The airframe team is responsible for design, construction, and maintenance of the physical rocket itself. We work with the body (tube, fins, nose cone, etc.) of the rocket as well as the recovery system (parachutes), electronics mounting and other complex internal systems. We have frequent discussions about the future of the rocket and how it may be built. Once we come up with solid ideas we polish the design and apply principals of mechanical engineering and occasional computer modeling to ensure a working final product. We then construct and test our hardware before assembling the final rocket.
Meetings: The airframe team meets weekly with the main group. See the PSAS schedule page for upcoming meetings.
Airframe Team Mailing list: We have a mailing list for active PSAS airframe team members.
Past Rockets
New: build a model of LV2.3
Since PSAS has launched more than one rocket we had to start naming them. You will see us refer to things like "LV2.3" which stands for "Launch Vehicle 2, revision 3." Some past rockets include:
LV0 ?
LV1 ?
LV2
1 ?
2
LV2.2 was in many ways a huge success. It was a LV2 class rocket and shares most of it's design with our current rocket. Unfortunately the parachutes never deployed and after impact with the ground nothing was salvageable from the vehicle.
3
LV2c is our current airframe. Everything on this page is about our current work.
LV2.3 Conceptual Design
Project: We're currently designing the LV2c airframe after our August 2005 successful-but-fatal launch.
LV2c Conceptual Design (Updated 8/19/06)
Design overview (in OpenRocket)
Download our design in OpenRocket: LV2c.ork
Airframe Project Information
- LV2c Guidance Module Design
- LV2c Spin-can Module Design
- LV2c Roll Control Design
- LV2c Aluminum Module Design
- LV2c Nosecone Design
- LV2c Nosecone Separation Ring
- LV2c Parachute Recovery Design
- LV2c Line Cutters
- LV2 Airframe Jigs
- LV2 Aeroshell Construction
- LV2c Aeroshell Construction
- LV2 Launch Lugs
- LV2c Motor Casing
- LV2c Motor Nozzle
- LV2c Motor Coupler Bulkhead
- LV2c Aft Motor Centering Ring
- LV2 Fin Attachment Clamps
- Igniters for the LV2c recovery system
- LV2 Airframe Archive
Future Project Ideas
- Track-Master 3000 - A servo-controlled base that can hold an antenna, camera or something that is other wise interesting and automatically point it at the rocket during flight and recovery. Bonus points if it can control focus and zoom on a camera with a giant lens...
- A better mechanism for aiming the wi-fi antenna on the tower, some kind of pan-tilt mechanism that is easily adjustable from the ground, avoiding the need to climb the tower
- Separation rings capable of holding larger motors, P-class, which are 6ft long and 5" in diameter. It would be good to test this under sheer, perhaps 10,000lbs of tensile strength. Also cool would be mounting the bottom half to a shake-table, and putting an arm with a weight at the top vertically to see how it holds up on the shake table with various moment-arms on the top of the separation ring.
- A servo control camera module, that can move a camera out from the rocket airframe and allow software to point the camera up, down or sideways depending on whats interesting
- Trailer Launch tower
- Setup/teardown by 1-2 people in 20 minutes
- Can hold some gear
- Can facilitate current rocket, and perhaps a rocket that is 20-30 feet tall in the future
- Can store in some minimum amount of space, perhaps it can be lifted on end and stored vertically against a wall or fence, optional
- Has some kind of arms that come off the trailer with jack screws, perhaps those used on boat trailers?
- Towable with a small vehicle, minivan or light pickup truck
- Tool supply lists and launch tower setup procedures can be found on the launchprocedures page
- The old LV2 page is here.
Airframe Team Meeting Notes
Note: This is infrequently used as a place to dump notes that we can't think of anyplace to put. It does not mean we are not busy or do not meet often!
Also see: UpcomingAirframeAgenda
To add a new entry, please use the date of the entry (YYYY-MM-DD) and then add a [[!meta title="YYY-MM-DD - Title here!"]] line to give it a title. Don't forget to also tag it with [[!tag airframe]] so it shows up in this list!
2010-10-17 - Launch logistics for launch of LV2.3 with roll control in Brothers, Oregon.
2010-06-27 - **Successful launch of LV2.3** in Brothers, Oregon.
2009-06-16 - Roll stability random discussion notes
2009-05-20 - Pre-launch prep: putting the recovery system together.
2009-04-19 - Drop test of recovery system, with a tad bit more success.
2009-04-05 - Drop test of recovery system.
2009-03-29 - Line cutter assembly and testing.
2009-03-22 - Parachute deployment test in Tigard
2009-03-15 - Test of parachutes in the atrium of the PSU EB
2008-08-13 - Switched launch dates, airframe update, and avionics update.
2008-08-06 - Nosecone built! With Pics!
2008-07-23 - New avionics folks, nosecone mold finished, OSCON
2008-07-16 - PLUG meeting talk, Airframe planning meeting, and spin table handoff
2007-08-08 - General meeting; ikiwiki demo session
2007-04-01 - Dan prototypes the new recovery system, again.
2007-02-04 - Test of the Nose Separation Ring System (SRS)