power to the rocket, attached the battery, and slid on the nose cone. The rocket ended up launching prematurely. The rocket's flight went pretty well, but after examining footage, I think that the engines lit at slightly different times, leading to a slight arc in its path.

Overall, I was happy with the launch. I learned that spin stabilization works, that ignition timing is important. and I should be more responsible with rockets.