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Project Overview
Project Overview
This project was my senior capstone project. It was structured as a completion team to compete in the 2023 Spaceport America Cup Competition in Las Crusis, New Mexico. The team designed a high-powered rocket airframe capable of flying to 10k ft carrying a 10 lb payload. The completion goal is to fly as close to 10k ft as possible, with more points awarded to teams very close to their targeted altitude. The competition was scored using several criteria, including build quality, quality of analysis, quality of the final design report, and accuracy of altitude prediction.
This was USU's first entry into this competition since 2018. The team included seven mechanical engineering seniors and three electrical engineering seniors. The mechanical team was primarily focused on the airframe design and analysis, while the electrical team focused on the payload.
The team achieved an altitude of 9048 ft.
Airframe and Flight Performance
Airframe and Flight Performance
The airframe was constructed from G10 fiberglass. The airframe design has a 6" diameter payload section and a transition down to a 5" booster section. This was done to reduce the airframes base drag and decrease construction costs.
Altitude Prediction
Altitude Prediction
The airframe flight performance was calculated using two flight simulation software: Open Rocket and RASAero.
Open Rocket was used as a preliminary analysis tool. The advantage of using Open Rocket is that it has an in-software modeling tool that can predict weights, center of gravity, and center of pressure for any given configuration. This software is also suitable for flight simulation below Mach 0.8, as it does not have an accurate transonic aerodynamic model for flight simulation.
RASAero was used as the team's primary flight performance tool as the software has highly accurate aerodynamic models for subsonic, transonic, and supersonic flight regions. The tool's primary drawback is that it does not have a way to predict weights and center of gravity and relies on user input for this information.
Stability Analysis
Stability Analysis
Another important metric for flight is the stability of the airframe. Both Open Rocket and RASAero were used to confirm this stability. The rocket's stability is measured in stability calipers, which are simply the location of the Cp subtracted from the Cg and divided by the airframe diameter. One of the requirements for this airframe is to have a static stability of at least two during the flight.
Air Break Design
Air Break Design
Air Breaks where implemented to slow the rocket down to target the appogee altitude to maximize the teams final score. The air breaks where heavily analyzed using FEA for stress calculations and CFD for Drag performance.
The air breaks used a single lead screw in the center of the the flaps to drive a linkage nut to open and close the flaps. The Cage of the airbrakes was constructed of ABS plastic after FEA analysis confirmed that the plastic could handle the aero loads experienced during flight.
The full design report is available for download at
The full design report is available for download at
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