Page 12 - AEM-Newsletter-Spring-2023

STUDENT TEAMS
Blasting Off with the UMN Rocket Team
The student-led University of Minnesota Rocket Team has had
a challenging but rewarding year. Rocket team works to design and build Student Researched and Developed (SRAD) rockets, which includes formulating and casting their solid-rocket motors, doing composite layups for the body tubes, and even sewing their parachutes!
The Team started 2022 by launching the recovery test rocket, Xenon Azure, multiple times throughout the bitterly cold winter months
(and continuously chilly spring months) to test the recovery system designed for the 2022 Spaceport America (SA) Cup. In spring, the team held their first-ever “rocket reveal” event on May 13. The team showed off their largest and most advanced rocket to date. The 8.5”
diameter rocket, dubbed “Iridium Sandstorm,” weighed in at about 260 pounds. The rocket featured flew an entirely new custom rocket motor hardware, new active control and avionics hardware, structural design components, and an entirely new payload design.
This led to a trip to Southern New Mexico for the Spaceport America (SA) Cup. The event, which is
the world’s largest intercollegiate rocket engineering conference and competition, brings together over 1,700 students and faculty annually. This was the first in-person Cup since 2019, so the team was especially grateful for the chance to participate. The team competed in the 10k SRAD category. Unfortunately, Iridium
separated at 4,100 ft due to excessive drag. While this impacted the overall score, the team still placed fourth in their category and gained valuable insight as to how to improve.
Preparations for the 2023 Spaceport America Cup competition have already begun, with the team planning to launch a vehicle to
30k feet. They are returning to
the tried and true 6-inch vehicle design that won the SARD motor category in 2019 and won the overall competition in 2021. Between now and June, the different sub-teams will be doing composite layups
for the body tubes, casting the propellant for the custom motors,
Sandstorm prematurely The 2022 University of Minnesota Rocket Team
12 DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS