IEBPROJECT CASE STUDY
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A CAD render of a short tan cylinder with vertical slots cut in its wall and a grey disc with radial openings on top

Model-rocketry conceptDrawing 23 of 33

Reaction
Wheel

A reaction wheel sized to slide into a model rocket's body tube, built only as a CAD assembly and a teardown animation. I never actually built it, so this page is short.

Sheet 02 of 05/Idea

Why a reaction wheel

A reaction wheel spins a flywheel one way so the body around it turns the other way, since the total angular momentum has to stay put.

An animation of the cylindrical reaction wheel module disassembling itself, lifting off the top disc, then the plates, standoffs and rails, leaving a small motor on the base
PL 02The one thing this project produced: a 30 second animation that takes the assembly apart, part by part, down to the motor.
A CAD render of the module with its outer shell removed, showing a white circular plate held above the tube on a ring of short standoffs
PL 03Inside: a plate carried on a ring of standoffs, with slotted rails down the tube wall to locate it.

Sheet 03 of 05/Design

What the CAD shows

It's built as one module that slides complete into the body tube, not a set of parts fit around the rocket, and that's the one decision I would still stand behind.

Sheet 04 of 05/Honest

What I did not do

I never sized a motor or worked out any inertia numbers, so there's no way to know if it would have actually turned the rocket.

Sheet 05 of 05/Again

If I picked it up again

If I picked it up again, I would start on a bench, not in a rocket, and see how far the body actually turns once the wheel spins up.