The flame is 18.5 long. On other photos, nine discrete Mach diamonds can be seen in the plume.
The sound was incredible, deep, and loud… louder than any rocket I have heard. I was hanging out at the far pads and was quite close to this one (this was only a 170mm zoom vs. 400mm for most of the other BALLS shots)
This photo was taken on September 30, 2006 using a Canon EOS 5D.
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DNSF David Newman, RottieLover♥, jzawodn, Ingo Kwiat, and 46 other people added this photo to their favorites.
BenODen (80 months ago | reply)
Ohmyyes. That's sweet! Mach 9 is insane! Gorgeous thing and great shot as always!
RottieLover♥ (80 months ago | reply)
Love it! Sight to behold!
boiani [deleted] (80 months ago | reply)
Perfect shot!!
thepretenda (80 months ago | reply)
yes: SLINGSHOT THAT THING OUT OF HERE!!
derango (80 months ago | reply)
What a shot...fantastic
dracisk (80 months ago | reply)
Whoa, don't think I've ever seen anything like that before, certainly not on Flickr. Great shot.
(1-2-3)
nj dodge (80 months ago | reply)
A wild shot to say the least - very cool (123)
Atlapix (80 months ago | reply)
Spectacular capture! Very interesting and well shot.
Discovered in 1-2-3
redmann (80 months ago | reply)
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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janekeeler (80 months ago | reply)
ahhhhh................
M.Khraibut (80 months ago | reply)
Woow
Wonderfully
trumpetflickr (80 months ago | reply)
W O W... what a shot, and what a moment!
Incognita Nom de Plume (80 months ago | reply)
We would love this pic in the Dust pool
www.flickr.com/groups/museumofdust/
NYCArthur (80 months ago | reply)
great shot -
you photos are CRAZY!!!
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chazlin (80 months ago | reply)
Wonderful shot! =) Just perfectly framed too! =)
Idle Type (80 months ago | reply)
awesome! a perfect shot.
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Fibra (77 months ago | reply)
What a perfect shot. Great moment!
ol108 (73 months ago | reply)
Awesome shot... one of the best I've seen!
A note to the poster, however: The term "Mach Diamond" having anything to do with the speed of a motor's exit gases is actually a misnomer. :-o
Mach diamonds, as great as they look, are telling you that you have not expanded the combustion products at the nozzle exit to the exact surrounding ambient pressure. Theoretically (but usually not really so) if the conditions were absolutely correct you would have no mach diamonds.
Imagine the exhaust as a hollow column - the walls of the column are reflective to pressure waves. As these waves cross back and forth they create the zones of differing densities and termperature we call mach diamonds. The pressure waves come from the gas in the column trying to match the surrounding pressure.
So you really cannot tell much by counting mach diamonds...certainly not thrust or exhaust velocity.
The general volume of the plume is relatable to thrust when compared to exactly the same propellant operating at the same pressure at the same ambient pressure, but with a different nozzle and thrust level.
Just FYI. ;-)
jurvetson (73 months ago | reply)
fascinating.... so many people have relayed this "rule of thumb" to me
The Sorry Shutter [deleted] (69 months ago | reply)
A+++ Grade Photo
Fort Photo (69 months ago | reply)
Awesome site, makes me wish I got to observe this in person. Thanks for sharing!
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Kimberly Dickinson (69 months ago | reply)
Amazing capture!
A+++ Grade Photo
Wonderful_World** (in and out) (69 months ago | reply)
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jurvetson (56 months ago | reply)
WIRED issue 16.11 has a cool story and diagram of this rocket.
.
daveyfire (33 months ago | reply)
Just happened on this photo -- yea the "rule of thumb" ain't exactly right :) Check out the isentropic flow relations (as posted previously), particularly the one for A/A* -- that gives expansion ratio as a function of exit Mach number and gamma value for the exhaust. Typical solid propellant exhaust has a gamma of ~1.2, so plug that into the relation with M = 9 and you'll get A/A* = 12,383, meaning the exit cone would have to expand to 12,383 times the throat area to get that flow velocity. If that weren't enough, the pressure at that point (given by the P/Pt equation) would be 1.76e-6 that of the chamber pressure; that's impossible to have in a rocket operating in the atmosphere, due to flow separation in the nozzle. (At that pressure ratio, for the flow not to separate, the chamber pressure would have to be ~3 million psi!)
Neat pic, though. I heard Gene scrubbed this year -- too bad. Balls should still be great though, as always; see you on the playa!
steveoh9 (31 months ago | reply)
What motor is that? . . .btw this is an amazing shot!
jurvetson (31 months ago | reply)
a homebrew Q motor
Shandchem (22 months ago | reply)
Magnificent capture of this lovely rocket launching!