lacar1601
Well-Known Member
Back during the beginning of my Fall 2011 semester, I joined an astronautics club at UW Madison. One of the events that they take part in is a collegiate high-power rocketry competition sponsored by the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium. The interested students (including me) split into small teams of three, and that is how team Buckynauts came to be.
The Challenge
The parameters of the competition were as follows:
1) Rocket must transmit live video during its ascent.
2) Rocket must reach apogee between 3500 ft and 2500 ft. The target apogee is 3000 ft.
3) Parachute must be electronically deployed. Rocket must be recovered in flyable condition.
So over the year, my team planned, calculated and prototyped. Here's how we met the challenge.
The Design
Pretty much any high-power rocket engine will get a lightweight rocket past 6000 ft, so we chose one of the smaller engines: the Cessaroni I-470. We looked online for thrust curves, and calculated the optimal mass requirement that will get us to 3000 ft.
Since our 3-man team was composed of rookies, We decided to go unoriginal with our body and used a LOC/Precision Nuke Pro-Maxx kit, which has a tube diameter of 54 mm. We used the open-source program OpenRocket to model our data.
Our video camera, a wireless 2.4 GHz BoosterVision Gearcam, was mounted externally. To reduce the drag, we fabricated a fairing to fit over it. To balance the aerodynamic effects, we also constructed two additional fins having the exact same shape as the fairing-camera mount.
The primary (and sole) component of our electronics bay was our altimeter. The altimeter sends the charge that ignites the black powder to split open the rocket and deploy the parachute.
We added weight wherever there was space to increase mass.
The Final Product
We learned at a regional meeting that our rocket is tiny compared to average standards. In fact, the issues created by the size of our rocket almost didn't pass inspection by Tripoli. The length of our cord connected the parachute to the rocket barely fit inside its compartment with the engine. We were ultimately advised to wrap the cord around the engine to save space.
The Launch
Saturday April 28, 2012. Richard Bong State Recreation Area
Miserable day: cloudy, cold, windy.
But that pales in comparison to the excitement of seeing our rocket fly.
[e=<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="[url]http://www.youtube.com/v/PbDqHT-RlrI?version=3&feature=player_detailpage[/url]"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PbDqHT-RlrI?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="360"></object>]
The Disaster
Our rocket way overshot the 3000 ft. apogee target, and we lost it in the clouds.
Witnesses who saw our rocket coming down report that the parachute failed to deploy, and it crashed near a forested hill about a quarter of a mile away.
After searching for 2 hours, we gave up looking for it.
The Experience
I had a lot of fun designing and flying the rocket. This is definitely something I would do again next year.
If you guys have questions or comments about my experience, holler at me!
The Challenge
The parameters of the competition were as follows:
1) Rocket must transmit live video during its ascent.
2) Rocket must reach apogee between 3500 ft and 2500 ft. The target apogee is 3000 ft.
3) Parachute must be electronically deployed. Rocket must be recovered in flyable condition.
So over the year, my team planned, calculated and prototyped. Here's how we met the challenge.
The Design
Pretty much any high-power rocket engine will get a lightweight rocket past 6000 ft, so we chose one of the smaller engines: the Cessaroni I-470. We looked online for thrust curves, and calculated the optimal mass requirement that will get us to 3000 ft.
Since our 3-man team was composed of rookies, We decided to go unoriginal with our body and used a LOC/Precision Nuke Pro-Maxx kit, which has a tube diameter of 54 mm. We used the open-source program OpenRocket to model our data.
Our video camera, a wireless 2.4 GHz BoosterVision Gearcam, was mounted externally. To reduce the drag, we fabricated a fairing to fit over it. To balance the aerodynamic effects, we also constructed two additional fins having the exact same shape as the fairing-camera mount.
The primary (and sole) component of our electronics bay was our altimeter. The altimeter sends the charge that ignites the black powder to split open the rocket and deploy the parachute.
We added weight wherever there was space to increase mass.
The Final Product
We learned at a regional meeting that our rocket is tiny compared to average standards. In fact, the issues created by the size of our rocket almost didn't pass inspection by Tripoli. The length of our cord connected the parachute to the rocket barely fit inside its compartment with the engine. We were ultimately advised to wrap the cord around the engine to save space.
The Launch
Saturday April 28, 2012. Richard Bong State Recreation Area
Miserable day: cloudy, cold, windy.
But that pales in comparison to the excitement of seeing our rocket fly.
[e=<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="[url]http://www.youtube.com/v/PbDqHT-RlrI?version=3&feature=player_detailpage[/url]"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PbDqHT-RlrI?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="360"></object>]
The Disaster
Our rocket way overshot the 3000 ft. apogee target, and we lost it in the clouds.
Witnesses who saw our rocket coming down report that the parachute failed to deploy, and it crashed near a forested hill about a quarter of a mile away.
After searching for 2 hours, we gave up looking for it.
The Experience
I had a lot of fun designing and flying the rocket. This is definitely something I would do again next year.
If you guys have questions or comments about my experience, holler at me!
