Team Jarts Rocket Design

Abstract

The objective of the 2013 Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium collegiate rocket competition was to construct a rocket to achieve an apogee of 3,000 feet and recover the rocket safely in flyable condition

The rocket was designed to reach an apogee of 3000 feet. The main feature of the rocket includes passively controlling the drag to control the altitude reached. This is done by initial design of the airframe and fins. The other feature is deploying a drogue parachute on the ascent of the rocket in order to stop the rocket at 3000 feet. The rocket was designed to achieve an apogee greater than 3000 feet so that the deployment of a drogue parachute can stop the rocket at 3000 feet. Fiberglass tubing makes up the rocket due to its high strength and durability. Extra support was designed into the rocket to ensure that zippering does not occur. The rocket design included resulting in stable rocket based on the center of pressure and center of gravity.

The recovery system of the rocket involves a dual deployment system. A drogue parachute is to be deployed at 2900 feet to stop the rocket at 3000 feet and control the rockets descent until the main parachute is deployed. The main parachute is then deployed at 700 feet and controls the rocket descent until landing on the ground. There is also a second set of ejection charges that will deploy the drogue parachute at apogee and the main parachute at 500 feet if the main charges do not deploy them. These ejection charges are fired by the MARSA4 and PerfectFlite StratoLogger altimeters. There is also a motor ejection charge backup based on a time delay to ensure the deployment of a parachute.