Below is a statement I prepared for the OSU Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. It is a shorter version of our program and this weekend's events.
The Oklahoma State University AIAA High-Power Rocketry Team was founded in August 2016 within the OSU AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) Student Branch. In September 2016, we heard of the upcoming inaugural Argonia Cup competition to take place in April 2017. With the Spaceport America Cup in June 2017, these two competitions would serve as the drive for this program throughout the year.
Building larger and more complex rockets from October to the present, we prepared for these competitions with a steep learning curve.
The objective of the Argonia Cup is to take a golf ball payload to at least 8000 feet and recover it as close to the launch site as possible. The Unmanned Systems Research Institute (USRI) headed by Dr. Jamey Jacob provided financial and logistical resources to aid in developing a spring-loaded autonomous UAV that would release from the rocket and fly itself via GPS to the launch site. Nicholas Foster was the leader and chief designer of this drone and its development team.
After a one week postponement of the competition due to weather, we stayed the weekend in Argonia, KS to compete against the Mississippi State University Space Cowboys and the Saint Louis University Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, both well-established teams that have been around for many years.
Mississippi State and SLU both flew Saturday to over 10000 feet but landing their payload more than 2 and 1.5 miles away, respectively.
Due to complications with our drone, we decided to wait until day two, Sunday, to launch our competition entry.
Early Sunday afternoon following challenges including soldering and replacing a new electronics switch and radio tracking interference, we prepared for launch into the windy Kansas skies. Upon ignition, It Depends roared off the pad, disappearing in seconds into the clouds thousands of feet above. Unfortunately as a later recovery analysis found, the altimeter lost power upon descent and the drone and main parachute never deployed, causing the separated rocket to tumble from 8000 feet and bury itself in the soil. However, the only real damage was to the drone and nosecone, buried sixteen inches underground. With that and two hours remaining in the competition, we decided to attempt a second flight, but without a drone and with a new recovery mechanism.
Thirty minutes prior to the launch window closing for the weekend, It Depends took off again but this time into blue skies. With a successful recovery deployment event and a soft touchdown, we flew to 8744 feet and landed only 0.7 miles from the launchpad, sealing our victory as the Inaugural Argonia Cup champions.
With our program still in its infancy having been founded eight months ago, we are tremendously excited to have come this far and performed as we did this weekend. We'd like to thank the following for their support throughout this program: USRI, Oklahoma State University SGA, CEAT Student Council, Jamey Jacob, Andy Arena, William Carroll, David Horton, John Gage, Collin Boettcher, David Atkins, Zach Barbeau, Marshall Soetaert, Drew Harbour, Jessica McMullen, Bob Brown, Lance Lickteig, Jim Cooper, and Kloudbusters.
The Oklahoma State University AIAA High-Power Rocketry Team was founded in August 2016 within the OSU AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) Student Branch. In September 2016, we heard of the upcoming inaugural Argonia Cup competition to take place in April 2017. With the Spaceport America Cup in June 2017, these two competitions would serve as the drive for this program throughout the year.
Building larger and more complex rockets from October to the present, we prepared for these competitions with a steep learning curve.
The objective of the Argonia Cup is to take a golf ball payload to at least 8000 feet and recover it as close to the launch site as possible. The Unmanned Systems Research Institute (USRI) headed by Dr. Jamey Jacob provided financial and logistical resources to aid in developing a spring-loaded autonomous UAV that would release from the rocket and fly itself via GPS to the launch site. Nicholas Foster was the leader and chief designer of this drone and its development team.
After a one week postponement of the competition due to weather, we stayed the weekend in Argonia, KS to compete against the Mississippi State University Space Cowboys and the Saint Louis University Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, both well-established teams that have been around for many years.
Mississippi State and SLU both flew Saturday to over 10000 feet but landing their payload more than 2 and 1.5 miles away, respectively.
Due to complications with our drone, we decided to wait until day two, Sunday, to launch our competition entry.
Early Sunday afternoon following challenges including soldering and replacing a new electronics switch and radio tracking interference, we prepared for launch into the windy Kansas skies. Upon ignition, It Depends roared off the pad, disappearing in seconds into the clouds thousands of feet above. Unfortunately as a later recovery analysis found, the altimeter lost power upon descent and the drone and main parachute never deployed, causing the separated rocket to tumble from 8000 feet and bury itself in the soil. However, the only real damage was to the drone and nosecone, buried sixteen inches underground. With that and two hours remaining in the competition, we decided to attempt a second flight, but without a drone and with a new recovery mechanism.
Thirty minutes prior to the launch window closing for the weekend, It Depends took off again but this time into blue skies. With a successful recovery deployment event and a soft touchdown, we flew to 8744 feet and landed only 0.7 miles from the launchpad, sealing our victory as the Inaugural Argonia Cup champions.
With our program still in its infancy having been founded eight months ago, we are tremendously excited to have come this far and performed as we did this weekend. We'd like to thank the following for their support throughout this program: USRI, Oklahoma State University SGA, CEAT Student Council, Jamey Jacob, Andy Arena, William Carroll, David Horton, John Gage, Collin Boettcher, David Atkins, Zach Barbeau, Marshall Soetaert, Drew Harbour, Jessica McMullen, Bob Brown, Lance Lickteig, Jim Cooper, and Kloudbusters.
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