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OpenRocket
- SilentM68 7mo agoBookmarked :)
- mitchbob 7mo agoThe miracle of 3D printing. First ghost guns, and now ghost rockets. Will be curious to see what prediction markets will have for these.
- Onavo 7mo agoNeed itar to be defanged first.
- altruios 7mo agoyou get some good, you get some bad. Building a rocket shell is probably just fine: you need to fuel yet - that you can't 3D print. probably fine... Overall 3d printing is a lot more than ghost guns and ghost rockets. That the conversation dominates this small sub-section reeks of 'think-of-the-children' screeching that hides explicit power grabs in regulation and surveillance with the main intent seemingly to be 'enforce copywrite' (of only the big players that can afford to throw their weight around). Fear pushes people's buttons.
- hrmtst93837 7mo ago[flagged]
- rmvt 7mo agoi've recently had youtube randomly suggest me a video where this dude was building his own opensource manpads, with a single rocket costing under $100 in parts (there was no explosive payload so that makes it just a rocket and not a missile, i guess). not long after, someone posted it here on hn but i think it's been removed (by the mods, i imagine) since. i find these projects both fascinating and terrifying. seeing a single person building what normally involves huge defense corporations and government contracts, these things in their bedroom is amazing. it shows how information wants to be free and how ingenious people can get with whatever motivates them.
- mandeepj 7mo ago> with a single rocket costing under $100 in parts Is there a parts list?
- nbernard 7mo agoI believe it is the same project that was discussed here a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47385935 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47385935
- mandeepj 7mo agoI know; I thought they'd have a handy parts list on their new site. But you are right; I should have looked in their Google Drive docs. There's a section - "Bill of materials and cost breakdown", but details are buried somewhere. Thanks, though.
- _trampeltier 7mo agoIt was here on HN (441 points) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47385935 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47385935
- embedding-shape 7mo ago> someone posted it here on hn but i think it's been removed (by the mods, i imagine) since. The submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47425297 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47425297 "Tech hobbyist makes shoulder-mounted guided missile prototype with $96 in parts" - https://github.com/novatic14/MANPADS-System-Launcher-and-Rocket https://github.com/novatic14/MANPADS-System-Launcher-and-Roc... Seems to have almost as many comments as points, so guessing it got pushed down the frontpage list because of the "anti-flame-war" thingy HN has.
- chasd00 7mo agoThe knowledge and skill in the HPR (high power rocketry) hobby is definitely there to build basic weapon systems. Active stabilization using movable fins is a thing, onboard gps and flight controllers are also a thing. Nobody puts it together end to end though because it gives the whole hobby a bad look and the hobby governing organizations strongly discourage it too. Also, fortunately, most people have no interest in mass murder either. Much of the hobby is old engineers who are retired but still want to work on engineering projects in their garage.
- aliljet 7mo agoI wonder how crazy the scale here can get. How far can I go? The bps.space guy is heading into space. Can the community hit the moon? Literally.
- EvanAnderson 7mo agoAmateur rocketry achieving orbit would be significant. Reaching the moon would be substantially more difficult.
- rigrassm 7mo agoMight be worth checking out the "Copenhagen Suborbitals" group (they have a YouTube channel) and see if they're still active! It's been years but I think I recall they were trying to build something capable of getting a person into space (not sure if orbit was a goal).
- lovlar 7mo agoSpace Concordia, a Canadian university space-oriented student group, which is sort of amateur-level given that it’s driven by students and donations, attempted to reach space not that long ago with a liquid fueled single staged rocket. Here is a video of the launch https://www.youtube.com/live/610YciEs8qg?t=4594&is=aAWo8Y7vifBdLdnU https://www.youtube.com/live/610YciEs8qg?t=4594&is=aAWo8Y7vi...
- p-o 7mo agoThank you so much for sharing this video, it's just amazing to see a bunch of young amateurs getting so excited about things that would have been virtually inaccessible 20 years ago.
- lovlar 7mo agoIt’s beautiful to see. They have put in such extreme amounts of hard work to get that thing into the air. Designing a robust affordable liquid propelled rocket from scratch is hard. There are so many design decisions, complex simulations, manufacturing difficulties, and tests for every little part of that 11+ m rocket. Accounting for extreme forces, heat variations, vibrations, wind, atmosphere, liquid sloshing, rotation, etc during ascent and descent. It’s not only mechanical/aviation engineering but also software, electrical, sourcing donations, documenting everything in forms of design and risk assessment reports etc etc. You also have to try to account for every little possible failure mode before launching which is why rockets seldom succeed on the first attempt. And then dealing with authorities to create new launch sites and permits which probably hasn’t been done in decades in Canada.
- p0w3n3d 7mo agoI hope this is for students' project and for sending a gopro to the stratosphere?
