Skill Level 4: Slightly Challenging Length: 34.3" (87 cm) Diameter: 2.6" (66 mm) Motor Mount Size: 29mm diameter Weight (without motor): 22 oz (630 gm) Recovery Method: 30" Nylon parachute
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Pemberton Technologies M2 Mars Challenger Rocket Kit
P/N: 07576
Price: $89.00
Sorry, Back-ordered
(07/07/11)
Note: There is a $2.00 freight surcharge due to the large size of the shipping carton, and the additional cost of postage. Additional shipping fees may apply for Hawaii, Alaska and US Protectorates and international orders.
Because of the M2's weight, this fast-burning motor is the only 24mm motor we recommend. Loud, blue flame. Drill out 1 second of delay.
Use with an optional 24/29mm adapter.
3.
See the video below for help in selecting rocket motors. Rocket motors are sold separately from the kit. If you are unsure which one to pick, start with the one recommended for the First Flight, and then another for a more impressive launch. Most motors listed in this chart are available through Apogee Components. For the many other motors that are not listed here, download the RockSim file to see if it will work in this rocket kit. See also Technical Publication #28 for guidance on selecting appropriate rocket engines other than those listed in this chart. If you don't already have Technical Publication #28, give us a call, and we'll be happy to let you download it free (you have to ask though).
A Sci-fi classic comes to life!
Pemtec's M2-Mars Challenger harkens back to the days when sleek, silver, tail landing spaceships freely roamed the universe. Always manned by big white guys in silver suits, the M2-Mars Challenger is ready to nip off for a quick lunch on Neptune or head toward Venus so you can hang with the Amazons.
The M2 is a hand-filling 2.6" in diameter, is over 34" in length, sports groovy boomerang shaped wings and has extended landing legs.
This is a true builder's kit! The builder cuts the tail cone, the fin slots in the tail, and the angles on the fin struts. The through-the-wall fin and wing tabs must be carefully custom-fit using a razor saw. Plan on spending some quality time with the epoxy fillets along the fin/body tube, spine/body tube, and strut/fin joints to give everything that fluid, seamless, sleek, alien look. It takes patience. When you're done, though, your M2 will impress every other custom hot rodder on the field. All it needs now is too much power...
The resulting showpiece is otherworldly. Some of the guys we showed the Challenger to at our last launch just said, "Oh, man, that's incredible!"
The destruction step you may spend the most time on is getting the fillets just right. The sanding, filling, and more sanding is quickly rewarded when you get to the range, though, when your fellow rocketeer's eyes bug out, like some alien's eyes viewing Earth's vegetation for the first time. The M2 is an engineering marvel, with sturdy materials and through-the-wall fins. You'll find yourself flying this model after just a few days of build time.
I recommend that you do not fly this kit when the ground is hard and dry. No matter how much epoxy you have on the landing struts, they will break off if the rocket lands on hard ground. It's just physics.
F and G Motors are Perfect for this Kit
With altitudes of 500 to 1600 feet depending on which F or G motor you use, you have great options for altitude, loudness, and color of flame.
When you do your Level 1 Certification with the M2, you can step up to an H motor. With the extreme-altitude Rocksim predictions, though, you might want to bring binoculars.
This is a phenomenal kit! It's one of my favorites. It makes me want to spend the day reliving my misspent youth watching old sci-fi shows on Hulu. It's tall, cigar-shaped, fun, and no mere mortal will ever mistake it for a "regular rocket".
Stylin' Cues
Pemberton does creative things with the visual impact of this kit that most rocket companies won't even consider. Those long dowels, the curvaceous fins, the spines running forward from the dowels, through-the-tail-cone fin mounting, and wings: all of these things are audacious engineering accomplishments that give this kit a flavor like no other.
An interesting engineering step is the addition of 2-part expanding foam inside the tail cone where the fin tabs go. This is a lightweight engineering solution to a heavyweight problem: how to provide enough structure to keep those cool fins attached. 2-part foam is a standard building technique in high power rocketry, and this is a great kit to try it on for the first time.
Why is this a Skill Level 4 Rocket?
Creating the tail cone from a nose cone, slotting the heavy plastic tail cone for the fins, custom-fitting the plywood fins, and lots of sanding and filling mean that you need to plan on spending some time on this model. I highly recommend mounting a dowel through the nose cone to retain the nose cone weight (see photo in the features section below).
