Air Brake Deployment System 2014-2015

This year, I was able to add an air brake deployment system (ABDS) to our TARC rocket. It is a small device that opens and closes like an umbrella and changes the rocket's drag. It helps the rocket achieve a 800 feet apogee. It also is used to change the decent rate of the rocket so that it lands within the landing time of 46-48 seconds.

This year the ABDS proved its worth. We made it to the TARC Nationals Fly-offs. Our two qualifying launches flew to 812 feet in 43.45 seconds and 800 feet in 44.9 seconds compared to a standard of 800 feet in 46-48 seconds. For scoring, 1 foot is equal to 1 point and 1 second is equal to 4 points. The two launches had a final score of only 22.2 and 5.24 points compared to a perfect score of 0 points.

Download .pdf here or read the document on the page. (Use small slider on right side of document to scroll through it)

Latest version as of 8/16/2015

Update 11/11/2020: Please also see the paper's addendum which corrects for a typo in the equation on page 44 as well as provides additional details on the derivation of the ABDS apogee estimation equation.

If the above link does not successfully download the paper, try directly downloading it from the bottom of this webpage.

On board the rocket with the ABDS is a flight recorder. I used the flight recorder to record all the flight data so that I could do post-flight analysis and ABDS playbacks. Below is a graph of one of our TARC qualification flights, showing the data collected by the flight recorder. Below the graph is a video playback of that same flight, showing the movement of the ABDS inside of the rocket. In the video, the ABDS is moving the exact same way it did during the qualification flight.

Below is a video of my vacuum jar. The vacuum jar was used to simulate a rocket launch, so that it could test the functionality of the ABDS electronics before ever actually flying them.

Please leave questions and comments below.