- dzink 7mo agoWith the current wars this will only gain more interest.
- joelshep 7mo agoBut hopefully not that kind of interest. Model rocketry, as a hobby, enjoys a limited amount of regulation, at least in the US. In large part, that is because the community has been very good about self-policing. Most folks who are serious about the hobby closely follow the safety guidelines published by the two national organizations (Tripoli and NAR), and steer newcomers to as well. Serious accidents are few and far between, intentional damage even more so. Compare this to, say, drones, which seem to be more widely embraced by the public, but are much more closely regulated and have been implicated in a number of serious incidents like https://abcnews.com/US/drone-operator-charged-hitting-super-scooper-plane-palisades/story?id=118313936 https://abcnews.com/US/drone-operator-charged-hitting-super-... . Model and amateur rockets are cool. Folks mis-using them are going to run into a lot of pushback from pretty much every direction, because it'd only take an incident or two to ruin the hobby for everyone.
- hermitcrab 7mo agosimilar situation in the UK. It would only take 1 or 2 idiots to ruin it for everyone.
- stackedinserter 7mo agoHobby rockets fall into the same regulations as drones.
- hermitcrab 7mo agoNot in the UK (may be true in other countries).
- joelshep 7mo agoNot true in the US either, in any meaningful way. Weight thresholds are different, FAA thresholds are different, allowed control systems are different, etc., etc.
- EvanAnderson 7mo agoThis is pretty cool. I remember having fun simulating my rockets using the BASIC programs from G. Harry Stine's "Handbook of Model Rocketry" when I was a kid. This looks like a way to recreate some of that fun.
- swalsh 7mo agoOh i've been looking for a project for my 11 year old... he's a very project oriented learner, which schools don't seem to do anymore.
- hermitcrab 7mo agoWhat country are you in?
- evanwolf 7mo agoIs there a similar drone design simulator?
- gabrielcsapo 7mo agoHave you seen https://store.steampowered.com/app/2060160/The_Farmer_Was_Replaced/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2060160/The_Farmer_Was_Re...? It is not a drone simulator more like a problem solving game using a drone.
- chasd00 7mo agoidk off hand but i'm sure there's something like OpenRocket for R/C airplanes. Where you put in the dimensions, wing type, mass distribution, and other stuff and it tells you if it's aerodynamically stable or not. After that you put in an ardupilot autopilot+gps+airspeed sensor and there's your drone. iirc, with ardupilot you can do automated flight planning like "fly to this gps coordinate, orbit for 10 minutes, fly home" etc. to relate to OpenRocket, some people are into rocket powered gliders and use autopilots to make flying them after launch easier. It's basically a fly by wire setup so controlling the glider is on easy-mode with the autopilot doing most of the work keeping things stable while the human with the controller just focuses on making the slow circles back to the launch area. These autopilots are how typical quadcopter drones can be flown easily without the wind and 4 motors causing havoc constantly.
- gryte 7mo agoYou describe https://flow5.tech/flow5.html https://flow5.tech/flow5.html (Im not directly familiar, but it is an extension of xflr5 which I have used). Gives you the lift/drag/moment curves, and stability coefficients of a fixed wing drone/rc airplane
- chuckreynolds 7mo agoWell THAT's cool. I was just talking about getting back into model rocketry... I'm not sure my 6yo daughter will like it as much as I did/do but I want to get back into it and launch a few and see if she's into it. Timing here is great as I need to start looking at starting from scratch with kits etc.
- hermitcrab 7mo agoI bought my son a Estes kit about 10 years ago. He's now at University studying aerospace engineering as a direct result. So you never know!
- sandrello 7mo agoI read the name and the first logical thought that came to mind was that of a platform to have AI agents iterating on rockets design. How doomed am I?
- CarVac 7mo agoOpenRocket has a little optimizer built in but of course it neglects structural integrity which it knows nothing of…
- daemonologist 7mo agoJust reading the name I wouldn't have been surprised if it had nothing to do with rockets whatsoever - I was half expecting it to be some kind of "agentic platform to accelerate your product development" etc. I think I need to go for a walk.
- sunaookami 7mo agoThat was also my first thought...... :D
- MoonWalk 7mo agoI figured it was a typical no-info HN title; I was happy to discover it actually conveyed some meaning.
- entropicdrifter 7mo agoWhy would you put that evil thought into other people's heads? Now someone might do that
- notahacker 7mo agoGenerative AI iterating on design is being done with satellites in production already (and given that there's limited scope for real world testing so you're solving complex optimization problems against a set of models, actually represents one of the better use cases for generative design). Don't think the foundation models and physics based constraints solvers involved look much like LLM "agents", mind you..
