Spaceport America Cup 2023

[cls]

With temperatures over 100F and winds gusting above 20mph, prepping the rockets was challenging. The calmer windows in the mornings weren't utilized in general by the teams (and in some cases, by the range crew)

That's terrible. I couldn't handle that. Hope everyone learned to be ready first thing in the morning for next year.

 

[ben]

Speaking of ignition, I was told out of the 5 2-stage projects only 1 lit the sustainer. Does anyone have any color on what were the reasons?

GW had a sustainer burn thru on their 75 mm L940. Both the booster and the sustainer were lite with dual e-matches and pyrodex pellets sized for the motor. BTW GW was the only 2-stage to lite the sustainer. I still don't know why the SRAD sustainer had the burn thru.

Ben

 

[JimJarvis50]

Speaking of ignition, I was told out of the 5 2-stage projects only 1 lit the sustainer. Does anyone have any color on what were the reasons?

Regarding the reasons that staging didn't occur:

UBC had an altimeter issue where the Telemega didn't register burnout. Neither the igniter nor the separation charge fired. The detection of a motor burnout is a competition requirement.

Rice tilted out at 22°. They severely weathercocked into the wind.

UT Austin didn't light for reasons unknown. They didn't recover their sustainer.

Rutgers didn't light because the rocket folded prior to staging.

George Washington did light their sustainer.

For what it's worth, the two stage pads were angled at 3° (the competition value for rockets using tilt inhibition). They were not angled towards the hybrid pads. Indeed, the Monash students came out specifically to help rotate the pads so that they didn't angle towards the hybrid pads. According to the team leads, only George Washington recovered parts near the hybrid pads. It is possible that Rutgers had parts that went in that direction, but they did not recovery anything from that area.

Based on the livestream video, the surface winds were always aligned in the direction of the rail angle and not towards hybrids for the two-stage launches. However, the data suggest there may have been a westerly wind at altitude. I don't know how else parts could have gotten to hybrids from the George Washington launch.

Jim

 

[spigalau]

https://www.soundingrocket.org/uploads/9/0/6/4/9064598/2023_master_scores_for_posting_v2.xlsx
With the revised scores - University of Canterbury take out top spot in the 30K COT's section.

Well done Kahu - you flew well !

 

[OverTheTop]

Congratulations University of Canterbury! Well done to all involved .

And all the Australasian teams too.

And everyone else