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  <h1>Documentation for OpenRocket</h1>

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    <h2>User documentation</h2>

    <p>No user's guide currently exists for OpenRocket.  There is a
    <a href="http://apps.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/openrocket/index.php?title=User%27s_Guide">page on the wiki</a> for creating a User's guide.</p>
    <p>If you would like to help, please extend it!</p>


    <h2>Technical documentation</h2>

    <p>OpenRocket was originally written as the Master's thesis of
    Sampo Niskanen at Helsinki University of Technology.  The thesis
    currently functions as the technical documentation, and will be
    updated in the future to account for further enhancements.
    The thesis is licensed under a 
    <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/fi/deed.en">Creative Commons BY-NC-ND License</a>.</p>

    <p class="right"><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0/fi/deed.en"><img alt="Creative Commons BY-NC-ND License" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nd-nc/1.0/fi/88x31.png" /></a></p>



    <p><a href="thesis.pdf">Development of an Open Source model
    rocket simulation software</a> (PDF, 1.3MB)</p>


    <p class="quote"><strong>Table of contents:</strong></p>
    <ol class="toc">
      <li>1. Introduction</li>
      <li>2. Basics of model rocket flight</li>
      <li>3. Aerodynamic properties of model rockets</li>
      <li>4. Flight simulation</li>
      <li>5. The OpenRocket simulation software</li>
      <li>6. Comparison with experimental data</li>
      <li>7. Conclusion</li>
    </ol>
    <ol class="toc">
      <li>A. Nose cone and transition geometries</li>
      <li>B. Transonic wave drag of nose cones</li>
      <li>C. Streamer drag coefficient estimation</li>
    </ol>


    <h2>Resources</h2>

    <p>Below are resources that have been found useful in the analysis
    of model rockets.  Many useful scientific aerodynamic articles and
    documents are available at the invaluable
    <a href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/">NASA Technical Resources Server
    (NTRS)</a>.</p>

    <dl>
      <dt><em>
      <a href="http://www.apogeerockets.com/Education/downloads/barrowman_report.pdf">The Theoretical Prediction of the Center of
      Pressure</a></em>, James and Judith Barrowman, 1966.</dt>
      <dd>The original NARAM R&amp;D report explaining how to
      calculate the CP position of a rocket.</dd>

      <dt><em>
      <a href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?Ntk=all&amp;Ntx=mode+matchall&amp;Ntt=Barrowman+Practical+Calculation+of+the+Aerodynamic+Characteristics+of+Slender+Finned+Vehicles">The Practical Calculation of the Aerodynamic
      Characteristics of Slender Finned Vehicles</a></em>, James
      Barrowman, 1967.</dt>
      <dd>The more in-depth and technical thesis, where Barrowman
      presents methods for calculating the CP position of a rocket at
      both subsonic and supersonic velocities and its other
      aerodynamic properties.  Available on 
      <a href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/">NTRS</a>.</dd>

      <dt><em>
      <a href="http://projetosulfos.if.sc.usp.br/artigos/sentinel39-galejs.pdf">Wind instability&mdash;What Barrowman left out</a></em>,
      Robert Galejs.</dt>
      <dd>An extension to the Barrowman method to account for body
      lift at large angles of attack.</dd>

      <dt><em>Topics in Advanced Model Rocketry</em>, Mandell,
      Caporaso, Bengen, MIT Press, 1973.</dt>
      <dd>An excellent theoretical study on the flight of model
      rockets.  Available as a reprint edition.</dd>

      <dt><em>Fluid-dynamic drag</em>, Sighard Hoerner,
      published by the author, 1965.</dt>
      <dd>An excellent resource for all kinds of experimental data
      regarding drag.  Available as a reprint edition.</dd>

      <dt><em>Tactical missile design</em>, 2nd edition, Eugene
      L. Fleeman, AIAA, 2006.</dt>
      <dd>Useful approximation methods for estimating the aerodynamic
      properties of rockets.</dd>

      <dt><em><a href="http://www.aoe.vt.edu/~mason/Mason_f/CAtxtTop.html">Applied
      Computational Aerodynamics</a></em>, William Mason.</dt>
      <dd>An online textbook on computational aerodynamics.</dd>

      <dt><em><a href="http://www.combatindex.com/mil_docs/pdf/hdbk/0700/MIL-HDBK-762.pdf">Design of aerodynamically stabilized free rockets</a></em>,
      MIL-HDBK-762, US Army Missile Command, 1990.</dt>
      <dd>Military handbook on the design of rockets, a good resource
      for aerodynamic estimation methods.</dd>

      <dt><em>
      <a href="http://www.thrustcurve.org/">ThrustCurve.org</a></em>,
      John Coker.</dt>
      <dd>An excellent resource for model rocket motor thrust curves.</dd>

      <dt><em>
      <a href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?Ntk=all&amp;Ntx=mode+matchall&amp;Ntt=NASA-TN-D-4013">Static stability investigation of a single-stage
      sounding rocket at Mach numbers from 0.60 to 1.20</a></em>, James
      Ferris, NASA-TN-D-4013, 1967.</dt>
      <dt><em>
      <a href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?Ntk=all&amp;Ntx=mode+matchall&amp;Ntt=NASA-TN-D-4014">Static stability investigation of a sounding-rocket
      vehicle at Mach numbers from 1.50 to 4.63</a></em>, Donald Babb and
      Dennis Fuller, NASA-TN-D-4014, 1967.</dt>
      <dd>Experimental data of a wind tunnel investigation of a
      sounding rocket at subsonic, transonic and supersonic
      velocities.  Available on
      <a href="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/">NTRS</a>.</dd>

     

    </dl>


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