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We are leaving for the site this morning. The SDSU Rocket Project media team will be live streaming the launch, be sure to check in tomorrow if interested: https://www.facebook.com/TheSdsuRocketProject/ Here are some photos of the avionics mounting as promised. Tight fit :wink:

I don't have any documentation online, but will take some pictures when I am in the shop this evening. Its nothing particularly custom in terms of hardware; we are using a Raven, a Telemetrum, two lipo batteries in parallel, and a miniature RDF beacon. Its mounted on a 3d-printed TPU sled...

Part of the reason we have been so long in finishing this project is that we were working on a 4" composite case booster motor for Icarus 3. Icarus 3 will be a upscaled version of this project using the motor in this test: At 120 fps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-gIW7FdsCU In 4k 30 fps...

This thread started a year and a half ago, and our team is very close to completing the project. Fins are mounted, range tests are done, all machined parts are epoxied into place. The final project packs dual redundant recovery and tracking into the 29 mm 5.25 lb dart. It contains over a dozen...

I have a comment on the fabric discussion: Some of the members of our collegiate rocketry team did a bunch of windtunnel tests on parachutes they sewed last semester. Using a low porosity fabric recommended by an advisor at the local "dropzone" yielded a 25% increase in drag when compared to an...

That is very interesting, thank you for sharing your experience from industry. Myself and other students are definitely very interested in learning how to use CFD as an effective tool. For those looking for the data: it seems to me that instead of purchasing access to AIAA reports, the most...

In our department, CFD is a "graduate students only" level class. The faculty here is of the opinion that, unless you are qualified to write your own solvers, you don't understand the inner workings well enough to know whether or not you are getting valid results. We do have some fantastic...

A great resource to see drag and lift data in a relatively concise form is Chapter 13 of "Fundamentals of Aircraft and Airship Design- Volume I" by Leland M. Nicoai and Grant E. Charichner. It includes some mature methods for estimating the performance of lifting surfaces and the drag of...

Sounds good! We are working on our first boosted dart project at my school as well, I'll enjoy seeing this one come together. What school are you with?

I worked with a few collegiate rocketeers who worked on developing such a system. Their biggest difficulty, by far, was FAA approval due to the perceived unpredictability of a weather balloon at altitude. Alex

Many of the thoughts posted here echo ideas we have been talking about for some Team Icarus projects and I think a jettisonable aft tailcone would be mighty valuable. I think the best bet here would be to use a fiberglass cone with a small flame resistant streamer inside. I would look to design...

I used to be a sail plane guy as well. I wouldn't recommend the hybrid fabric. The stiffness of the aramid is lower than the stiffness of the carbon, so the carbon will take a disproportionate amount of the load, decreasing overall strength and stiffness while reducing durability. It's not bad...

It would be hilarious to use the costume as a streamer. Rig it up to a cable cutter actuated release so it gets ripped off on the way down.

I can think of a few reasons why, anyone feel free to correct me if I am off base here. The first is that an obstruction blocking the nozzle is problematic for obvious reasons: an obstruction in the nozzle at start up leads to increased pressure when the pressure spike is most severe. With the...

We got a lot done in this last week. First, we pulled the plug from the completed mold. One side came out quite nicely, but the other has a few voids so we are currently filling them with epoxy+cabosil and will sand the surface smooth afterwards. We also worked on the tail cone. I have been...

That makes sense. I have never wrapped that many layers over a positive mold before. One possible solution might be to do the layup in stages, heat shrinking a couple wraps at a time and moving to the next layer when the epoxy has gone green.

Why not? I'm curious why you think it would be less suitable for large multi wrap tubes.

Cant wait to hear how it goes. Its definitely looking really sexy.

The first half of the mold is complete. I was teaching the rest of the team mold making, so forgot to take pictures of the layup process, but it goes something like this: -Mix up laminating epoxy with a generous amount of cabosil or colloidal silica -Pour epoxy and filler mixture over the part...

I thought the tension method was pretty clever and the results really speak for themselves. "The raisin" :D. I have tried to wrap and vac bag tubes as well, and they always come out with a distinct lack of smoothness. Have you tried slipping the whole mandrel into large diameter heat shrink...