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Education Science

High School Rocket Club Builds Carbon Fiber Rocket 26

Posted by timothy from the this-did-come-come-in-an-estes-kit dept.
Nick Anderson, team leader of the Sunset Rocketry Club, located at Sunset High School Club in Portland, OR, writes that the club "is nearing completion of their third rocket, SRC III. The rocket is constructed with composite techniques ranging from carbon fiber, nomex and fiberglass. Use of these high tech composite materials let SRC create a lightweight, super strong rocket that is incredibly light in weight. Testing of SRC III should start soon, altitudes of up to 6000 ft are expected. SRC III is designed to carry 2 eggs and an electronic altimeter to extacly 1500 ft. This will be SRC's entry into the Team America Rocketry Challenge. More info on SRC III and other rockets can be viewed at their website."
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High School Rocket Club Builds Carbon Fiber Rocket More

High School Rocket Club Builds Carbon Fiber Rocket

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  • unfortunatly.. (Score:2, Funny)

    by seann ( 307009 )
    Use of these high tech composite materials let SRC create a lightweight, super strong rocket that is incredibly light in weight.
    The project is in jeporady of being canceled because of the students lack of english participation at skewl.
  • Funny, I thought that said Team Arena Rocket Launcher Challenge or something along those lines. I can't help it, but every time I see a rocket-related subject, I come to think of John Carmack.

  • Light in Weight (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 11, 2002 @01:46PM (#4863457)
    Use of these high tech composite materials let SRC create a lightweight, super strong rocket that is incredibly light in weight.

    But is it incredibly super in strong?

  • The construction pages, in case of /. effect (Score:5, Informative)

    by RobertB-DC ( 622190 ) on Wednesday December 11, 2002 @02:00PM (#4863589) Homepage Journal
    Just in case, here is the text of the SRC III Construction [sunsetrocketry.org] section of the site. Not Karma Whoring, just trying to be helpful.

    Sunset Rocketry Club
    SRC III Construction
    By: Nick Anderson

    Part I: Altimeter and Fins (11/12/02)

    Nick and Jeff worked on testing out the altimeter (here [sunsetrocketry.org]) and then moved onto making the fins. We laminated 1/16" balsa wood with West Systems Epoxy and 3oz fiber glass on both sides. The wood was then covered in wax paper and pressed with heavy steel plates. We were left with extremely strong, light weight and thin material that we cut into fins. The pressing helped reduced the ammount of excess epoxy in the fins, and also compacted the fiberglass to the balsa well.

    Finished piece of fin material
    Piece is very thin and strong

    This technique will also be used for construction of centering rings.

    Part II: Carbon Tube Construction (11/14/02)

    Peter, Jeff, and Nick went over to Alex M's and constructed an additional carbon fiber tube. We now have 3 lengths of 2.1 (54mm) x 16 in composite tubing. We choose to use this tubing because it offered us very lightweight tubing, with minimal weight.

    Examples:
    16' piece of phenolic tubing: 124g
    16' piece of Carbon Fiber tubing: 60g

    (These carbon tubes here were our first try, the next tubes will hopefully be lighter.)

    These extreme weight savings will allow us to fly on smaller motors. The small motor we use, the cheaper it is, and generally the more available they will be. We are hoping that we may be able to use Estes's Ds and Es for propulsion, as they are cheap. Aerotech motors are also starting to get pretty hard to find around here...

    Jeff and Peter used their math skills to figure out how much carbon cloth we would need, while Alex and Nick prepared the carbon cloth for cutting. We were using a Aerotech K700 casing wrapped in wax paper for a mandrel. After cutting the cloth, Alex applied West Systems epoxy to the mandrel, while Jeff and Peter wrapped and wetted the cloth on the mandrel. Significant problems were encountered at the end, when a large air bubble was found and Nick foolishly unwrapped the tube. Eventually it got all fixed up.

    The mandrel was then wrapped in heat shrink tape, and Alex used the heat gun to shrink the tape. In our first attempts we used a plastic plotter paper tube which melted if heated up to much. This meant we were not able to fully contract the tape which left excess epoxy on the tube. With a metal mandrel, we could heat the tube to the theoretical limit of the epoxy and hopefully remove most if not all of the excess epoxy.

    A top view of the 2 carbon tubes completed.
    Side view
    A peek down the inside.

    Part III: Carbon Fiber removal, fin cutting and igniters (11/27/02)

    Peter, Paul and Nick were present at the second work party on SRC III. First off Peter brought 3 lb of dry ice, in an attempt to remove a carbon fiber tube that had stuck to the mandrel. We hoped that by cooling down aluminum motor casing, it would allow us to slip the carbon fiber tube off. It didn't work.

    The tube is stuck on the mandrel for 2 reasons. The first being that the wax paper being used as a release mechanism melted and marred when we heated the tube. It allowed the epoxy to adhere to it rather than being a barrier. Secondly, the heat shrink tape we used compacted the tube very tightly to the tube. Not good for removal purposes. We may yet use liquid nitrogen, and try and cool the tube down even father.

    We filled the tube up with dry ice, and immediately water started to condense and freeze on the outside. We think that aluminum and Carbon Fiber have similar thermal expansion coefficients, so both tubes shrunk at the same rate. We were hoping that one would shrink more than the other. After some futile pounding and pushing and pulling we decided that it was not going to come off. The remaining ice was then disposed of, properly of course. :-)

    A top view of the stuck tube on the mandrel

    A lengthwise view of affixed tube.

