Reliable Amateur Rocketry Software
Runs on Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11
What makes modern amateur rocketry so different from the 1950’s and 60’s shown in the movie “October Sky” is the personal computer. Today, amateurs can test their rocket and rocket motor designs on their personal computers to see if the designs will work before a single part is built. CP Technologies was one of the first companies to develop and bundle rocketry software together for amateur rocketry. Our software has been extensively tested in the amateur and professional environment.
Propellant Formulation & Performance
CHEM Thermochemistry Software
In the old days, the amateur had to experiment with different chemicals to see what may be a good propellant. Even if they found one, they could never be sure of the performance. Those days are over with the software program, CHEM. It calculates the performance of virtually any solid, liquid or hybrid propellant combination. Simply input the propellant ingredients and CHEM calculates the combustion temperature, propellant density, C-star, specific impulse and a lot more.
CHEM is very simple to use. Simply select the chemicals you want in your propellant and the amount of each chemical. Then select a desired combustion chamber pressure and the exit cone pressure (usually sea level pressure) and hit the calculate button. In a few seconds, you will know performance parameters such as combustion temperature, specific impulse, c-star, propellant density and more. You can print out a quick look of these parameters or a more detailed output including the exhaust chemical species and their concentrations.
Burnrate Software
Most amateurs are using solid rocket composite propellant like that used in the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters. This propellant has a very predictable and repeatable burn rate as a function of chamber pressure, i.e, burn rate = (c) * (Chamber Pressure) n. While it is not yet possible to calculate the values of c and n without testing the propellant, our Burnrate software makes the task of determining c and n a lot easier. All you have to do is obtain a few burnrates for their propellant at a couple of different pressures and plug those values into Burnrate. The software does the rest and determines the correct values for c and n.
Solid Rocket Motor Design
Fpred Solid Rocket Motor Simulation Software
CP Technologies has three software packages then enable the amateur to design their solid rocket motor to work without fear of structural, thermal or ballistic failure. The amateur starts to design their motor using Fpred. It is a simple to use program that simulates the entire burn of a solid rocket motor and shows the pressure-time and thrust-time curve for the motor in a graphical format. You blow the motor up on your computer, not on the test stand. Fpred has been used on motors as small as one inch in diameter and as large as 18 inches in diameter with over 800 lbs of propellant. In all cases, it has accurately predicted the performance of the motor. Fpred handles a variety of propellant grain designs including straight cores, segmented (Bates), c-slot, moon and end burner grain patterns with eroding and non-eroding throats.
THERM Transient Thermoablation Software
Once the motor design is set ballistically, it is time to check it structurally. Our STRESS spreadsheet will tell you what wall thickness is required for the rocket chamber as well as the required thicknesses for the motor bulkhead and nozzle plus a lot more. THERM is used by the amateur to determine the ablation and temperatures in nozzles, exit cones, bulkheads and chambers. It can calculate the throat erosion of your nozzle. If you are going to be flying a rocket that goes at supersonic speeds, you will want to use the aerodynamic heating option on THERM. It calculates the heating of nosecones and the rocket body during flight and determines the ablation and temperatures within the parts as a function of time.
Rocket Design & Trajectory Simulation
FLIGHT Rocket Trajectory Software
FLIGHT calculates the trajectory your rocket will take and outputs a variety of useful parameters for the rocket designer such as acceleration, velocity, altitude, distance downrange, dynamic pressure, compressive load and pitch angle. These parameters can be plotted on-screen, output to your printer or saved as a file for use in a document or presentation software package. It has an easy to use interface unlike many other trajectory programs. One of the nice features of FLIGHT is that you can read in the thrust – time curve from FPRED. Now, you can design your motor in FPRED and transfer the thrust – time curve to FLIGHT and see how your rocket flies.
The ability of FLIGHT to work in conjunction with FPRED allows you to work with both programs simultaneously. Design a motor on FPRED, load the thrust – time curve into FLIGHT and see how your rocket flies. If you are not satisfied with the result, switch back to FPRED, redesign the motor and try it again in FLIGHT.
CG - Calc Software
For a rocket to be stable in flight the center of pressure needs to be aft of the center of gravity. Of course, this is useless if the amateur doesn’t know where the center of pressure and center of gravity are on their rocket. CG-Calc * determines the location of the center of gravity on a rocket before it is built. The user simply inputs the weights of items on the rocket and their location and CG-Calc * does the rest.
CP-1 Rocket Center of Pressure Software
CP1 is a simple way to get the static and dynamic center of pressure for your rocket. Just enter the numbers on the drawing of your rocket, press calculate and the center of pressure distances are shown. The static center of pressure location represents the rocket’s center of pressure when the air flow is 90 degrees to the rocket body. The dynamic center of pressure is the rocket’s center of pressure when the air flow is parallel to the rocket body and the rocket is travelling at least 40 feet per second, but less than sonic speeds. You have your choice of nosecone contours to pick from.
Select Software Sold Individually
All of our software is included with our “How To Make Amateur Rockets” bookset. We do sell some of our software individually for those people who just want the software. All of the software sold includes our freeware collection. Software is delivered via a download link by email. Make sure the email you provide at the time of purchase is a valid email that you use. The sofware is only sold in the United States.