I made a calculated choice when I built our display/photo model not to smooth out all the joints with fillets completely, because you the buyer need to know what you're getting. This kit, if built according to the destructions, looks almost alien in its shapely smoothness, to the point that a person who hasn't built one won't know what shape the parts were before they are all smoothed out. Done right, this finished piece of art has an almost metallic-organic look and feel.
Some construction requires epoxy adhesive and/or fillers. This can be messy and cause an allergic reaction in some people. Adult supervision and wearing rubber gloves is recommended when working with epoxy.
The M2 is a big rocket that uses a high power heavy wall body tube. It also has substantial interior lead and epoxy nose weight to provide stability. While the tubes and weight don't make the rocket any harder to assemble, extra safety precautions are required when a rocket this big is flown. Patience and acquired flying skills to know when and where NOT to fly are just as important as quality construction techniques.
Who Is Pemberton Technologies?
Flash back with me, if you will, to a time when handsome, brave, wide shouldered, square jawed, homogenized white guys in jump suits made the universe safe for all mankind. Heroes such as Captain Video, Flash Gordon, Tom Corbett and Buzz Corry came to the rescue every week, thrashing bad guys and thrilling youngsters across the land.
From out of that Wonder Bread world of the 50's, Pem-Tech brings you the coolest science fiction spaceships of all time: Sleek, silver, beauties like the King Krãken and the glorious golden hotrods like Bucky Jones Space Cadet.
Layne Pemberton is famous for his "destructions". The humor infects everything from motor selection to your household pets. Trust us, they're fun. The photos could use some upgrades to good quality line diagrams to improve legibility, but the destructions are otherwise good.
M2 Kit Features
Super Strong Plastic Nose Cones - The tail cone is built by cutting off the tip of one of the nose cones. Made from polyethylene plastic, these heavy-wall nose cones can really stand up to any amount of abuse you might give them. The 12.5 inch exposed length is just one feature.
They have a molded-in shock cord attachment.
You'll need a Dremel tool to cut the tip and the fin slots in the tail cone.
Premium Body Tube - Small spirals so it finishes quickly, thick walled for those high power flights.
Hardwood Dowels - I wouldn't normally say much about dowels in a kit, but I was impressed with these. They're exceptionally smooth, perfectly round dowels of impressively high quality.
Beefy Motor Mount - The 1/8" thick 5-ply centering ring anchors the 29mm motor mount. The system is a sleek repository for F, G, and even H motors. Rear bulkhead retention is the only method of retention we recommend for this kit. To accommodate the beefy motors, 1/4" launch lugs are provided.
Quality Recovery Hardware - You get a monstrous 10' shock cord of 9/16" tubular nylon. The Kevlar mounting system on the inside of the body tube is an innovative and inexpensive design that works great.
Fins - 1/8 inch thick hardwood ply fin and wing material makes the M2 one seriously tough beauty. The fins are laser cut to make the build go a little easier. Spines extend forward along the body from the struts, and these are cut from balsa stock using a template, old school.
A Great Parachute - 30-inch diameter rip-stop nylon cloth parachute. A kit this big, you have to have a cloth chute for the extra durability; and you get one! When this parachute thumps open, you get a truly bracing rush of adrenaline.
Here's a great build idea - Epoxy doesn't stick to the inside of plastic nose cones very well and can come loose, upsetting the stability of the rocket. My recommendation is to drill two 1/4" holes, put a dowel through as shown, then epoxy your nose weight. It takes some extra smoothing, filling, and sanding effort, but it makes for a much more positive retention system for the nose weight.
Tools needed to assemble this rocket kit:
Pencil
Ruler
Masking Tape
Razor saw
2-part expanding foam (optional)
Micro balloons (epoxy additive, optional), helps to thicken and lighten epoxy fillets
We encourage you to learn the proper motor selection technique. Please watch our YouTube video that will walk you step-by-step through the process
To see how the M2 rocket looks and performs with in each motor configuration, download rocket design file now (click here). This file can be opened with the FREE demo version of RockSim (click here). This kit is included as one of the sample designs that comes with the demo software. Both Windows and Macintosh versions are available.
What is a RockSim Design file?
