Our Control System
The prototype design
The ultimate goal of this project is to control the spin of the rocket on the way up. Rockets can be controlled by various means such as cold gas thrusters, thrust vectoring, and what we chose for our project, fin actuation.
Pros and cons of using fin actuation
Pros
Lightweight - less weight means the rocket is more efficient
Inexpensive - with an already tight budget, saving money is always helpful
Widely used - with plenty of other work and documentation to refer to we can more easily overcome challenges
Simple - easy to understand on an intuitive level
Cons
Can change multiple axes - it can be easy to steer the rocket in an undesirable direction
Variable with rocket velocity - as the rocket slows the amount of steering from the fins lessens
Difficult to ground test - since the rocket can reach speeds of up to 500 mph and the fins depend on wind speed to steer it will be especially difficult to test this prior to the final launch
The CAD design
