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Poetry In Motion
Sad news about the water rocket car; we're just not gonna make it for the '09-'10 Webby Awards.
Due to a broken toe and some time issues we had to shift our deadline to around March, so that we still have lots of time to revise the design, optimize the rockets, and do some more tests which will result in a truely magnifiscent machine which will be capable of reaching massive speeds!
But in the mean time we'll launch 2 or 3 new videos before the end of 2009!
In these video's no world record will be broken, but it will be poetry in motion though!
Filming with a colour high speed camera @ 4000fps will do the job of flming it.
So stay tuned!
13/11/2009 |
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Construction frame started
This week we performed some small-scale tests, including blowing up 2 twenty-litre bottles (for research, of course).
And after a day of designing, I had to present the designs to DEMO/TU Delft, the guys who are making the frame.
Some interesting facts:
-the rockets have a combined power, enough to lift ±1600kgs
-the frame's tubes combined give a length of 78 metres
-the Water Rocket Car, when filled for 1/3 with water, will weigh ±300kgs (incl. Ruben).
That's the news for now, next week we'll order the materials, and after that the real construcion starts!
16/10/2009 |
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World Record now official!
I received the news from Guinness World Records TM that now they officially accepted our world record!
We'll receive the famous certificate soon.
And by the way, this saturday we'll be at the Delftse Waterdag, between the Doelenplein and the Choorstraat, in Delft, so if you're in the neighbourhood, just pass by.
About the Water Rocket Car, we'll probably fit 28 bottles on it, instead of 15, just to make shure it goes fast as hell.
Also since recently we are active on Twitter, for people who'd like to get informed dayly about the latest Gotta Launch news.
01/10/2009 |
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The Water Rocket Car
We've been cartooned!
Had a great laugh today when I discovered that the bloke in the drawing on the car (which is going to be Ruben, our human-like crash test dummy) was drawn with 3 large pimples and odd hair (and don't tell me the cartoonist wanted to draw me on there).
But to get to business, the Water Rocket Car will not be finished on time for the Delft Water Day, which in on the 3rd of Octobre.
And now all the awesome news of this post:
We'll still be there, replicating the previous world record attempt on a smaller scale with the crowd, and some more, never-been-done-before stuff above the canals of Delft.
Forthermore, we've got some great news about the project.
An aerodynamics
boffin from the Delft University of Technology calculated the car will reach about 50 km/h!! (Please don't tell Ruben).
And our cartoon (which was published in the City Paper of Delft) can be viewed here.
27/09/2009 |
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Gotta Launch' Big Unveil
Due to shortage of time, we'll not be able to finish the Water Rocks Project in time for our performance in the centre of Delft.
But don't worry, we'll be there with an awesome unveil instead!
This month, we'll be working hard on yet another project; a water rocket vehicle which will not only be world's fastest water rocket vehicle to date, but will also deliver trust for some disance.
This again crazy Gotta Launch project
will be officially revealed at the Delft Water Day, which is on the 3rd of Octobre, between 11:00-16:00, near the New Church (on 'vrouw juttenland', to be precise).
Furthermore, we'll have a small scale reproduction of our world record, and we might do some racing with this Water Rocket Car.
Hope to seeing you there!
02/09/2009 |
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Gotta Launch goes Music
Before we'll put ourselves on the job of building world's largest water rocket, we're first going to perform what will probably be one of the mot complicated projects yet: making music with water rockets.
In the upcoming two months I'll be working together with a couple of musicians who will help me putting together an entire Gotta Launch Band, consisting of drums, bass and melodic stuff.
It will be one of the coolest things you've ever seen!
03/08/2009 |
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After the world record...
Now we've performed our world record with launching most water rockets simultaneously, but you might be asking the question to youself; "What's next?".
For a long time already the plan was to perform the Water Rocket Show the summer, which really is still a lot of work.
At Gotta Launch I try to alternate a bit between larger and smaller
projects, so my idea for this summer after the huge project of the 250 water rockets, to take it a little bit easy.
And that's why I want to build world's largest water rocket!
This Massive, over 400L vehicle has more power than the rocket of our initial human launch rocket design, so in theory it should be able
to lift a human being!
And what is a vast rocket without a launch?, of course we'll launch it!
The Rocket will propel it's 133 litres of water in just a matter of seconds, and probably will reach apocalyptic heights.
Stay tuned!
23/06/2009 |
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We've got the World Record!
Yesterday we set the official world record for launching most water rockets simultaneously.
With help of students form the Delft University of Technology, students from the Grotius College and friends we launched 213 water rockets at the same time.
It really was a great spectacle seeing over 200 water rockets being launched at the same time!
Gotta Launch appeare on countless
newssites, in newspapers, and even on television!
20/06/2009 |
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The World Record Attempt
On the 19th of June Gotta Launch will perform their greatest project yet; they'll try to launch 250 water rockets simultaneously.
If you ever seen a water rocket you know it's pretty spectacular, try to inagine how it's going to be like with this vast amount of water rockets.
The official world record attempt will be helt at the TU Delft Sports Centre, which is at the Mekelweg 8 in Delft (easiest acces via the Schoemakerstraat).
The team will start with the preparations at about half past 8, and the record attempt it self will begin at 16:00 h.
Hope we're seeing you there!
18/06/2009 |
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Next week: the World Record Attempt.
On the 19th of June we will perform the world record attempt on launching most water rockets simultaneously, where we will use 250 water rockets.
You gotta be there! 16:00 at the Mekelweg 8, which is the TU Delft sports centre, near the faculty of electrotechnics.
Previous weeks have been very challenging, and still we've got a lot to do.
Now construction is almost done, we really have to focus on finding over 250 people for launching the water rockets.
I will post an update of the preparations shortly.
