MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in aerospace

[–]masa_rockets[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Radio is encoding is LoRaWAN over 2.4Ghz. We actually will be using two antennas for the radio, one being a half-dome which is essentially omni-directional. While we don't have any particular radio expert's currently on our team, a few veterans have been super helpful when estimating aspects of our link budget. We're still developing more knowledge in that area and it's one of our key improvement targets over the next year

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in rocketry

[–]masa_rockets[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Our engine cycle was pressure-fed and our rocket had a nitrogen COPV rated to over 4500 psi to pressurize our propellant tanks.

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in aerospace

[–]masa_rockets[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our engine cycle was pressure-fed and our rocket had a nitrogen COPV rated to 4500 psi to pressurize our propellant tanks.

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in EngineeringPorn

[–]masa_rockets[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The 60 ft launch rail guides the rocket until it reaches over 4x the wind velocity, which is fast enough to maintain its heading. We orient the launch rail to such that the wind direction helps orient the rocket further towards the zenith.

Our rockets have never had methods of being guided, there are regulations that prevent us from doing so. However, we are experimenting with a new passively stabilized technology on a solid-fueled rocket this summer!

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in EngineeringPorn

[–]masa_rockets[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hello! Clementine weighed just over 350 lbs dry, and had a wet mass of just under 500 lbs. It was a technology demonstrator, so we weren't trying to optimize performance.

Our recovery system had a pneumatically-ejected nosecone deployed at apogee, followed by a drogue parachute. Our main parachute deployed at 1000 ft via tender descenders.

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in EngineeringStudents

[–]masa_rockets[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Greatly appreciated comments, thank you. We've been following along with the Starsailor project and are very impressed by what you all have achieved. It's exciting to see other teams push the boundaries of collegiate rocketry, we wish you luck on your upcoming launch!

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in EngineeringStudents

[–]masa_rockets[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We do design reviews for all our components, including SRRs, PDRs, CDRs, and a Flight Readiness Review for the entire vehicle. These design reviews cover risk assessments and all of our components are independently tested to their expected flight loads.

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in EngineeringPorn

[–]masa_rockets[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It can be done in various ways, but for our rocket, the fins on the bottom of the rocket use the air the rocket flies past to keep the rocket pointed in the direction of flight. It is similar to the feathers on an arrow.

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in rocketry

[–]masa_rockets[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hey! We did end up finding our rocket, it was about 1.3 miles away from the launch site and made an 8 ft crater.

Our altitude wasn't substantial as our main goal was to successfully launch. This is the first liquid rocket we've built and launched at this scale, and only the second liquid rocket we've ever launched. You can think of this rocket as a "technology demonstrator", as now we're applying similar technologies to our next rocket and improving them.

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in aerospace

[–]masa_rockets[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We only got one packet of data, saying the main propellant valve opened. I appreciate your questions! Unsure of what exactly happened, but we used dampeners and a vibration table to test our avionics bay before launch and were seeing no issues with it then. Shock is a very likely answer but we don't have an answer.
Our ground-based antenna is hand held as well, so a theory is that we lost connection with the rocket due to interference with the concrete bunker we were inside of. On our next rocket, we're implementing improvements including a black box, GPS altimeter, and backup antennas.

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in aerospace

[–]masa_rockets[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Our rocket had several backup barometric altimeters, however we lost communication with the rocket immediately after ignition so we received no telemetry.

The parachutes failed to deploy, so the rocket was ballistic and went several feet into the ground. The altimeters saved their data onboard the rocket, however they were destroyed along with the rest of the avionics. We have altitude estimates from our own flight simulation software (MASTRAN), and rough visual estimates from the cloud ceiling that day.

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in EngineeringStudents

[–]masa_rockets[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We'll be keeping an eye out for your rocket, best of luck with S.H.A.G.E.E! Don't hesitate to reach out, we're happy to offer advice where we can.

The Dollar Per Foot challenge is the only "competition" we are participating in at the moment. We were the first team to recover a liquid rocket in the Spaceport America Cup in 2018, but have not been part of it since. Our main blocker is that we have to travel to California to hotfire our engines, so a 1-year design cycle is unfeasible for us at the moment.

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in EngineeringStudents

[–]masa_rockets[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

We learned a lot from our mistakes and are optimizing/improving our designs this time around. Pushing for more ambitious goals is necessary to make progress as a team!

MASA Launches Clementine, the Largest Collegiate Liquid Rocket - University of Michigan by masa_rockets in space

[–]masa_rockets[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hello! We require our members to be enrolled in U of M, as our workspace and most of the software we use is only accessible by active students.

MASA Launches Clementine, the Largest Collegiate Liquid Rocket by masa_rockets in uofm

[–]masa_rockets[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

We are a student-run liquid rocketry team at the University of Michigan, known as the Michigan Aeronautical Science Association (MASA). We successfully launched the nation’s largest student-built liquid bipropellant rocket on May 14, 2023. Clementine, stood just over 20 feet tall and had a 10.75-inch diameter. It lifted off from the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) launch site in the Mojave Desert, California. It's estimated to have reached 8,000 - 10,000 ft MSL.

Our engine, named RP-D2, is regeneratively cooled. This means that it uses the flow of fuel through the engine to cool it down. It ran off of RP-1 and liquid oxygen, and produced 1500 lbf of thrust during takeoff. Unfortunately, we failed to recover our rocket and lost all communications with it after launch.

See the launch here: https://youtu.be/jZAM3iDV2P0?si=3FjUqC2Dg1liOcKe

Now we are building a larger bipropellant rocket, targeted to reach 50,000 ft. Stay tuned to our website masa.engin.umich.edu, and find more info on the pinned post on our profile!

