Union College Rocket Team

The Union College Rocket Team will compete in the Spaceport America Cup, hosted by Experimental Sounding Rocket Association in Truth or Consequences, NM. This will be the team’s first year competing. The category in which the team is participating requires the use of commercially available motors to launch a payload to a target apogee of 10,000 ft. This goal will be accomplished with commercial off the shelf rocket components and integrating them together such that the rocket will launch, fly, and land safely. These components can be divided into four main subsystems: propulsion, structures, avionics, and recovery. Propulsion of the rocket will be achieved using a Cesaroni Technology Inc. J795 rocket motor; however, since there are limits to rocket power for testing, we will also use a Cesaroni L3150 and I445 for testing and certification. The rocket structure will be made primarily from fiberglass due to its high strength and resistance to deformation due to temperature or humidity. Other components will be made from laser cut wood adhered with epoxies to secure each component. The rockets avionics system consists of two redundant TeleMetrum flight computers, which consist of a combined barometric altimeter and GPS unit. This system is used to record the rockets flight characteristics (e.g., apogee altitude, acceleration, and time of flight), locate the rocket after it has landed, and deploy the recovery system at the appropriate time. The recovery system consists of two parachutes, the smaller of which will be deployed at apogee and the larger of which will be deployed a few hundred feet above ground level. These parachutes are deployed using pyrotechnic ejection charges, controlled by the avionics subsystem. From this experience, we hope to create the ground works for the next group of rocketeers so that they may build upon our design and rise to more competitive categories.