My name is Max Archer, and I am the Director of Special Projects for Student Space Systems at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Student Space Systems is a group of undergraduates with the mission of building our own space-worthy rockets. Our goal is to have regular launches into suborbital space by the year 2025, with entirely student designed and fabricated rockets. But we’re only students, so in order to do this, we need tons of help from industry. Thankfully, Element14 has been generous enough to offer their support in achieving our vision.
Our current project is in the creation of a prototype reaction control system (RCS) for our higher power rockets. One problem we will soon have to face is that of rocket stability -- as our rockets breach the upper atmosphere, the drag on the fins will no longer be strong enough to keep the rocket pointed in the right direction (namely, up). As such, we need a way of actively controlling the trajectory of the rocket as it flies. RCS works by using compressed gas and electric valves to torque the rocket as needed to keep it stable.
This last week we received enough parts to begin prototyping our electronics systems. Attached is a preliminary design for the hardware for the compressed gas system. We’ll keep you posted over the coming weeks with pictures and designs as we finish construction and begin testing.
Thank you Element14 for the help!
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