News Archives - Page 3 of 4 - Castle Point Rocketry

News

Ready, Set… Launch Stand!

April 3, 2019June 5, 2020
by Dakota

A few weeks ago, we shared how excited we were about our truss being delivered. Now, the fun of building it.

Throughout our interview with techdrawer this past Saturday, Nathan was hard at work assembling the launch stand that our truss will stand on. When our day with techdrawer came to a close, he convinced Dakota and Ben to run through the hoisting process with him.

You can see the launch stand in the photo below to the right of the blur-that-is-Nathan. It’s rectangular and made of steel.

Behind the Griffith Building preparing to hoist the truss onto the launch stand.

The hoisting process involved several meters of cable, two steel structures, nineteen cinder blocks, three humans, one ladder, and three three-meter lengths of aluminum truss.

After bolting the lengths of truss together, we lifted it with an engine hoist and attempted to lever it up with cables and pulleys. The first attempt didn’t go so well. The truss ended up balanced on Dakota’s head while Ben, up the ladder, steadied it and Nathan retied it to the hoist with a complicated series of climbing knots

The final product. Excited Nathan, to boot.

72 hours later, CPR tried once again. We had a modified launch stand, two more Mechanical Engineering majors, and better lighting to help this time. And were we successful? Well, Nathan’s smile in the picture above should answer that!

News

techdrawer visits CPR’s lab!

April 3, 2019June 5, 2020
by Dakota

A few months back, the team received an e-mail from Stevens’ very own YouTuber ‘techdrawer.’ Their interest in the team’s motivation, conception, and progress was contagious, so we invited them over to our lab for an interview.

Due to timing difficulties and postponed deliveries, that invitation finally came to fruition this past weekend.

Members of both teams, CPR and techdrawer, pose for a picture after filming.

Around noon, we descended on Stevens’ Griffith Building, where Castle Point Rocketry has built many of the components of our rocket. While techdrawer got set up — lights, cameras, the works — members of CPR finished up with a few pet projects. Nathan worked on building our test stand. Ben kept coding the flight computer. Dakota did more simulations on the injector.

When techdrawer was ready to go, we sat down to talk.

A behind-the-scenes shot of Sergio, the face behind techdrawer. The final interview will be available on their YouTube channel.

With the exception of a long lunch, CPR was on camera for most of the afternoon. In the official interview portion, Nathan, Ben, and Dakota answered Sergio’s questions to the best of their abilities. After, techdrawer went mobile for a tour of our lab. Among other things, Monica went over the logistics of our fuel tank and Thomas went into further detail on our engine.

By the time 6:00pm rolled around, we ran low on new topics. (techdrawer was also running out of storage space!) We called it a day, and techdrawer went home to splice together a video! CPR stayed behind to build a launch stand…

Keep your eyes on techdrawer’s channel and CPR’s Facebook page for the finished product!

News

Ground Support to Major Tom

March 25, 2019June 5, 2020
by Nate

The centerpiece of our ground support equipment arrived today via ground freight. 9 meters of aluminum triangle truss from the Prolyte Group.

The truss will be used as the primary support for our rocket’s launch rail. Once completed, the launch stand will measure just over 10 meters tall. The rocket will slide on studs that slot into the launch rail, which will in turn be mounted to this truss.

Our full truss section, traffic cone for scale

As more and more major components of our project arrive on campus, the excitement grows. Things are becoming very tangible — in only a short time, we’ll have a fully-assembled rocket to blog about!

News

“Will It Fly?”

December 18, 2018June 5, 2020
by Dakota

It may be the the question we ask ourselves the most. (Behind, of course, “What’s for lunch” and “How’d your exam go?”) The answer: “Ask NASA.” (To them all, obviously.)

Most recently, it’s fallen to the ChemE team to answer this question. Initial assumptions of the chemical reactions out of the way, it’s time to buckle down and do some hardcore engineering.

And when you need to engineer something, who better to turn to than NASA?

Using a little-known software called CEA (made available online as CEARUN), we’ve been iteratively testing hundreds of fuel combinations and engine conditions over the last few days to comb through and find The One.

It’s not every program that can crank out 23,000-some lines of code in under five seconds. That’s just the NASA difference, I guess.

Prototyping!

November 15, 2018June 5, 2020
by Nate

The team has been busy developing and testing prototypes of critical sub-systems. Most recently the team completed pressure testing a scale model of our 3D printed engine! This print allowed us to learn about the way our design geometry interacts with the 3D printing process. The team was able to gather a significant amount of data from the print and subsequent tests. We used this data to refine our design and improve our printability.

The avionics team has also been working on prototyping. Pictured below is the first iteration of our flight computer! The flight computer will handle all flight functions of the rocket, including actuators and data acquisition.

News

Health and Safety Meet-Up

November 15, 2018June 5, 2020
by Dakota

Last week was a busy one — and one of Castle Point Rocketry’s myriad meetings was with David Fernandez, Stevens’s Director of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS). Obviously, this was pretty important.

David was instrumental in reminding us which materials could be stored on campus and which couldn’t. We held a great discussion about some of the pivots our team could move to, should the current course of action prove inviable. Finally, and most excitingly, we got to go “shopping” for new clothes.

The end of our meeting found us in the EHS office (with David) trying on lab coats like a gaggle of mad scientists. (See the photo of us smiling like some, too.) David also aided us in refining our fire suppression and protection techniques.

News

A Spooky Update

October 31, 2018June 5, 2020
by Will

Between our new box, our crowdfunding campaign (which has been extended by a week – go check it out), ordering test stand and avionics parts, and safety meetings, we’ve got a lot going on; it’s all very exciting!

We’ve already raised over $20,000 from our crowdfunding campaign – a huge thank you to everyone who has contributed to this amazing milestone. Every dollar donated brings us one step closer to reaching the Karman Line!

Very soon, we will begin construction of the test stand (partially shown in the CAD above), and preliminary testing on our electronics, so stay tuned for future updates here and on our social media!

News

Meet Our Sponsors!

October 11, 2018June 5, 2020
by Dakota

Castle Point Rocketry is grateful to call a few key corporations our friends. Over the summer, we began reaching out for funding and mentorship. We would like to take a minute to personally thank our committed sponsors!

A&P Technology is supporting us through composites engineering. Among other applications, they work with giants such as GE to create light-weight, high-tensile, flight-appropriate materials. They’ve agreed to work with us on creating a well-developed fuselage!

The Aerojet Rocketdyne Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Aerojet Rocketdyne, a renowned rocket, missile, and probe designer. They have provided valuable feedback and are helping us achieve our fundraising goal!

We need some odd-ball valves, and Gosco Valves has the know-how! We’re grateful for their support and their history of good rapport with aeronautics research agencies!

L3 Technologies specializes in communications and reconnaissance systems. They’ve pledge a generous gift to develop our telemetry and avionics systems. Thanks to them, we’re on track to know how high our rocket goes!

Micro is a leader in metal injection molding and specialized, precision tubing fabrication. Not only are they supporting us financially, but they are assisting us with fabrication.

Northrop Grumman is well-known for their aerospace applications, including the Apollo Lunar Module. Upper-level management has reached out to us, and we are encouraged by their support!

Triton Space Technologies specializes in high-performance valves and aerospace propulsion. They are aiding us in creating custom cryogenic valves for our rocket, and we couldn’t be more grateful!

Don’t forget to check the Sponsors portion of our website for regular updates on all of our sponsors. Who knows… maybe with the launch of our crowdfunding campaign on Monday 15 October, we’ll see your name there, too!