Documentation for OpenRocket

User documentation

Unfortunately no user's guide currently exists for OpenRocket. Some documentation is available in the OpenRocket wiki pages, including a stub User's guide and a section of frequently asked questions.

If you would like to help, please extend the documentation!

Technical documentation

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 Creative Commons BY-NC-ND License.

Development of an Open Source model rocket simulation software (PDF, 1.3MB)

Table of contents:

1. 1. Introduction
2. 2. Basics of model rocket flight
3. 3. Aerodynamic properties of model rockets
4. 4. Flight simulation
5. 5. The OpenRocket simulation software
6. 6. Comparison with experimental data
7. 7. Conclusion

1. A. Nose cone and transition geometries
2. B. Transonic wave drag of nose cones
3. C. Streamer drag coefficient estimation

Resources

A list of useful technical rocketry resources is available in the "Resources" wiki page, including links to Barrowman's original report and thesis, extensions for the Barrowman method, experimental rocket data etc.