How We Plan to Accomplish This Amazing Feat – Part 4
Complete the Designs & Test
In the Summer and Fall of Year 1, we plan on completing the design and testing of our custom data acquisition boards and the final selection of instruments for the rocket (we envision that the students will choose among a range of potential instrument options for the rocket as a bit of a design problem for them.) In order to complete the design and testing of the board and instruments, we will conduct bench tests, as well as a number of test flights. We also plan on constructing the 50 rockets that will be needed for the laboratory (see below). We had initially considered having the students construct the rockets as part of the laboratory, but considering time constraints, the cost of the data-acquisition systems, and the (lack of) reliability of first-time rocket construction we will have experienced rocketeers construct all of the rockets. Especially motivated student teams with previous rocket experience will be permitted to construct a rocket (which will undergo substantive safety inspections) if they desire.
During Summer and Fall of Year 1, we will also move from the conceptual and embodiment design to detailed design of the laboratory experiments. Part of the detailed design work for the new laboratory experiments will include beta-testing the labs with faculty and students in order to get feedback on whether the new labs meet the educational objectives. We will also order any laboratory equipment needed for the new labs (these will include standard shapes for the vibration testing; standard shapes for the wind tunnel experiment; equipment for telemetry testing; and static test stands and instrumentation for the rocket motor testing.)
