Looks like they'll work fine, if they're extremely close to a tornado. One parachute looked to me as though it was high enough to be caught up in wind, not so sure about a couple of 'em.
It seems to me as though they need some sort of spring loaded gadget to open the parachute, one that wouldn't trip with the G-force of going up, but rather trip on the way down. Perhaps something like an half -sized umbrella mechanism that could lock in place, seems like that would make an excellent sail. The trigger could be something like a ball bearing in a long narrow race, much like an umbrella handle; when the ball bearing, forced to the top of the race during the force of the ejection, fell down - from gravity - it would trigger the spring that would cause the mini-umbrella/parasail to fully open.
Not sure on the physics of my ball bearing gizmo, but it also seems to me that since you're shifting mass in the projectile to the top of the parachute device, you'd also gain some momentum, perhaps even some altitude in the parachute shot. It wouldn't have to be a great deal of mass, just an oz. or so would help and not hurt.
Probably been better to have diagrammed it. Just got inspired after watching the vid.
3 comments:
Seems you missed your calling when you didn't got to engineering school.
Aw, I dunno, but it just seems to me like the parachute bit needs some help. I also thought maybe a sabot might help the missile reach a greater height.
The microprocessor controlling the firing is cool, but I'd also have the compressed air accessible from the back seat where at least a few back-up firing chambers could be triggered manually, too.
I'm a HUGE fan of the show Storm Chasers; these guys have become more and more a larger part of the series. They get SO close to the storms, it's thrilling.
They mentioned the movie "Twister" and the use of these sorts of things, but they're taking it a step farther, really neat.
I remember StevieXXX asking me if you could look into the "eye" of a tornado like the Helen Hunt character did in the movie. I patiently, and quite graphically, told him how wrong those scenes were. The movie is regarded by those in the "real" business of weather, and most specifically tornadoes and storm chasing, as wrong and potentially harmful, esp. to amateur chasers.
When I was a young adult down in my home town, we used to "chase" the storms out of town, pretty trippy, if ya know what I mean.
Thanks for posting!
A sabot - a covering for the parachute, something that could be triggered to pop off, help the parachute deploy. On the launch it would help streamline the instrument pkg. and parachute assembly.
Pretty good explanation on Wiki: Sabot
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