Background
In recent years, the NAU rocket club has successfully participated in several NASA sponsored high-powered collegiate rocket competitions and this year, a capstone group will be centered around developing a high-powered research rocket that is two staged, built from advanced composite materials and will house a scientific payload meeting the customer requirements from Northrop Grumman (NRG).
Description
Our senior design project is to design, fabricate, test, and launch a Two-stage Supersonic Rocket. The rocket rocket to an altitude of 50k ft AGL max and reach and maximize speed at Mach 2 and above. The main goal of this project is to utilize our engineering knowledge to conceptualize and build a product that meets our client's needs. Our main stakeholder is Northrop Grumman Space Systems, Launch Vehicles Division.
Requirements
- Develop a two-stage launch vehicle
- Vehicle will be constructed of composite material
- Rocket will reach an altitude of at least 40,000 ft AGL (Above Ground Level)
- Scaled prototype rocket required as a proof of concept
- Final launch vehicle will be required to carry a maximum 10 Lb payload that will fit within a 6" diameter bay
- Vehicle require to reach and maintain over Mach 2 or roughly 1500 mph and maximize time spent at that speed or greater
- Acceleration of the vehicle needs to meet a minimum of 12g's
- Vehicle trajectory will be simulated in Matlab and in Rocksim
- Composite structural components will be simulated and tested to ASME standards
- Current payload will carry instrumentation to measure vibrations during flight test and simulate vibrations
- Vehicle required to use commercial rocket motors
- Recovery of entire launch vehicle for reuse