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Model rocket
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==Instrumentation== ===Aerial photography=== Cameras and video cameras can be launched on model rockets to take [[aerial photograph]]s<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.teamten.com/lawrence/projects/video-camera-on-model-rocket/ |title=Video Camera on Model Rocket |publisher=Teamten.com |date=2011-06-05 |access-date=2012-07-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.321rockets.com/cameras-on-model-rockets.html |title=Cameras On Model Rockets |publisher=321rockets.com |access-date=2012-07-06}}</ref> in-flight. These photographs can be taken in many ways. Mechanized timers can be used or passive methods may be employed, such as strings that are pulled by flaps that respond to wind resistance. Microprocessor controllers and altimeters can also be used. However, the rocket's speed and motion can lead to blurry photographs, and quickly changing lighting conditions as the rocket points from ground to sky can affect video quality. Video frames can also be stitched together to create panoramas. As parachute systems can be prone to failure or malfunction, model rocket cameras need to be protected from impact with the ground. The first commercially available system was the Estes CAMROC<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/publications/estes_1966_catalog_08.png |title=Cat No 651-CR-1}}</ref> in 1965. This system used a 1.5 inch round film negative held in a large pill-shaped camera body with the lens facing forwards. It would take a single photograph after apogee as the rocket deployed its parachute. The hobbyist would then send the negatives back to Estes for developing and printing. The second system was also released by Estes in 1970. Created by Mike Dorfler, the CINEROC<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/publications/estes_1970_catalog_25.png |title=Cat No 701-CM-8}}</ref> held 20 seconds of Super 8mm film that ran at 30 fps, making for a slow-motion effect. Like the CAMROC negatives, these special movie cartridges needed to be shipped back to Estes to be processed. In 1979, Estes released the Astrocam 110,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/publications/estes_1979_catalog_35.png |title=est1327}}</ref> the first single frame camera rocket that took multiple single shot pictures (one per flight) using standard Kodak 110 cartridge film. Unlike its CAMROC predecessor, it could use color film, and did not require sending the film back to Estes for processing. It did require asking the processor to 'flip' the negative before printing, as the camera used a mirror to take its pictures. Otherwise, you were directed to hold prints up to a mirror to see them in the correct attitude. Through the 1980s and into the early 2000s, the Astrocam 110 was revised and updated, originally as a kit where you built the camera, which became one with a pre-built camera, then an Almost Ready to Fly model such as the Astrocam RTF and finally the renamed Snapshot RTF. By the mid 2000s, these models had been retired, as the first digital video cameras started to appear on the market. With Kodak ending 110 film production, only specialty film producers make the ASA400 film needed for these cameras, such as the Austrian based [[Lomography]] Company. In 2005 the [[Oracle (rocket)|Oracle]] Video Rocket, and in 2007 the AstroVision digital/video camera were released by Estes. Both systems were capable of recording a flight from start to finish, but required downloading after each flight, as expandable memory had not been incorporated into them. The AstroVision did have a snapshot mode, so it could do more than a single flight and take multiple pictures, but movie mode was a single take before needing to be attached to a laptop. Both models were discontinued by 2010. A major reason for this was the advent of the 'Key-Fob camera' - many of which were more powerful, lighter and easier to attach to any rocket, and did not need a specific model to do so, and had expandable memory in the form of Mini SD cards, and were much less expensive. These devices also have the advantage of rechargeable batteries, and since they were built on the same plug-and-play technology Flash Drives use, do not need any extra drivers installed into a computer for them to work. In 2020, Estes brought out a new Key-Fob based camera, which now bears the Astrocam name. As of 2024, two versions can be found - a full rocket kit whose nose cone has a mount for the fob, and the Universal Astrocam, which has the fob along with a holding mount that allows for the camera to ride other models. In the area of higher powered rocketry, there are also experimental homemade rockets that include onboard video cameras, with multiple methods for shooting videos. One is to transmit a signal down to a receiver, like in the BoosterVision series of cameras. The second method for this is to record it on board and be downloaded after recovery, the method employed by the Estes cameras listed above. (Some experimenters use the Aiptek PenCam Mega for this, the lowest power usable with this method is a C or D Motor). === Instrumentation and experimentation === Model rockets with [[electronic altimeter]]s can report and or record electronic data such as maximum speed, acceleration, and altitude. Two methods of determining these quantities are to a) have an accelerometer and a timer and work backwards from the acceleration to the speed and then to the height and b) to have a barometer on board with a timer and to get the height (from the difference of the pressure on the ground to the pressure in the air) and to work forwards with the time of the measurements to the speed and acceleration. Rocket modelers often experiment with rocket sizes, shapes, payloads, [[multistage rocket]]s, and recovery methods. Some rocketeers build scale models of larger rockets, space launchers, or missiles.
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