WEEK 3: Aerospace and Chemical Engineering 🚀

During this shortened week we built and launched a 1 stage rocket to deploy and capture a sample of air. Additionally, our team used sensors to measure air quality and "detect" different surface temperatures. Finally, we made additional projects such as a foam airplane, programed a robot to pick up an ozone detecting strip, and made a color detecting drone.

Aerospace Engineering

Aerospace engineers design, develop, and test aircraft, spacecraft, and missiles. Designing new technology, aerospace engineers provide innovations in aviation, space exploration, and defense systems. Aerospace engineers often use computer-aided design (CAD) and may be well versed in topics such as aerodynamics and celestial mechanics.

Chemical Engineering

Chemical engineers apply chemistry, physics, and engineering to design and develop chemical equipment and manufacturing processes. For example, they develop fuels, pharmaceuticals, and other products. Chemical engineers play a large role in creating processes for sustainable energy and pollution control.

Industrial Engineering

Industrial Engineers focus on creating efficient systems that integrate workers, machines, materials, energy, and information to make a product or provide a service. This field combines business, engineering, and mathematics to enhance productivity. Industrial engineers are problem solvers looking to make systems more efficient.

Part 1: Reaching for New Heights

After learning about Aerospace, Chemical, and Industrial Engineering our team headed to the lab where we started working on the assigned rocket activities. First we were tasked with making a rocket that flys when you blow air through a straw into the back of the rocket. For this design, we had to keep it minimal and sleek as the air supply (being our lungs) was not the strongest. Next, our team worked on making our stomp rocket. Essentially the stomp rocket works by stomping on a plastic water bottle which sends air through a PVC pipe up into the rocket. Initially, we created a short and wide rocket, but after testing it and it only reached a couple feet into the air, we learned that it was not optimal. So, our team went back to the lab and decided to make a design completely contrary to the one we already had---tall and skinny. This design worked much better when we tested it and reached a much higher height. We timed our rocket to see how much air time it was getting and we measured 2.87 seconds.

Video of our final Stomp Rocket

The Straw Rocket

The Straw Rocket video test

Initial model of The Stomp Rocket

Sketch of what we wanted to build

Part 2: From Sketch to Sky

On Day 2 of this project our team made major progress on our rocket. First, using RockSim we made a rocket simulation and test launched it. After this activity we digitally sketched the dimensions we wanted to use for our rocket and then we began building. Using paper, tape, and balsa wood we designed our rocket and attached the motor into the back. After making the nose cone out of balsa wood we also had to create a parachute using plastic tablecloth. The plastic tablecloth was easy to work with and very lightweight.

RockSim single stage rocket

Here we are making sure our parachute works

Our final rocket from Day 2.

Part 3: Test Launch

For our team, Day 3 was very successful. After our trip to Mason Control Center we got to test launch our rocket on the Great Lawn! Right before we launched we realized we had forgotten to attach a straw on the outside of our rocket body, so we quickly taped one on. At the launch site, we put the igniter into our rocket and watched it blast off. We later learned that we needed to create a fuselage using paper and glue, so after the launch part of the group headed back to the classrooms to rebuild our rocket. Additionally, during the launch our parachute got burnt from the heat, and as you can see in the video it also didn't expand properly. Our team tried to fix these issues as well in preparation for the official launch on Thursday.

Part 4: New and Old

On Thursday we began by trying to fix our new rocket by adding on the fins and using friction to attach the motor into the bottom. We realized that our new rocket design was much heavier, so we weren't expecting it to travel as fast and far as our test launch design. At the launch site we decided to launch our new rocket and watched as it shot into the sky----seeing as it didn't shoot up as high as our test launch we were able to launch our original design as well. Our original design got much higher and we believe this is because it is lighter in weight and skinnier.

Here is our rocket after launching and our ozone strip showing a change in color

Our final rocket launch

Preparing to launch our final rocket

Part 1: Understanding the Basics

To start this week we learned more about the mechanics of airplanes by creating different types of paper airplanes and recording the distance that each type flew. Furthermore, we also too note of the planes aspect ratio, COP (cm from tail), COG (cm from tail), and dihedral degree. An example of one of the airplanes we created is the Straw Glider. Essentially the Straw Glider is two paper circles--one large and one small--taped to straw. The two sized circles create a difference in air pressure above and below the loops. When the high and low pressure airflows move towards each other, it causes the glider to lift up. After these paper activities, our team used the given template to create a plane out of balsa wood.

This is the Straw Glider we created

Part 2: A Proper Plane

One of the project requirements for this week was to modify a foam plane kit with a propeller to gain a maximum altitude and distance from a 5 degree angle. Using the given pieces of foam, our team tried to construct our plane. We ran into a few issues as we could not get it to fly a far distance, but we continued prototyping until the plane worked better. To the left are some images of the foam plane we created.

Part 1: Building the Robot

To perform ozone testing on captured air while also detecting color changes, our team built a robot using the VexIQ robot kit. Following the guidance of the TA's, we created a robot that's aim was to pick up the ozone testing strip. We also had to program the robot to associate different colors with different temperatures.

Drone and Sensor Activities

On the first day we created a platform that would be launched from our drone to recover 3 sensing devices. Since we didn't have a permit to launch the drone we ended up just using the sensors ourselves. Our team was allowed to use the smaller drone in the classroom to "detect" various surface temperatures as indicated by different colors. On the day of the launch using the AirBeam3 kit we measured the air quality in different locations around campus: at the Great Lawn, near the USC Bookstore, and on top of the parking structure next to our building. Next we used an app called Vizeey for our Databot where we measured different CO2 levels. Below are some photos of data we collected and an example of our color sensing drone in action.

Example data from our Airbeam sensor

Data we collected on Vizeey App

The Color Sensing Drone

Our Color Sensing Drone detecting different colors

Rocket Design Research Paper

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