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Requirements

  • The launch vehicle shall carry no less than 8.8 lbs. of payload.
  • The payload(s) submitted for weigh-in shall not be inextricably connected to other launch vehicle associated components while being weighed
  • Payloads shall not contain significant quantities of lead or other heavy metals. Additionally, payload shall not contain any hazardous materials that impact the health and safety of team members, staff, the general public, the convention center, or the launch site itself.
  • Any functional scientific experiment or technology demonstration payload and its associated structure may be constructed in any form factor 
  • Teams whose functional payloads do adopt the Payload Cube Unit physical standard will be awarded bonus points in the IREC. To meet this requirement, a payload will have to fit completely in a Payload Cube Unit dispenser with nothing protruding or physically connecting outside 
  • The payload design may incorporate up to 2.25 lbs. of non-functional “boiler-plate” mass to meet the required mass minimum. This non-functional “boiler-plate mass must be weighed separately from the rest of the payload to ensure it does not exceed the allowed mass as specified above.

All requirements: https://www.soundingrocket.org/uploads/9/0/6/4/9064598/sa_cup_irec_rules_and_requirements_document_-2024_v1.4_20240304.pdf

Judging Criteria

  • Scientific or Technical Objective(s) (400 points)
    • How relevant and well-designed is your scientific or technical objective?
  • Payload Construction and Overall Professionalism (200 points)
    • Includes make/buy decisions, craftsmanship, material usage, poster, handouts, reports, etc.
  • Readiness / Turnkey Operation (100 points)
    • Will the payload interfere with launch operations? Will the payload operate after hours of launch preparation, rail time, heat, waiting for other launches, etc?
  • Execution of Objective(s) (300 points)
    • How well did it accomplish the objective(s)? Note that no report equals zero points and rocket failure results in 150 points (half credit – don’t know if payload would have worked or not)

SDL Payload Challenge Website: https://www.soundingrocket.org/sdl-payload-challenge.html

Research

10/6/24

Ideas:

Kareena:

  • We can take an EAPS route


Yeast production:


Airborne particles/sample the atmosphere (idea from the summer)

  • Problem: More experimental/scientific, understand airborne particles/microorganisms at high altitudes
  • Projects: measure and study airborne particles during ascent/descent to understand what/how many exist at different points of trajectory (sensor?)
  • More of a climate approach, we could tie it into pollution or something along those lines
  • https://www.apogeerockets.com/Peak-of-Flight/Newsletter526 


Quadcopter deployment

  • Have the rocket house a small uav and have it deploy at some point during the rocket’s flight

Santiago:


How does height affect background radiation and UV?

  • Ozone concentration vs. height, possibly combine with above to see how ozone concentration can affect UV
  • Effects on materials?


Food storage

  • Particularly, wet and solid foods. Are they significantly affected in quality/shape/texture/etc.


Measuring relativistic effects on time via rocket acceleration

Test the usage and efficiency of IV drips and pumps

  • Medical uses



Tiffany:

  • Astronauts experience losses in bone density during their time in space as a result of microgravity. Does anything happen during takeoff?
  • How increased g forces impacts crystal growth


Sydney’s Group:

09/22/24:

Cold Brew:

  • Normally brewed overnight
    • Regular cold brew is normally steeped for 10-12 hours 
  • Can be brewed faster under higher pressure
    • Use a french press/aeropress method to compress the grounds
      • Pressure of compression will be tested
    • Will be brewed during launch and using room temperature water
  • Will have a control group that will be brewed using regular cold brew methods on the ground
  • Grounds
    • Coarse
    • Will be bought pre-grounded (from whatever company sponsors us)

09/15/24:

Prelim Payload Goals/Purpose:

Purpose:

Using the acceleration of the rocket to simulate a high gravity environment to complete an experiment in a unique setting that is hard to achieve under other circumstances

Yeast 

Yeast is affected by changes in acceleration, but it seems that the time scale required is not realistic for our purposes (rocket launch to touchdown is on the order of 1 minute, the above papers study 10s and 100s of minutes)

Coffee

Materials of Experiment: 

  • Vessel
  • Grounds
  • Water
  • Testing Equipment 

Design Concerns and Considerations:

  • Containment:
    • Keep grounds + water in container
    • Coffee says isolated
  • Rocket Orientation/Descent 
    • Descent rate
    • Orientation (upside down, sideways)
    • Impact
    • Can we continue to contain the experiment-
  • Evaluation of Success:
    • Semi-immediate results/data
  • Heating/Water temp- 

Possible Development of a cold brew design?


10/10/24

Spine:

  • Materials:
    • Model section of spine (focus on vertebrae or discs?)
      • Upper spine (neck area) - feels the most force because head is heavy - part of the spine that becomes weakest in older adults
      • Lower spine - for someone with a medical condition
    • Brace (non-invasive)
    • Extra: skin like material to see how much damage the brace would do
  • Challenges:
    • How will the brace enact force on the test spine
    • Finding a good fake bone material
      • Spine has bone and ligament sections. Do we also need to model the squishy ligament sections for this to be accurate? I feel like the squishy ligament sections would respond most to compression (more squishy than bone) so maybe idk
    • How to brace non-invasively inside the payload?
    • What are we measuring? How will we collected data? - displacement, something to measure forces between vertebrae?
    • Do we need to simulate weight of the head? - scale down the spine and just add weights on top
  • Plan:
    • At least one braced ‘spine’ and one control
      • Do we want multiple brace designs
    • Create brace similar to traditional medical brace
    • Angled spine to be more realistic to how astronauts actually sit in rocket

detailed illustration of cervical spine anatomy

IV Drip/Insulin Pump:

  • Individuals in air travel have often been reported to experience hypoglycemia (too much insulin is delivered by the pump during takeoff?)
  • Materials 
    • Insulin/IV drip
      • Force comes from gravitational pull, so the drip bag must be kept higher than the place insulin/IV fluid is delivered
    • Mechanical IV/ insulin pump 
      • Functions like a syringe
      • Doesn’t function based on gravity, will it still be impacted by the increased g forces?
    • Delivery site 
      • Synthetic model of human fatty tissue?
  • Challenges
    • What are we measuring?
      • Flow rate through a small tube? Fluid delivered somewhere?
      • Goal to maintain a constant flow rate (drip rate) throughout flight?


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