Big, Bad Black Rock

or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And

Love . . . Dust

Dave Lindbergh – CMASS

Contents (or, questions to be answered)

•What is the Black Rock Desert?

•How do you get there?

• Is it a good place to fly rockets? (yes)

•What happens there?

•Do you want to go there next year?

CHAPTER 1

Where is the Black Rock Desert??

Planet Earth

U.S. of A.

you are here

Black Rock Desert

In north western Nevada

Black Rock Desert

Launch Launch SiteSite

Nearest city = 80 milesNearest city = 80 miles

Nowhere Central

CHAPTER 2

OK, what’s so great about it?

The Black Rock Desert

• Dry lake bed, “considered one of the flattest surfaces on earth”

• 100 miles long, 10 to 40 miles wide

• 4000 feet high

• 80+ miles from nearest city

• Owned by the Bureau of Land Management (public land)

• Wikipedia: “See also - High Power Rocketry”

playa (“ply-ahh”)—

Spanish word, meaning “surface of incredibly huge and flat dry lake bed”

The “playa”

CHAPTER 3

How do you get there?

We did it this way

Vehicle & Operators•1986 Coachmen 28’

motorhome

•3 drivers, in shifts 51 hours door-to-playa

Route

• I-90 to Chicago

•Then I-80 to Nevada

•Or, you could fly •to Reno, then drive

–But then how would you get your rockets and motors there?

–And what would you live in there?

Good place to store Good place to store rockets & stuffrockets & stuff

Is that the same place they do that Burning Man

thing?

Yes.

CHAPTER 4

OK, what does it look like already?

First view - dawn

Setting Up

Blowing Dust

XPRS Launch Site

•Waiver to 100,000 feet (& they use it)

•Closest power line – 20 miles

•Closest object > 3 inches tall – 5 miles

•No plants, no animals, no insects

•No rocket-eating trees (no trees)

•XPRS = eXtreme Performance Rocket Ships

•September each year, hosted by AeroPac

– Association of Experimental Rocketry of the Pacific

•http://www.xprs.org

ARLISS launch

Another ARLISS flight

Toward sunset

Flightline

Cars making dust

Surface of the playa

Walking out to the pads

ARLISS HQ

Lonely porta-potty

Porta-potty under the stars

Porta-potty in space

Flightline at night

Milky Way

Smoke from cookfire

Your presenter

Our campsite

Dust in the morning

Waiting out the dust

One way to keep out dust

Rocket stuff storage tent

The next morning

Dust gets everywhere

Starting to clear

But still windy

Finally, clear visibility

And flying!

My camera/GPS rocket

Flies well (F40-4)

But takes lousy pictures

Landing

LCO table

A nice HPR flight

2nd stage ignition

Tony & Adam w/first rocket

It flies great!

Vendors

More flights

Vendors

Vendors

Flying rocketeers

Night launch evening

Ready for first night launch

CATO over LCO table

Strobe light on descent

Camping on the Playa

•Bring everything you want to have

–Water, food, power, gasoline, rockets…

–There is nothing there. Nothing.

•Cookfires are OK (not on the ground)

•$8/day to the BLM for camping fees

–Plus launch fee (about $40???)

Advice

• Bring water, lots of water

• Read the website carefully for tips

• Drive carefully and slowly on the playa

– Don’t kick up dust

• Be prepared to camp in the middle of nowhere (the precise center, actually)

• Bring water, lots of water

THANK YOU

More info:

http://xprs.org

http://areopac.org

http://nerdfever.com (my web site)

(all maps & satellite imagery courtesy of Google)