Aerospace Engineer
Stephen Hall
Drag Race Team
As part of the Daedalus Astronautics Club at Arizona State University, you are placed on a drag team that races to achieve an altitude of 3,000ft with a high-powered rocket as fast as possible. As a team member, I learned the fundamentals of basic rocketry by designing, building and launching a custom rocket. For this project, we started out defining basic terms and ideas of how a rocket works such as the center of pressure, center of gravity, apogee, etc. before we started the actual design. We then proceeded to create a build of materials and a model of the rocket using RockSim. This enabled us to see how it would perform during flight given the chosen diameter, length, fin design, weight, etc. Once a design was finalized to meet our specifications, actual construction began on the rocket. This consisted of hand wrapping and epoxying carbon fiber to create the body tube. Once finished, we cut fins out of sheets of fiberglass using a table saw. Slots were then cut out of the body tube with a Dremel which allowed the fins to slide in. Once inserted, the fins were epoxied into position and the entire rocket was sanded and painted for maximum aerodynamic efficiency. We also 3D printed centering rings for the motor mount which was designed and modeled using SolidWorks, ensuring that the motor was properly in place within the rocket.
Now that the exterior of the rocket was completed, the interior could be started. This consists of the electronics bay and parachutes. The electronics bay is an altimeter which was designed to blow a black powder charge at apogee, releasing a drogue chute and slowing the rocket down until it reaches an altitude of 300 ft. Once at 300ft, the altimeter blows another black powder charge to release the main chute and slow the rocket down enough for landing. The altimeter was held in place by a housing unit that was laser engraved to perfectly fit within the rocket but securely hold the electrics in place. The parachutes were also calculated to be the correct size to slow the rocket down enough where it would not break the rocket on impact.
Overall, this project taught me the fundamentals of basic high powered rocketry and gave me an understanding on what creates a stable rocket. I was also taught how to place and epoxy carbon fiber as well as how to sand and finish it to create a smooth surface. I also learned several hands on skills such as how to properly use a table saw when cutting out the fins as well as a Dremel to create the fin slots. The rest consisted of tying knots to secure the nose cone, parachute, body tube and motor casing together.
The final part of this project was to see if we could successfully launch and recover what we had built. The rocket had met our expectations and launched to an altitude of 3,000 ft while deploying both drogue and main chutes to land safely.