Airframe Time!

Here’s the dilemma. We need the strongest, lightest skeleton possible for our rocket. The obvious choice for material is aerospace grade aluminum. (6061-T6, duh.) We also need to cut a ton of pieces, and need them done fast. The usual way to do that is with a CNC milling machine, but that can take a while and be very expensive. Also, when you cut a piece of metal with a saw or a milling machine, the metal heats up causing it to anneal and weaken. So what’s the solution?

Waterjet cutting is the solution!! The helpful staff at New Jersey Waterjet were able to take our CAD files and produce 30 perfectly-cut parts in just under a week.

Waterjet cutting uses a high pressure stream of water and abrasive sand to cut through nearly anything. In addition to being fast and precise, waterjet cutting actively cools the parts, preventing them from becoming annealed.

These parts will hold together the whole rocket, so it’s a good thing they’re strong.

Carbon Fiber (almost) Composite

One of the really exciting features of our launch vehicle is the carbon fiber composite fuselage. Woven or braided carbon composites have structural properties similar or better than steel, at a fraction of the weight. Our team has partnered with A&P Technology to source the braided tubing for our composite. This stuff is cool!

The carbon braid we’ve selected from A&P has a braid angle designed to take much of the force the rocket will experience in flight. This allows us to make the whole rocket ultra light. In the coming days the raw carbon braid will be shipped to our manufacturing partner and infused with a resin to make a super strong and light composite. Stay tuned for more!

High-temp Ceramic Coating Tests

The team recently completed the first round of testing with a new high-temperature resistant ceramic coating. This coating is intended to be used on the nose cone to lessen the effects of aerodynamic heating. A cooler nosecone is ideal, because it allows us to select a thinner and lighter material.

The team conducted a series of experiments to determine the optimal application technique and layering. The results of these experiments will be useful in determining what the next step is in testing this exciting material.

New Year, New Injector

After a relaxing winter break the team is already back to work. Pictured above are two test prints of our next generation injector design. As we near the time when these parts will be fabricated out of metal, it’s especially important to make sure all the geometries we’ve designed are printable. By printing our parts on a conventional 3D printer we can see any features that might cause a print failure when we make the transition to metal. Up next, cold flow testing. Stay tuned.