- CarVac 7mo agoI helped out with a user interface redesign of OR many years ago. It was pretty incredibly unintuitive back then, and many hobby rocketeers paid for Rocksim instead.
- pm90 7mo agoIm guessing that all the sudden interest in rocketry and drones is related to the war in the middle east? Because I have found that very interesting too, that a country as poor and as heavily sanctioned as Iran is managing to hold out the mightiest human forces the world has ever seen.
- hermitcrab 7mo agoModel rocketry has long been a gateway drug to get kids interested in STEM subjects.
- QuantumFunnel 7mo agoHelps to have terrain around your country that makes it one giant fort
- stackedinserter 7mo agoWhat do they hold, exactly? Leaders are dead and keeps dying, good chunk of their military is defunkt, while "mightiest human forces" don't even have boots on ground.
- scronkfinkle 7mo agoThe strait of hormuz is still closed, and a new government has not been installed. From a conventional perspective Iran is by all means "losing" the war. However, the United States and the majority of the world desperately want the strait to be opened and have so far been unsuccessful in preventing Iran from blocking it. The US is also greatly interested in regime change, which has also been unsuccessful.
- stackedinserter 7mo ago> The US is also greatly interested in regime change Trump doesn't car about regime change. Just like in Venezuela, his plan is to kill leaders until there's one that can make a "deal" (whatever it means).
- lm28469 7mo ago
- hermitcrab 7mo agoWe used OpenRocket for designing our rocket for UK youth rocketry competition UKROC[1]. It is great for getting a 'spherical cow in a vaccuum' idea of likely altitude with different motors, centre of pressure, center of mass etc. But it obviously doesn't take account of detailed aerodynamics etc and we found the maximum altitude estimates were about 15% too high. But it was still very useful. [1] UKROC is an amazing competition for UK school kids. And there are equivalent competitions in the US, France and Japan, with an International competition for the 4 country winners. If you know any kids interested in engineering I recommend you look into it. https://www.ukroc.com/ https://www.ukroc.com/
- plugger 7mo ago> we found the maximum altitude estimates were about 15% too high. this often happens when the wrong rocket finish is selected. Everyone chooses a polished finish when in actuality they've just sprayed the thing with paint. Skin drag is real.
- hermitcrab 7mo agoPossibly. I don't remember the details. Also, it isn't a full aerodynamic simulation. Plus the hobby motors are not manufactured to NASA standards. So you can't expect it to be too accurate.
- sandworm101 7mo agoThey also seem to be treating rockets as rigid bodies. Flex of parts is real at these accelerations but the calculations get into supercomputer territory very quickly. All the math is questionable if, at any given moment, your rocket isnt actually straight. Look into the physics of archery, which has similar accellerations albeit of a narrower tube. The choice between a heavier/stronger arrow v a lighter/flexible shaft is the entire game.
- hermitcrab 7mo agoIf your rocket is flexing significantly, then it probably won't be a rocket for very long!
- chasd00 7mo agoThis application gets used a lot in the High Power Rocketry hobby. Most of the parts/manufactures are included as well as motor manufactures. The simulations are very good and accurate, I would sim my larger builds at the location where i was launching to get an idea of altitude and it was always pretty close ( within 5-10% i'd say ). I use to have a website where you could upload an openrocket file and get back 2d drawings for your fins that could then be sent to my lasercutting service. The idea was design the rocket in openrocket, send me the file, and get back the wooden pieces you need cut per the design. Similar to sendcutsend but for the rocketry hobby. Really cool seeing it show up on HN.
- 0dayman 7mo agoyou gonna need them!
- darkteflon 7mo agoDoes anyone know of something similar, but for aircraft and/or drones? I’ve been 3D printing model aircraft with my 8-year old but would be great to take it to the next level.
- hermitcrab 7mo agoThere is a game on Steam where you can design and fly your own aircraft. Would be fun to then try to 3d print the successful ones. But I can't remember the name of the game, sorry.
- looperhacks 7mo agoKerbal Space Program?
- hermitcrab 7mo agoNo, its more aircraft oriented.
- hermitcrab 7mo agoI think it was: https://store.steampowered.com/app/397340/SimplePlanes/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/397340/SimplePlanes/
- wellthisisgreat 7mo agoHomeworld
- svag 7mo ago[Ardupilot|https://ardupilot.org/ https://ardupilot.org/] maybe? It's for controlling the drones, but I think it has simulators as well.
- gryte 7mo agohttps://flow5.tech/flow5.html https://flow5.tech/flow5.html gives you the lift/drag/moment curves, and stability coefficients from a (simple) 3D model
- cyanydeez 7mo agoLove to play "Useful program or random startup" with these titles.
- ahd94 7mo agoThere should be an agent for this :D . What kind of tooling do you folks use for simulation ? Maybe there is something to be done there. ?