    A blurry up close shot.

    A little background on how the tube was made:

    The mandrel was a Aerotech RMS K700 casing. There were 2 wraps of 5.9 oz bi-directional carbon fiber. Approx 3 oz of West Systems epoxy was used. Wax paper was wrapped around the mandrel to serve as a release layer. Heat shrink tape was used to compact the CF and epoxy.

    More on our other Carbon Fiber tubes can be see here [sunsetrocketry.org].

    Fin Cutting

    Booster fins.

    Sustainer Fins

    The booster fins were cut and sanded by Peter O. They are a standard trapezoidal shape. These were chosen mainly for looks rather than anything else.

    The sustainer fins were cut by Paul C. The are a "upside down Nevada" shape. Again, personal preference only.

    More on making the fins material can be see here [sunsetrocketry.org].

    Igniters

    Nick made up a few homemade igniters. He used the igniter man igniter kit. The pyrogen had dried out, and no acetone was avilable to reconstitute it, so no pyrogen was added at this time. Only conductive primer and the sealer were used. The wires used were from a old davey fire electric match lead.

    We performed a ground test of just the conductive primer and concluded that pyrogen will be needed to light any composite motor. The directions recommended using the conductive primer to light BP motors and small composite motors.

    A small homemade igniter sized to fit a 24mm reload. Conductive primer only.

    Part IV: Nose Cone Construction (11/29/02)

    Nick worked on creating a lightweight nose cone for SRC III. The nose cone was made with blue insulation foam. This is a fairly dense foam that can be cut and sanded easily. 3 pieces were cut and epoxied together so that the formed a large, rectangular block. Then a small 3/8 dowel was inserted into the center piece. A larger 1/2 piece was glued onto the very end of the 3/8 dowel, so that it would fit better on the lathe. The the whole assembly was mounted on a lathe. We turned it down to the correct diameter, and tried to create a "ogive" shape. The nose cone is 9.5 inches long and 2.1 inches in diameter. The shoulder is only 1 inch long because the nose cone is "non-moving". That is, it won't ever be leaving its place during the flight, so a small shoulder can be used.

    The nose cone turned out great, and is very light. All that is left is to put a thin layer of epoxy and microballons on the surface to protect the nose cone from dropping and dings. Also, the tip may either be filled down, or we may cut it off and put a balsa tip on.

    A picture of the nose cone.

    Notice glue lines from foam.

    Lightweight Nose Cone

    Part V: Systems Integration Test (12/02/02)

    All the parts of SRC III were fitted toghter by Nick and Jeff, to check for any problems that need to be worked out. The procudeure went smoothly, and assembly of SRC III should start on 12/03/02.

    SRC III assembled.

    A composite photo of SRC III.

    Part VI: Egg Protection Trials (12/02/02)

    Jeff worked on creating a protection system for the eggs. High density foam was used to tightly wrap the eggs, and acted as a shock absorber between the eggs and the wall of the rocket tube. Along with this, some cushier foam was placed between the eggs in case they came out of their packaging.

    A diagram of the egg protection scheme. To simulate the worse possible situation that SRC III could encounter in a launch, the tube (representing SRC III's payload bay) was thrown off Nick's 24 foot roof. The egg survived multiple droppings onto the lawn with no parachute to slow the descent. The egg survived several trials in which the tube was thrown onto the lawn. The eggs eventually broke when Nick tossed it upward and the tube crashed onto the concrete. As Jeff put it, "it looks like the eggs are broken." Nick promptly sounded the all clear whistle so that the neighbors could resume normal activity.
    The test was considered successful because, although the eggs broke when they fell onto concrete, SRC III will be landing on grass with a parachute deployed. The system was accepted by the committee, and will be used in SRC III.

    Nick climbs on the roof for the eggdrop.

    Nick signals to warn the neighbors of falling rockets.

    Jeff on the ground stuffing the egg protection vessel.

    The egg containment vessel.

    Nick practicing his follow-through.

    Nick winding up.

    Rocket leaves Nick's hand.

    A strange cloud of smoke leaves the rocket because it is smokingly good.

    The cloud disappears as quickly as it came.

    Landing! No egg damage yet.

    What happened when rocket landed on concrete.

    Ewww...

    Any questions and comments can be addressed to Nick Anderson.

  • This is amazing (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MerlynEmrys67 ( 583469 ) on Wednesday December 11, 2002 @03:00PM (#4864229)
    Not only is this a local public high school, where kids are showing a lot of interest in science, but there website is still completely available after being posted on slashdot...

    Good job


  • Ok who's dad works for NASA ... or any other high tech boat/airplane/car production facility

    Although I must say Dad's helping kids with the science projects are much better than Dad's kicking the shit out of someone else's Dad at a soccer game.

    One of my favorite memory's of time with my dad was building a bridge out of newspaper (It held more weight than they had to test it.)
    • As a matter of fact, I can tell you that this was completely built by students. That's part of the rules. http://www.rocketcontest.org if you don't belive me.

      This was completely built by students, financed by students and will be completely flown by students.

      No "over achiever" dads here. My Dad works as an EE, so what the heck would he know about composites, anyways..

      Nick Anderson

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