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Kiwi 2 Space is participating in the international N-Prize competition: a nearly impossible global competition to launch a tiny satellite for under £999 (~$2,300 NZD). Three teams from New Zealand (making up around 12.5% of the total worldwide entrants to date) are taking on this challenge.

Introductions

For those that do not know me, I'm Iain Finer and am the team lead of Kiwi 2 Space and am also involved with the NZ Space Foundation as a staff/member. What you are about to read will be a series of short blogs/posts as I try to achieve the impossible and put a satellite into orbit as part of the N-Prize competition, by building rockets and rocket engines!

Will I succeed? I'm not sure, but I sure as hell hope to put NZ on the space map no matter the outcome!

Pre-testing thoughts

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So this weekend its engine testing time, again.... Why again? Back in the End of June we tried firing a small liquid fuelled rocket engine, but only got a pad full of propellant due to ignition issues,

(we were trying pyrotechnic) . So back to the drawing board to resurrect the old torch igniter I made late last year, after a lot of researching, a new torch igniter was made and it's only been this week that I've been able to get it to a testing stage (another story!). Making an igniter and getting it to work once is relatively easy I've found, but getting it working reliably and every time is a different thing! Tonight in the shed validated that, a whole lot of bang but no buck, I know the problem and I'll get it sorted tomorrow night. My old torch igniter worked so there's no reason for this new improved one not to!.

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