Carnegie Mellon rocket command 2020-2021 Research Project
Carnegie Mellon rocket command 2020-2021 Research Project
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Because many competitions were cancelled in the 2020-2021 academic year due to COVID-19, Carnegie Mellon Rocket Command decided to do a research project instead of building a competition rocket, to teach the new members (including me) about what it is they do in the club.
The research project centered around self-landing rockets, with the end goal to build a rocket that was at the scale that we use in competitions that would be capable of landing itself. Under club leadership, we researched previous methods of self-landing rockets, and attempted to reduce them to a scale that we could feasibly build.
As part of this research project, I first worked with the general Mechanical team, where we built the main body of the rocket in Solidworks and discussed how to CAD various components of the rocket, such as the motor and the motor locks. As part of this team, I learned how to CAD more complex shapes, such as the nose cones and fins of the rockets, as well as combining multiple assembled modules into a final Solidworks assembly. I also learned how to use Solidworks to automatically convert between units, because my Solidworks default is set to International Scientific Standard units, and the Rocket Command uses Customary units.
After the main frame of the rocket was done, we had to figure out how to add the self-landing component to the rocket. In order to do this, we decided to use pneumatics, attached on the sides of the rocket, in order to control descent. I worked on a different problem, how to design landing legs that could be triggered midflight so that they do not cause interference in the flight.
In order to solve this problem, I proposed the idea of using a spring-based system, similar to an umbrella. We used a button to trigger a spring, which would deploy the landing legs right before the rocket landed so that it would still have a safe landing platform. However, because I was still relatively inexperienced in CAD, the club president and my team leader ended up CADing the concept in Solidworks, while I designed the pneumatic tank holder.
Unfortunately, due to constraints placed on club activities due to COVID-19, the final rocket was never built, although certain parts were machined and put together. In my involvement in this project, I gained more experience in CAD, including how to create more complex shapes such as the nose cone, I also learned more about OpenRocket, a simulation program that we used to analyze the effectiveness of the rocket design. Finally, I got my first look into the Carnegie Mellon Techspark Machine Shop, and was able to use some of the machines inside.
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