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Paying It Forward

  • September 11, 2019June 5, 2020
  • by Dakota

Over the last year, Castle Point Rocketry has learned a lot. We built a rocket, created a company, and maintained a brand — all while keeping afloat in school. Now, it’s time to look to the future.

The eight founders of Castle Point Rocketry have graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology, but the relationship is far from over. This year, Castle Point Rocketry is sponsoring three more year-long senior design groups at Stevens. They will each work on a small section of the rocket, iterating on the current design to make a better vehicle overall. The goal is still the same: To create and launch a liquid-fueled rocket to the Karman Line.

We look forward to what this partnership holds in store. The mere fact that the project has generated interest in Stevens graduates-to-be is promising in and of itself!

News

Recent Developments

  • August 2, 2019June 5, 2020
  • by Dakota

The rocket you’ve seen in photos isn’t complete. In the weeks since testing, we have received good news regarding our remaining parts. Three main pieces of the rocket remain in fabrication: (1) the nose cone (2) the fins (3) the fuselage.

Nose Cone

In order for our rocket to reach the Karman Line, it needs to pierce the atmosphere. A flat top is inconducive to flight, since particles of air would slam into the top of the rocket and slow it down. On the other hand, an inverted cone would shed air particles like a boat’s hull through water.

Our cone, which is being turned out of a titanium sheet, is currently in the final stages of completion. Though we don’t have photos of it, the cone will be ready by next week.

Fins

As the rocket goes upwards, a certain amount of spin will be added to its flight. Spin is necessary to guide it in a general upwards direction — a flight without rotation could easily complicate and meander off course. However, since spin requires energy, too much spin can shorten the rocket’s distance traveled. In order to find middle ground, we designed fins to assign a fixed amount of spin.

One of the four identical fins for our rocket.

These fins will live at the bottom of the rocket, 90 degrees from one another, just above the engine. Designed with a very slight tilt, they will ever so slightly nudge the rocket into a slow spin. They were precision-machined for us on a 5-axis CNC machine. (That’s pretty expensive stuff.)

Fuselage

The fuselage, the “skin” of the rocket, is the single largest component. Essentially a really wide pipe, this carbon fiber composite cylinder was designed to slide over the outside of our aluminum air frame. (The air frame can be seen in various photos of our rocket.) Since it is both large and rigid, the fuselage also houses our antenna.

Our 20-foot carbon fiber fuselage, with inlaid antenna.

The fuselage runs the entire length of our rocket — from nose cone to fins. It keeps all of the guts of the rocket inside the air frame. Most importantly, it provides a smooth outer surface to reduce vibration and aerodynamic drag.

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!

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