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Apogee Adjustment

As part of the Spaceport America Cup Competition, points are gained for how close the final apogee of the rocket is to the target altitude. My solution to this is air brakes, drag flaps that can be deployed to alter the aerodynamic characteristics of the vehicle to adjust the final apogee.

Mechanics

The mechanical design of this system has undergone a few changes in the two years I've worked on the project. To date, three prototype systems have been produced, and the first flight is set for this year.

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All designs were done in Solidworks, and Solidworks Flow Simulation and Solidworks Simulation were used to test parts before construction. 

Current Design

The current design, which is being constructed and will be tested this year, uses a stepper motor to adjust the deployment of the flaps.

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This design is currently being constructed, using CNC Mills, Manual Lathes, Manual Mills, Waterjet Cutters, and assorted tools. The first flight is set for this year.

Previous Design

Previously, the air brakes module relied upon pneumatic actuators to deploy and retract the flaps. This design was constructed in the 2018-2019 year, but do to a motor failure at launch, was never successfully launched or demonstrated.

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Pneumatic actuators were dropped in favor of an electric motor to allow easier fine-tuning of the drag characteristics.

Electronics

While the mechanically elements of this project are the most 'fun,' they are only half of the problem. The other part is the electronic hardware and software to control the system.

Hardware

To date, I have designed three revisions of a flight computer intended to control the air brake system. I designed these PCBs using KiCad, and assembled them using conventional tools.

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These boards are based off of STM32F1 family of micro-controllers, and feature onboard storage, pyro channels for recovery

Software

The firmware running on these flight controllers are programmed using a modified c++ and the Arduino framework.

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To interface with the flight computers and backup flight data, I also created an interface program using Python that can run on any computer.

Skills Demonstrated

  • Solidworks

  • Solidworks Simulation

  • Manufacturing (Manual & CNC Mill, Lathe)

  • CAM

  • KiCAD

  • Circuit Design

  • Controls Programming

  • C++

  • Python

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