And thanks to the garbage recycling company Sita for giving me the oppertunety to cut about 150 bicycle valve tubes from old inner tires! (see picture on the left)
12/06/2009 |
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DIY Video launched.
Gotta Launch' first official internet video was launched previous week!
In this video we show you another way to bring over a DIY message.
For this video we also updated the site a bit with some nice looking banner-like images.
By the way, here you see our professional moron Ruben jumping in heavily poluted waters.
Please watch the video here.
12/06/2009 |
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DIY Video succesfully recorded!
We did it.
Yesterday we succesfully recorded our first Gotta Launch internet video near the woods of the city Delft.
And we've done the lot: we combined a lot of pyrotechnics with water rockets and made a groovy video out of it!
In this video we show you in a somewhat special way how to build and launch a water rocket.
Of course we used our human personal madman and semi-proffesional crash test dummy, Ruben for some crazy stunts.
And the video footage looks awesome too, Jip Eilbracht from Wygiwys shot the entire video in HD, Tan Nguyen shot some additional footage in HD, and We even shot some stuff with a high speed camera, thanks to Wentzel Engineering again.
The DIY video will be online this week.
02/06/2009 |
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Water Rocketry goes high-speed!
Yesterday we did something very special: together with Cyril Wentzel from Wentzel Engineering we captured water rocket launches with a high speed camera, capable of shooting up to 17,000fps!
We used a varierity of water rockets and lauch systems, and shot close-up, and
further away.
These awesome shots will be used in a variety of videos (probably in the intros), and maybe we'll even make a seperate video for it.
Thanks to these amazing camera we discovered some amazing things and, most of all, shot some great footage!
24/05/2009 |
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The preparations continue.
Just one month and a couple of days left till the big day; our world record attempt.
On thursday I had a meeting with mr. Noomen (from the Delft University of Technology, TU), mr. Koop (who is our connection between us and the TU) and Rob van der Ven (our technical assistent), to talk about the things we still've got to do; which is still pretty much.
To name a few things: I still have to find 150 valves and install them, together with the lids, onto the launch systems.
Also, I still have to find proper sealing as a replacement for the current O-rings, I still have to buy 100 bottles, and I have to print our T-shirts for at the record attempt.
A ton of work, but luckely it's makeble.
Beside the world record attempt, at the end of May/the beginning of June, we're launching 'the ULTIMATE DIY-vid', where we'll combine
pyrotechnics with water rocketry to kind of show you how (not) to build a water rocket.
So visit this site again soon!
08/05/2009 |
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Coming soon: the Water Rocket Show.
People who often visit gotta launch may have noticed we've now got an awesome website!
And they might also have noticed that in the 'Coming Soon area' on the frontpage we've announced the Water Rocket Show for this summer.
And before we can actually perform it, we've still got to figure out a ton of questions.
First of all we have to come up with some more special features, to make the show éven more spectacular!
After the tests I performed this weekend I learned that 1. water rockets will not levitate when anchoring them to the ground, and 2. that it sucks to be drained in the windy Netherlands.
But I came up with 2 cool new things, and I hope soon more will follow!
By The Way, if anyone's got any cool ideas please mail us at info@gottalaunch.com.
And check out the cool photo of the result here.
19/04/2009 |
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Hello Gotta Launch!
As we just notefied we came up with the new name for our ground-breaking group of rebellious experts.
From now on we're called: Gotta Launch.
And not only the name will be changed, we'll have a new font, logo and a major website update, which will be completed in around 7 days.
Hope you're liking it!
04/04/2009 |
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Everybody won!
Last weeks we organised a contest for the new name of our organisation
Jup we've got a new name thought out... but we didn't receive it via our Contest.
But wait, there's good news for everybody who attended the challenge and filled in something serious on his/her contest form, because you all get 5 sky lanterns!
Congratulations!
04/04/2009 |
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O-oh rings
At this moment (a saturday evening, that is) I'm busy constructing the launch tubes, and tomorrow I'll go to a supermarket to buy some empty bottles.
The Delft University of Technology will probably be able to arrange 200 students from aerospace engineering and the university thinks we can most likely use the sports field too as the location!
Previous year, during 'the BIG test' we discovered the O-rings we were using weren't optimal for the task, I've been trying out some other sizes and thicknesses.
Previous time the O-rings' diameter was too large, which caused the O-ring to slip when positioning the rocket onto the launch tube.
Today I've tested an O-ring which has a smaller diameter, and the same thickness.
Now there wasn't any slipping going on, but unfortunately now the O-ring was too thin to make an airtight seal, so in the upcoming week I've to try some other sizes.
21/03/2009 |
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Date world record attempt set
It's always entertaining to see the people's faces when you're asking for, for example, "250 O-rings" or "150 empty bottles", and it's enevitable, too, during this expantion of the amount of launch systems.
But embarking on some of the dirty jobs there are in the production process also is sadly enough inevitable.
Past holidays, I've been cutting 600 tie-wraps and 22.5 metres of PVC pipe into about 150 pieces (!).
And before I forget to say; the day of the world record day is set for the 19th of June, 2009
I will soon report about new developments
on this project, and meanwhile, don't forget to check out our contest...
And for the locals out here; do not forget to put the 19th of June in your diary, we'd like to see you there!
It will be performed
in Delft, the Netherlands, but the exact location will be known soon.
06/03/2009 |
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New world record catagory certefied!
Awesome news: we finally got the news that we're allowed to perform a world record attemt on a new catagory, called: "Most water rockets launched simultaneously"!
But they set a minimum of 200 succesfully launched water rockets for the record, so I've to build about 150 more launch systems and rockets to do this... which means there is still a lot to do, but it also means this world record attempt will be HUGE!
Since I got the certefication to perform record, I'll keep you updated more, so return to our site soon :D.
17/02/2009 |
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