TYRIDIUM

TYRIDIUM is a 6-in rocket with microbiology payload used to test yeast reaction. This rocket is designed for 2025 IREC in June 2025 at Midland, TX. On April 12th, TYRIDIUM was successfully launched on AeroTech M2100G at Thunderstruck 2025, reaching 11,600ft andf safely recovered.

Structure

TYDIRIUM features a COTS filament wound fiberglass body tube, Von Karman nose cone to reduce drag and a carbon fiber-reinforced fin. The fins were machined from G10 3/16” fiberglass plate using a CNC router. Fins are attached to body tube and motor mount using West System 105/206.

Data Collection System

Onboard Computer: Raspberry Pi 5
Data Logging: save to onboard SD card

Sensor Suite

Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)
High-G Accelerometer
Barometric Pressure Sensor
Raspberry Pi Camera Module 2

Power System

7.2V, 3600 mAh Ni-MH Battery
5V 5A Step-Down BEC for regulated power supply

The solid 98 mm AeroTech M4500ST is chosen for its high thrust-to-weight ratio (20.3), good off-rail velocity of 152ft/s and moderate impulse to avoid overshooting. The maximum velocity is 977 ft/s. The heavy motor also contributes to a stability of 1.87 cal. TYDIRIUM weighs 50 lbs at launch.

Aerodynamics

Multiple simulation and structural analysis were performed to ensure the structural integrity of the rocket. The team developed a Python code to calculate shear stress, bending moment and fin flutter, as well as running shear force and bending moment simulations on Fusion 360 to verify with the result on Python. The fin flutter was also found to have a factor of safety of 1.5.

Payload

The goal of our research payload is to determine the attenuation coefficient of gamma radiation as it passes through the radiotrophic fungus Cladosporium Sphaerospermum. This fungus was selected due to its unique ability to metabolize radiation through a process known as radiosynthesis. This experiment will help ITR observe how much radiation the fungus can absorb when subjected to high g-forces during a rocket launch. If the results of this experiment prove fruitful, future research will include studying the minimum fungus thickness needed to block nearly 100% of incoming radiation.

Preliminary Experiment Setup:

A single petri dish will be placed inside the payload assembly, with half of the petri dish containing the fungi and the other half empty. Two Geiger counters will be placed underneath each side of the petri dish to measure the instances of radiation passing through each. Upon recovery, data from both Geiger counters will be extracted, and the attenuation rate will be calculated.
To maintain a suitable environment for the samples during flight, ITR is designing a basic refrigeration unit using a thermoelectric module(TEM) shown in Figure 4. The TEM will be placed towards the bottom of the assembly with the cold plate facing upwards towards the petri dish. The hot plate will face downwards and be connected to a heat sink, as shown in Figure 9 by the orange mass. The whole assembly will be secured with two 1/4-inch aluminum rods, as can be seen by the rod cutouts throughout the entire assembly. The rods will secure the entire payload bay to the rocket by screwing into the forward and aft payload bulkheads via wingnuts.
The entire payload will be powered with its own battery pack sourced commercially. Batteries will be secured to the battery plate (Figure 7), which will sit above the petri dish.

Avionics

TYDIRIUM is equipped with two flight computers: TeleMega v6 and RRC3. Both flight computers have separate batteries, switches and pyro charges for redundancy. The TeleMega will run on two 1s 3.7V 900mAh battery, one for power and one for pyro channel RRC3 will run on one 9V Duracell battery.

At apogee, the flight computers will deploy a 36” CFC FruityChutes, bringing the rocket down at 70 ft/s. At 1,500ft, the flight computers will deploy a 84” IFC FruityChutes parachutes to slow the descent velocity down to 22 ft/s.