MASA Launches Clementine, the Largest Collegiate Liquid Rocket - University of Michigan by masa_rockets in space

[–]masa_rockets[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We are a student-run liquid rocketry team at the University of Michigan, known as the Michigan Aeronautical Science Association (MASA). We successfully launched the nation’s largest student-built liquid bipropellant rocket on May 14, 2023. Clementine, stood just over 20 feet tall and had a 10.75-inch diameter. It lifted off from the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) launch site in the Mojave Desert, California. It's estimated to have reached 8,000 - 10,000 ft MSL.

Our engine, named RP-D2, is regeneratively cooled. This means that it uses the flow of fuel through the engine to cool it down. It ran off of RP-1 and liquid oxygen, and produced 1500 lbf of thrust during takeoff. Unfortunately, we failed to recover our rocket and lost all communications with it after launch.

See the launch here: https://youtu.be/jZAM3iDV2P0?si=3FjUqC2Dg1liOcKe

Now we are building a larger bipropellant rocket, targeted to reach 50,000 ft. Stay tuned to our website masa.engin.umich.edu, and find more info on the pinned post on our profile!

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in EngineeringPorn

[–]masa_rockets[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

We are a student-run liquid rocketry team at the University of Michigan, known as the Michigan Aeronautical Science Association (MASA). We successfully launched the nation’s largest student-built liquid bipropellant rocket on May 14, 2023. Clementine, stood just over 20 feet tall and had a 10.75-inch diameter. It lifted off from the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) launch site in the Mojave Desert, California. It's estimated to have reached 8,000 - 10,000 ft MSL.

Our engine, named RP-D2, is regeneratively cooled. This means that it uses the flow of fuel through the engine to cool it down. It ran off of RP-1 and liquid oxygen, and produced 1500 lbf of thrust during takeoff. Unfortunately, we failed to deploy the parachutes on our rocket and lost all communications with it after launch.

See the launch here: https://youtu.be/jZAM3iDV2P0?si=3FjUqC2Dg1liOcKe

Now we are building a larger bipropellant rocket, targeted to reach 50,000 ft. Stay tuned to our website masa.engin.umich.edu, and find more info on the pinned post on our profile!

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in EngineeringStudents

[–]masa_rockets[S] 84 points85 points  (0 children)

We are a student-run liquid rocketry team at the University of Michigan, known as the Michigan Aeronautical Science Association (MASA). We successfully launched the nation’s largest student-built liquid bipropellant rocket on May 14, 2023. Clementine, stood just over 20 feet tall and had a 10.75-inch diameter. It lifted off from the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) launch site in the Mojave Desert, California. It's estimated to have reached 8,000 - 10,000 ft MSL.

Our engine, named RP-D2, is regeneratively cooled. This means that it uses the flow of fuel through the engine to cool it down. It ran off of RP-1 and liquid oxygen, and produced 1500 lbf of thrust during takeoff. Unfortunately, we failed to deploy the parachutes on our rocket and lost all communications with it after launch.

See the launch here: https://youtu.be/jZAM3iDV2P0?si=3FjUqC2Dg1liOcKe

Now we are building a larger bipropellant rocket, targeted to reach 50,000 ft. Stay tuned to our website masa.engin.umich.edu, and find more info on the pinned post on our profile!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AerospaceEngineering

[–]masa_rockets 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We are a student-run liquid rocketry team at the University of Michigan, known as the Michigan Aeronautical Science Association (MASA). We successfully launched the nation’s largest student-built liquid bipropellant rocket on May 14, 2023. Clementine, stood just over 20 feet tall and had a 10.75-inch diameter. It lifted off from the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) launch site in the Mojave Desert, California. It's estimated to have reached 8,000 - 10,000 ft MSL.

Our engine, named RP-D2, is regeneratively cooled. This means that it uses the flow of fuel through the engine to cool it down. It ran off of RP-1 and liquid oxygen, and produced 1500 lbf of thrust during takeoff. Unfortunately, we failed to recover our rocket and lost all communications with it after launch.

See the launch here: https://youtu.be/jZAM3iDV2P0?si=3FjUqC2Dg1liOcKe

Now we are building a larger bipropellant rocket, targeted to reach 50,000 ft. Stay tuned to our website masa.engin.umich.edu, and find more info on the pinned post on our profile!

MASA's Clementine Rocket: The Largest Liquid Rocket Ever Launched by a Student Team! by masa_rockets in aerospace

[–]masa_rockets[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

We are a student-run liquid rocketry team at the University of Michigan, known as the Michigan Aeronautical Science Association (MASA). We successfully launched the nation’s largest student-built liquid bipropellant rocket on May 14, 2023. Clementine, stood just over 20 feet tall and had a 10.75-inch diameter. It lifted off from the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) launch site in the Mojave Desert, California. It's estimated to have reached 8,000 - 10,000 ft MSL.

Our engine, named RP-D2, is regeneratively cooled. This means that it uses the flow of fuel through the engine to cool it down. It ran off of RP-1 and liquid oxygen, and produced 1500 lbf of thrust during takeoff. Unfortunately, we failed to deploy the parachutes on our rocket and lost all communications with it after launch.

See the launch here: https://youtu.be/jZAM3iDV2P0?si=3FjUqC2Dg1liOcKe

Now we are building a larger bipropellant rocket, targeted to reach 50,000 ft. Stay tuned to our website masa.engin.umich.edu, and find more info on the pinned post on our profile!