1. College of Engineering
Iowa State University
NASA SL
College of Engineering

2. Team Structure

3. Mission Overview Requirements: Reach an apogee of exactly 5,280 ft
Safely recover rocket and land within 2,500 ft of the launch pad
Fully reusable for another launch on the same day
Perform 1 experiment onboard
Roll Control System

4. Rocket Overview Rocket Specifications: Rocket Features:
• Length – 128 in.
• Body Diameter – 6 in.
• Airframe Material – Blue tube
• Fin Material – G10 Fiberglass
Rocket Features:
• Carbon Fiber Air brakes and external fins
• Three-parachute recovery system w/ separation
• Onboard flight data processing and recording
• Downward facing video capture

5. Rocket Dimensions

6. Rocket Design Dimensions Stability
Length: 128 in Center of Gravity: 80.3 in
Diameter: 6.00 in Center of Pressure: 92.5 in
Weight: 40 lb Stability Margin: 2.33

7. Rocket Design (cont.) OpenRocket Simulation Results:
Max Acceleration: 252 ft/s2 (7.83 g)
Max Velocity: 665 ft/s (Mach 0.60)
Apogee: 5465 ft
Structural Components:
2 layered ¼” bulkheads to support axial loads from motor.
6” Bluetube airframe with couplers
Fiberglass nose cone/fins
Aero-Epoxy used to form a ½” fillet radius between components

8. Nosecone Design Nosecone - 5:1 Ogive 5:1 vs. 4:1
Filament wound fiberglass
Aluminum tip
30” long
5:1 vs. 4:1
Shifts CG forward
RCS fins behind CG

9. Performance Parameters/Motor Choice
Motor Selection: Cesaroni 4263-L1350-P
Max/Avg Thrust: 346/303 lbf
Total Impulse: 962 lbf-s
Thrust/Weight: 9.88
Launch rail exit speed: 56.9 ft/s
6’ 0” launch rail travel

10. Motor Mount Subsystem Hardware 75 mm blue tube motor tube
Aeropack flanged retainer
load transfer through aft compression
4 ½” Centering ring assemblies

11. Air Brake Subsystem Apogee Prediction: Design: Nucleo STM32
Inertial Measurement Unit
Kalman Filtering
Design:
High Torque/Speed Servo (611 oz*in)
Simple Cable/Pulley system to extend air brakes

12. Feedback Control Loop

13. Main Fin Design Fin Design: Split fins Similar to Dark Star and Thor-X
4 sets of fins (8 total)
Geometry optimized for fin flutter
45 different fin designs tested
G10 fiberglass
Light and durable
Used previously

14. Main Fin Design Forward main fin dimensions: Aft main fin dimensions:
Fin flutter velocity: ft/s
FoS = 1.54
Fin flutter velocity: ft/s
FoS = 1.78

15. Roll Induction System Roll Induction Requirements:
Rocket must initiate a roll after motor burnout
Must complete at least 2 rolls
Halt the roll for the rest of the flight

16. Roll Induction System
Two secondary fins controlled by servos induce and control roll during ascent
Flight computer
Flight computer controls servos
Servos activate induced roll
Barometric pressure sensor and gyroscopic accelerometer
Gyroscopic accelerometer reads rotational velocity
Generates data for flight computer

17. Roll Induction System Roll Induction Fin Design: Current fin design
Approximately ⅛” thick
Carbon Fiber or Fiberglass
Easy to fabricate
CFD results may alter fin dimensions slightly

18. Avionics Bay Avionics Bay:
Deploy parachutes at proper time and sequence
Two redundant altimeters of different brands to reduce brand specific errors
One “official” altimeter to record flight apogee for competition

19. Avionics Bay AIM USB Rocket Altimeter
Barometric pressure sensor and IMU
Two on-board to control both parachute deployments

20. Flight Computer Bay Arduino Due Barometric Pressure Sensor
Inertial Measurement Unit
Runs Airbrake Kalman Filtering Program

21. Recovery Subsystem Recovery Hardware ⅜” U Bolts ¼” Quick Links
Kevlar Shock Cord (rated 1,500 lb)
Deployment Bag

22. Configuration 1 - Drogue Configuration 2 - Main and Drogue
Recovery Subsystem
Configuration 1 - Drogue
Rocket Weight (on descent)
35.5 lb.
Parachute Size
18 in.
Descent Rate
88.7 ft/s
Configuration 2 - Main and Drogue
96 in and 18 in.
16.1 ft/s
Configuration 1 (Drogue)
Descent Rate: 108 ft/s
Parachute: 18” Elliptical
Shock Cord: 26 ft Kevlar
Configuration 2 (Main)
Descent Rate: 17.1 ft/s
Parachute: 18” Elliptical and 96” Elliptical
Shock Cord: 17 ft Kevlar
Forward Section
Avionics Section
Motor Mount
Section Weight
8.0 lb.
9.0 lb.
18.5 lb.
Impact Energy
32.6 ft-lb
36.7 ft-lb
70 ft-lb

23. Calculated Drift from Launchpad
Drift Measurements
Drift Calculations:
Used Openrocket’s built-in drift calculator
Calculated Drift from Launchpad
+ 5o Launch Angle
No Wind
5-mph
10-mph
15-mph
20-mph
Drift Distance
1175 ft
1475 ft
1708 ft
1863 ft
1915 ft

24. Mission Profile

25. Rocket Test Plans and Procedures
Axial load test of blue tube
Compressive load to motor mount
Parachute attachment points tensile tests
Event charge testing
Drag separation testing
Avionics:
Power consumption/battery capacity testing
Air Brake compressive testing
Air Brake wind tunnel tests

26. Preliminary Timeline (Oct - Jan)

27. Preliminary Timeline (Feb - Apr)

28. Budget
Rocket
$ 5,400
Avionics
$770
Travel
$3,500
Total
$9670

29. Iowa State University CySLI
Questions?