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| Work to Do (important stuff to figure out so we can grow as a team!) | Work Done So Far (use this as a guide but take this with a grain of salt) | Suggestions for how to proceed |
|---|---|---|
| Figure out the ideal composition/amount of ablative to apply on the nose cone by conducting rigorous thermal testing | Currently use Fibreglast Systems 3000 epoxy with 15% by weight of phenolic microballoons. Can thin this mixture with acetone if needed. Have conducted some thermal tests on different samples and mixtures but testing wasn't super rigorous (i.e. uneven layers of ablative, samples weren't super flat, etc.) | Make several test samples of different types (fiberglass, CF, etc.) and thicknesses of materials, and different types of ablatives (i.e. vary the amount of phenolic added, use different types of epoxy, maybe add other materials like chopped fiberglass, etc.) and point a heat gun at it, and measure temp of each side using thermocouples |
| Apply ablative coating evenly to a nose cone, whether in the mold before the layup or afterwards | Hermes 2 NC attempt #1: applied ablative in the mold. This didn't go well because the layer was pushed around and stuck to the mold after separating the two halves. Hermes 2 NC attempt #2 (flight NC): applied ablative after separating NC from mold by supporting the nose cone on the layup jig, applying ablative and using a heat gun to speed up the cure time while turning the nose cone like a pig on a spit. Result was better but still uneven. | Test different coating methods on nose cones that we already have in lab and don't care about (methods could include the "spit" method described in the column to the left, spraying epoxy from a spray bottle, coating in the mold, etc.) |
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