LIVE. THRUST. REPEAT

Live. Thrust. Repeat is ITR's first minimum diameter rocket with a predicted apogee of 12,300. It was initially design for 2022 Argonia Cup with an ejectiable payload in form of a quadcopter to deliver golf balls. This quadcopter was student-built using MDF and commercial electronics. The intent behind the quadcopter was to be able to deliver a small golf ball-sized object to a designated target after the apogee had been reached by the rocket.

Due to logistic issues, the team was unable to compete at Argonia Cup. On August 5th, 2022, LTR was successfully launched and recovered at Friend of Amateur Rocketry (Mojave, CA). With a final altitude of 12,365ft and Mach 1.0, LTR was the fastest and highest rocket at the time. In addition, this rocket also had the most accurate simulation with the error of only 0.522%

Structure

Avionics

The avionics system for LTR utilizes dual-deployment and -redundant systems to ensure safe re-entry. The module features two COTS flight computers with AltusMetrum TeleMega V5 as primary and Missile Works RRC3 as backup. The ground station also utilizes a dual-redundant system two primary and auxiliary ground stations. The primary ground station consists of Altus Metrum TeleBT paired with a 433 MHZ Yagi antenna connected to a laptop running AltOS software. The auxiliary consists of Altus Metrum TeleDongle, 850mAh LiPo Battery, micro USC Cable, and 433Mhz Yagi Antennas.

Aerodynamics

A MATLAB script was completed to create a 3D, animated graph of the rocket flight, this included having horizontal distance on the Y axis, time on the X axis, and altitude on the Z axis.

Payload

"LTR" was designed with an ejectable payload in the form of an expanding quadcopter. A folding/scissor mechanism is selected to help the system fit inside the coupler. Firefly is a student-built quadcopter featuring an FPV camera and an Ardupilot Mission Planner for the ground station. The intent behind the quadcopter was to be able to deliver a small golf ball-sized object to a designated target after the apogee had been reached by the rocket. The team utilizes Ardupilot Mission Planner to configure the PixHawk flight computer and tune PIDS gains on the flight controller. This ensures correct motor spinning orientation, GPS lock, allowing better control of quadcopter by pilot.