The RockSim software gives you a lot of information about the flight characteristics of this rocket: how high, how fast, where it will land, how will it react to wind, etc. The "design file" is intended to save you time. All the parameters (size, shape, weight, fin design, etc.) of this rocket have already been entered into the RockSim program, and saved as an electronic database file. You can just open it up in your copy of RockSim and start loading different rocket motors to run launch simulations. It's fun and educational to see the rocket zoom skyward, even before you built it. For more information about RockSim and to download a FREE 30-day demo version, click here.
Related Items and Optional Accessories That Go Great With This Kit:
We've added all the big reloadable motor casings to our line-up. Plus, we've organized things to make it easier for you to pick and find the right casing for your big project.
Cesaroni (also known as CTI) is a manufacture of reloadable rocket motors. These motors are made in the standard diameters, so they will fit into your current fleet of rockets without having to do any further modifications.
Want to hold in your rocket engines securely without using tape or other unsightly methods? Then they Aero Pack retention system may be what you're looking for. There is a retainer available for all the common high power tube sizes that we carry (LOC, Blue Tube, and Fiberglass), as well as for the mid and high-power rocket kits on this web site.
These adapters allow you to put a smaller diameter motor into a rocket that has a motor mount tube up to two sizes larger. This is a great way to save money by putting a smaller motor in a big rocket.
A deployment bag is a device to help ensure that parachute inflates properly and in the correct order. It forces the lines to completely stretch out first, and then the canopy is released so that it can properly inflate. It also minimizes the loads on the suspension lines to prevent tears, and it gives additional protection from the heat of the ejection charges. If you're doing high power rockets, you really need this extra insurance to make your project a success.
Use Quick Links to quickly attach and detach components of your rocket. Great for connecting parachute shroud lines and electronic or payload bays to shock cords and swivels or replacing lost quick links in your Tender Descender.
While not required, this would be a useful addition to this kit. If you don't use a heat shield, you'll have to use disposable wadding to protect the parachute from the heat of the ejection charge. And for a large diameter kit like this, it will take a lot of disposable wadding.
While not required, this would be a nice upgrade to most high power rockets. A shock cord protector prevents the shock cord from getting too scorched by the ejection charge.
While it has a 1,001 uses around the house, it works great on rockets to make super-strong fillets where the fins attach to the rocket. Better than regular epoxy because it stays in place and doesn't ooze all over the rocket. So you can get perfect fillets on all your fins, without having to do them one at a time.
See how high your rocket flew! This is the one altimeter you'll use in all your rockets because it does not require a separate payload bay. It is far more durable than any other altimeter because it is encased in ABS-plastic. It also is the first inexpensive altimeter to have a LCD screen that displays the altitude that the rocket reached during flight. Better get two, because your friends are going to steal this out of your range-box!
This is a programmable dual-event altimeter with data recording capabilities. That means that after the flight, it not only beeps out the peak altitude, but you can download the data into your computer so you can get a plot of altitude versus time. Great for determining the parameters of your rocket's flight.
The ultimate in flight control for large and expensive rocketry projects. These onboard flight computers control when the flight events (like staging, parachute ejection) occur during the trajectory. Uses both barometric and accelerometer sensors to get the most accurate determination of the rockets altitude and orientation, so it provides extra reliability to control the flight. Available with or without data recording capabilities.
This 328-page book contains a gold-mine of information on building model rockets. When you get this book in your hands and start flipping through the pages, the very first thing you'll notice is that it is stuffed full of illustrations and pictures. The reason for this is that pictures is the perfect way to make complex subjects easier to understand. Even youngsters will be able to grasp the concepts in this book because of all the illustrations. Because of this, the book makes a great gift for your student that has an interest in rocketry.
The most extensive book ever written about "how to build LARGE high power rockets." Recommended for all modelers getting ready to take a jump to those bigger and more powerful rocket engines. It takes you step-by-step in the process of how to prepare for Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 high power certification.
Actual Customer Comment:
"I was pleasantly surprised when my new Mad Cow, U.S. Army MIM-23B Hawk showed up so fast. I did not expect it so soon, Thank you. The boy's and I love it." -- Paul Malvane
Nylon®, Nomex® and Kevlar® are registered trademarks of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company for its brand of aramid fiber.
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