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:: CPSS Projects ::
When you join CPSS, you join a group of dedicated engineers building a real project through which you gain real-world experience in solving relevant engineering problems. Having a CPSS project on your resume gets the attention of hiring mangers.
Our goal: We will build a rocket that we can launch from the ground and safely recover.
Attention All EE's!
We need your expertise. Click here to see the electronics projects we have.
2008-2009 Goals
Certification Program:
 Active members of the club are eligible to enroll in our certification program, which allows members to design, build, and launch their very own high powered rockets. This coincides with the certification process in the amateur rocketry association, Tripoli. To launch high powered rockets, one must first be a member of the rocketry association Tripoli or NAR, then build and successfully launch and recover a rocket using a high powered motor. Upon completion, they will advance to a certification level of 1, 2, or 3. These three levels enable members to purchase and launch larger motors that are not available to the general public. Through our certification program, the club provides all the materials and guidance to build a certification rocket, which can otherwise be quite expensive. We also pay for the motor for your first attempt. For more information on the Level 1 certification process, you can visit Tripoli.
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2006-2007 Goals
- M+ class hybrid motor
- • Meet or exceed R.A.T.T. Works M900 motor
- • Remote launch capability
- • In flight shut down capability
- • All custom parts made in-house
- Controlled fly–back
- • Land on a pre-determined target
- • Micro-processor controlled
- • Mixture of autonomous and piloted control
- Extreme altitude & recovery
- • Reach at least 20,000 feet AGL
In addition to the rocket, we also plan to have more launches for individual project rockets and we will have at least one desert launch at either Black Rock, NV or Mojave, CA.
These are ambitious goals. To achieve them, we are going to work on improving our ability to work together as a team. In the “real world” of industry, you will be part of a big group working on a single project. We want to make our environment as much like that as we can, so you can be much better prepared for life after Cal Poly. We will stress communication and accountability much like it is in industry. At CPSS, we believe that we are all individual parts of one body, each providing a specific and needed expertise. Together we can build an awesome rocket.
We will also put some sound engineering procedures in place, too. We will standardize our motor testing, and then use these standards to optimize the motor. We will also make as many motor and rocket parts as we can right here at Cal Poly.
Finally, drawing on our experience in presenting our work to companies like Boeing and Lockheed, we will have better industry contacts and get more active in telling our story and showing our work to them. Response is always great.
Embedded 32-bit microprocessor—Electronics
The rocket uses an embedded 32-bit ARM microprocessor as its CPU. Click here for details (we plan to use the ST7 ARM microprocessor). Your job in this project is to design and build a printed circuit board that contains the ST7 microprocessor and provides connections to all the peripheral sensors and to the control servos. You will also need to provide two RS-232 ports for connection to the GPS receiver and the ground-link radio. This processor comes equipped with a prototyping board and a set of A/D converters, PWM outputs, serial lines and GPIO ports. It also comes with a C compiler, a debugger and an operating system.
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On-board flight sensors—Electronics
There is a set of on-board sensors required for flight, these include: an airspeed indicator (a pitot tube), GPS, motor sensors (see motor circuit, below), altimeter, compass, accelerometers used in navigation, and strain gauges. Each of these sensors needs its own supporting circuit and mounting hardware; some of the sensors have certain requirements in the airframe (for example, a barometric altimeter needs static ports venting to the outside air). You will connect all of these sensors to the main microprocessor via the industry-standard CAN protocol.
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Motor control logic—Electronics
The motor uses a micro controller, such as an ATMEL AT89C2051, for all of its functions. Your challenge in designing and building this circuit is to make the motor easy to start—hybrid motors are notorious for start failures—plus our ultimate goal for this circuit is to remotely start the motor at about 100,000' altitude. Your circuit will handle difficult start sequence events and high currents in the ignition components; for example, your circuit needs to detect a threshold oxidizer pressure before triggering the igniter. The oxidizer flows through a solenoid valve which you control which can draw 15W of power; the igniter is a 1-ohm nichrome wire which heats up using a 12V source. There are also motor sensors, such as a pyrometer and pressure gauges, your circuit needs to report digitized values for these to the main processor (see above).
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Telecommunications—Electronics
The rocket continuously monitors a set of on-board flight sensors and reports this data to the ground via radio. You can also control the rocket from the ground station: the radio has to support a full-duplex data link. Our goals this year are to fly to 20,000', but in the near future we hope to achieve sub-orbital altitudes of up to 300,000'. The challenges you will face in this project are providing reliable radio communication over a long distance in a very hostile environment (high vibration, low temperature, atmospheric interference), plus the rocket will fly at transonic speeds.
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Navigation system—Electronics
The rocket will use an inertial navigation system as part of its on-board control system. In this project you will design and build the electronics needed, using gyros and a GPS receiver. The embedded 32-bit ARM microprocessor serves as the CPU for any software you will need.
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M+ class hybrid motor—Propulsion
One of the goals driving our design this year is usability. Which means we want to make a motor that both performs well, and is really easy to use. One of the issues that plagues hybrid motors is they are notoriously hard to start. We want our motor to be one that you can prepare and start as easily as a solid motor.
During the 2004-2005 school year, we designed and built our own hybrid rocket motor (the HM1). A hybrid motor uses a solid fuel and a liquid oxidizer; in our case the fuel is polyethylene and the oxidizer is liquid nitrous oxide. The motor worked well, but this year we want to redesign it and make it bigger. In this project, you will design a larger combustion chamber with an improved oxidizer injector. You will also need to reduce the weight of the motor, possibly by using a composite tank and lighter valve solenoids; you will be responsible for sourcing these new items.
You will work closely with other teams to make sure the motor can be started from a remote location, so that someone does not need
to be close to the rocket at launch. You will also work with the other teams to make sure we can shut the motor down in flight.
An important aspect of this project is the development of a standardized test bed to measure combustion chamber pressure temperature and oxidizer flow rates.
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Motor optimization—Propulsion
Our current hybrid motor (the HM1) worked well, but we want to improve on its performance. In this the project, you will be responsible for different aspects of optimization:
- Meet or exceed R.A.T.T. Works M900 motor;
- Changing the fuel grain geometry, and experiment with techniques like rifling, in order to induce more efficient oxidizer flow;
- Moving the injector ports to a location other than the head of the combustion chamber;
- Altering the injector port geometry—nozzle shape, size and angles;
- Throttling the motor by controlling the oxidizer flow.
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Extreme altitude rocket—Structures
The goal of this project is to design and build, then successfully fly, an airframe capable of reaching very high altitudes. This year our goal is to reach 20,000 feet AGL. It has to be launched from the ground, and then safely recovered so we can use it again.
In this project, you will use CAD software to optimize the airframe size and weight against the motor, and to make sure the aerodynamic parameters such as center of gravity result in a stable rocket. In addition to the rocket, you will also build a wind tunnel model and use it in our wind tunnel to gather aerodynamic data such as drag coefficient. Our main building material is fiberglass; Click here for “Fiberglassing 101”.
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