- mclau153 7mo agoor an integration with a 3D game engine
- jonwinstanley 7mo agoHahah - you'd have made Kerbal Space Program :-)
- _moof 7mo agoSoftware developers: I am begging you to put representative screenshots on the home page. This has become a real widespread problem. I know you want to tell us all about the amazing (sincerely!) stuff under the hood, but to users, the interface is the product.
- jdjdjdjdjd 7mo agoYes!!
- deadbunny 7mo agohttps://openrocket.info/features.html https://openrocket.info/features.html
- andai 7mo agoI also like it when there's a short video that shows how the thing works and what it can do.
- p0u4a 7mo agoSadly they don't teach Show Don't Tell in the lectures
- sibovg 7mo agoThanks for the suggestion, I've added it to our home page.
- drewbuschhorn 7mo agoNice, it's much more clear to a layman like me! (Not the gp)
- nytrox 7mo agoIts a nice project !
- perryprog 7mo agoTangentially related is NASA's open source GMAT[0] software which is more focused for calculating orbital transfers and the like. It's pretty fun to play around in. [0] https://software.nasa.gov/software/GSC-18094-1 https://software.nasa.gov/software/GSC-18094-1
- wei03288 7mo ago[dead]
- novoreorx 7mo agoWith CAE and flight simulation, this would be a game that I would actually enjoy playing.
- ehnto 7mo agoI would recommend checking out your local laws on export of software with military applications. I believe this would be illegal to release in my country (whether that's the right thing is worth discussing, but protect yourself first). Looks like a pretty mature project though so I suppose it must be on solid ground. It might also run the risk of breaking IMPORT laws in your respective countries, worth being sure of because that is not a realm of law you want to be messing with.
- peterus 7mo agoOur university rocket team uses openrocket extensively for doing fast design iterations early in the design phase. We have also used Rasaero II which is meant to be more rigorous above transonic speeds. We have an Ansys CFD too but that requires significantly more time to set up. We still use openrocket on launch days to do pre launch sims, but we override some of the parameters based on the more rigorous simulations.
- alexpopow 7mo agoWhat about misuse for weapon development? Does the project not massively cut R&D costs (hence lowering the entry hurdle) for potentially malicious actors on the planet?
- tjomk 7mo agoAnything can be misused by the bad actor. Knives, guns. With AI things are getting easier to develop bio-chemical weapons. There was recently a video of a YouTuber creating a portable rocket launcher in <100 USD.
- SiempreViernes 7mo agoNo, actually building the things are most of the work and this program isn't intended for weapons development so you will just save a few tests at most, so it helps marginally.
- vrganj 7mo agoSure, but it's not like the actors currently able to pass the entry hurdle are not malicious. Maybe we (or somebody in, say Ukraine or Rojava) will need this to defend themselves from the actors having access to missiles right now.
- wiseowise 7mo agoEven if it does, you need industry to have any meaningful impact. And a big army with distributed attack nodes.
- joelshep 7mo agoYou can buy the Handbook of Model Rocketry and have essentially all the knowledge that's encoded in OpenRocket or RockSim. You just lack the automated simulations and the parts catalogs (whose weights and dimensions should generally be double-checked anyway). The rockets designed by these programs assume static stability. If you want guidance of some sort, that is entirely on you: that's not remotely a capability available in these programs. If you want to launch at a funny angle, that's also entirely on you. If you want "accuracy" regardless of wind variations, motor variations, etc., that's entirely on you as well. There is a huge distance between the capabilities and the accuracy of simulations of programs like this, and what you would need to come close to developing an effective weapon.
- teraro 7mo agoThere is also the rocketpy framework. https://docs.rocketpy.org/en/latest/index.html https://docs.rocketpy.org/en/latest/index.html Essentially it can do the same thing as openrocket, but in python. You can even go as far as to simulate liquid fueled rockets during flight, modeling for example how the depleting tank influences the center of mass. My student rocketry team used this for the flight simulation of our Ethanol/Liquid Oxygen rocket which flew to over 5km
- hermitcrab 7mo ago>My student rocketry team used this for the flight simulation of our Ethanol/Liquid Oxygen rocket which flew to over 5km Cool. Is there more information on their rocket or a video?
- teraro 7mo agoSure! We launched at last years EuRoC Here’s a nice recap video: https://youtu.be/pc_Dvfo6m0g https://youtu.be/pc_Dvfo6m0g Also here is our technical report: https://spaceteam.at/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Technical_Report_Lamarr_EuRoC_2025.pdf https://spaceteam.at/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Technical_Re... Feel free to ask any questions. I’m the software lead of the project :)
- hermitcrab 7mo agoImpressive. Where was the launch from?