High Powered Rocketry
The High Powered Rocketry Division designs, builds, and flies high altitude rockets.
Solid Propulsion
The solid propulsion subteam designs, manufactures, and tests the flight motors for our rockets. The team mixes custom ammonium perchlorate composite propellant in our lab, with formulas characterized through a series of small test fires. The team then performs system design using a simulation software developed by one of our team members. Following the full motor simulation, we design and manufacture motor hardware and cast our flight propellant grains. We static fire test all of our motor designs prior to flight to ensure consistency with our simulations. The team has successfully flown custom motors ranging in size up to a P9100.
Aerodynamics & Control
The aerodynamics subteam is responsible for the design, manufacturing, and testing of our composite structures, particularly the fin can of the launch vehicle. The strength of the fin can is essential to a stable flight and a successful launch. To ensure this strength, we lay up and cure our carbon fiber laminates in-house. Additionally, the team is responsible for external farings to house flight cameras, conducting structural and thermal tests as well as running full vehicle simulations to ensure stability and optimize altitude. AeroD also explores active attitude control via actuating fins and command surfaces.
Structures
The structures subteam designs and manufactures various structural components of the rocket, as well as the avionics tower. Parts like aluminum bulkheads are manufactured on CNC mills and lathes, while parts such as enclosures and panels for the avionics tower are manufactured on 3D printers and waterjets. Our components interact with all other subteams’ assemblies, making sure the whole rocket works. Structures also designs, manufactures, and tests parachutes as well as deployment hardware for each rocket. Our custom recovery system includes hand-sewn parachutes and a high-altitude pyrotechnic separation mechanism.
Avionics
The avionics subteam designs and assembles custom electronics and are currently in the process of designing a space-ready flight computer. Supporting hardware includes power management with support for on-the-pad charging and cameras, capable of recording video in Ultra HD (4K). Our multi-threaded flight software performs high-frequency sensor fusion and reports supersonic telemetry using our custom radio hardware. During the launch, we are in charge of mission control.
