Lightning rocket - GIF

[Altair]

Lightning rocket used to trigger lightning.




Previously:

Lightning strikes transformer - GIF
SUV hit by lightning - GIF
Lighting hits firework - GIF
Colliding lightning bolts - GIF
Man struck by lightning - GIF

[Frank S]

Ben Franklin would have liked that

[TrickieDickie]

for a milli second......

[Haroun]

Does the bolt follow the contrail down the the igniter & then follow the wire back to the launch control?

[nova_robotics]

I bought a fulgurite for my display case. It's a tube left when lightning strikes sand. I couldn't find any information on how they make them, but I had imagined it was a frame with electrodes down to beach sand, then they fire a rocket similar to this to stimulate a lightning strike.

...or they just glue sand together and I got scammed. One or the other.

[hemmjo]

Ben Franklin would have liked that

Very scary Frank, Ben was my very first thought when I saw that video...

[Toolmaker51]

I bought a fulgurite for my display case. It's a tube left when lightning strikes sand. I couldn't find any information on how they make them, but I had imagined it was a frame with electrodes down to beach sand, then they fire a rocket similar to this to stimulate a lightning strike.

...or they just glue sand together and I got scammed. One or the other.

Perhaps; the lightning bolt could have been the entrepreneurs concept, tired of waiting for real lightning.

[Inner]

Does the bolt follow the contrail down the the igniter & then follow the wire back to the launch control?

From Das Wikipedia:

A lightning rocket is a rocket that unravels a conductor, such as a fine copper wire, as it ascends, to conduct lightning charges to the ground. Lightning strikes derived from this process are called "triggered lightning.

Design
A conducting lightning rod is grounded and positioned alongside the launch tube in communication with the conductive path to thereby control the time and location of a lightning strike from the thundercloud.[4] The conductor trailed by the rocket can be either a physical wire, or column of ionized gas produced by the engine. A lightning rocket using solid propellant may have cesium salts added, which produces a conductive path when the exhaust gases are discharged from the rocket. In a liquid propellant rocket a solution of calcium chloride is used to form the conductive path.

The system consists of a specially designed launch pad with lightning rods and conductors attached.[5] The launch pad is either controlled wirelessly or via pneumatic line to the control station to prevent the discharge traveling to the control equipment. The fine copper wire (more recently reinforced with kevlar) is attached to the ground and plays out from the rocket as it ascends. The initial strike follows this wire and is as a result unusually straight. As the wire is vaporized by the initial strike, subsequent strikes are more angular in nature and follow the ionization trail of the initial strike. Rockets of this type are used for both lightning research and lightning control.

[Toolmaker51]

En-lightening! Who knew modern science was still channeling Benjamin Franklin? That description makes the process come alive.

[Inner]

Sometimes a rocket getting lightning is definitely not a good thing. In 1969 Apollo 12 got hit by lightning (twice) during it's ascent. It was a scary minute, traveling with 7 million pounds of thrust behind you and suddenly the control panels go crazy. The story reads like a movie: https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap12fj/...ingstrike.html