Rocketry Recap: 23-24
The NUSTARS Rocket Team successfully returned to competing in the NASA Student Launch competition after a four year hiatus. The team placed 11th out of a field of 49 universities from around the country and completed seven full-scale flight tests including a successful competition launch in Huntsville, AL.
Members of the 2023-2024 NASA Student Launch Team that traveled to Huntsville, AL.
The final launch vehicle, named Chrysalis, is a 10 foot tall 45 pound rocket that flew to 5000 feet with a deployable folding-wing glider designed to be ejected during descent. Both the launch vehicle and payload were constructed entirely in-house by students. The rocket featured many novel systems including swappable fins, which made it almost entirely modular and repairable, and a custom carbon-fiber wound transition element. Chrysalis flew 7 times—more than any previous NUSTARS project—with each flight test providing valuable insight into how to improve the launch vehicle and payload performance. The project culminated with a trip to Huntsville, AL, home of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where team members got the opportunity to present their work to fellow universities and NASA engineers. All of this work was documented through 4 detailed technical reports submitted to and approved by NASA. In addition to Chrysalis, NUSTARS was able to work with 144 middle and high school students through its STEM engagement program.
Flight Tests 1-7, including scenery from Bong, Princeton, Michiana, and Alabama.
This year presented a lot of opportunities to overcome challenges. No current team members were part of NUSTARS when the team last competed in USLI which meant that the team had to not only solve this year’s payload challenge, but also navigate timelines, reports, and other facets of the competition. From a technical perspective, the glider payload was one of the most complex payloads that NUSTARS has created. The design had several payload-launch vehicle interfaces and the geometry of each component heavily impacted the other components since everything had to fit inside our airframe sections. While this led to some integration challenges, it ultimately helped the team build skills about how to structure critical design decision making across subteams and communicate.
Competing in the 2024 NASA SL helped give students valuable knowledge for future careers in aerospace research or industry. As the team looks to next year’s challenge, they are excited to build on the triumphs of this year and the lessons learned. The team is very young, with 65% of the team being new this past year, which provides a strong foundation for continued successes going forward.
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