Aurora

Aurora launching at the Lone Star Cup

The Goal

This year, we have worked toward a few key goals. We are seeking to improve upon our processes from last year and integrate active aerodynamic airbrakes to more precisely achieve our simulated altitude.

The Process

Over the course of our year-long design and manufacturing process, I worked hands-on on essentially every inch of the rocket. In this section, I'll highlight my key contributions.

Airframe Integration & Fin Assembly

The primary structure of Aurora consists of a fiberglass airframe paired with carbon-fiber fin structures designed for sustained transonic flight. I was responsible for fabricating and integrating these components into the final flight vehicle.

For the airframe, there was a large focus placed on precise surface preparation and bonding to ensure structural continuity across coupling sections and other load-bearing interfaces. Minimizing geometric imperfections is critical to prevent significant asymmetric loading and excessive aerodynamic drag.

The fin system was constructed with G10 fiberglass and reinforced with a wet carbon-fiber layup to maximize stiffness-to-weight ratio and reduce fin flutter at high dynamic pressures. We designed and fabricated fin alignment tools to ensure symmetry and accurate cant angles. Epoxy bonding procedures were controlled to ensure adequate fillet geometry and load distribution at fin roots.

Aurora's fins

Uh-Oh

Deep into the process, we discovered that the mass of our rocket was too high, and we would not leave the launch pad with a high enough velocity to ensure stability. Since we were so far into the process, we had to trim off part of our fins to recover performance. This sort of mistake can induce a lot of error, so, as the lead engineer of our next rocket (2026-2027), I will take greater care to keep our design updated as we move through the construction process.

To help mitigate inconsistencies in the fins, I designed and 3-D printed a fin beveling system to ensure the fins were as consistent as possible. While the design worked flawlessly, I am designing a more robust, universal system to keep in the organization for its future rockets.

Electronics & Recovery

As we prepared for the Lone Star Cup, I learned and worked on the electronics and recovery system of our rocket. I worked on validating our redundant flight computer and assembled our recovery system, accounting for the shock cord length and parachute size necessary to ensure the rocket would not damage itself during separation events or landing.

Testing Aurora's Redundant Flight Computer

As part of the manufacturing team, I cut out the slats that the brakes extend through, and internally reinforced the section with a two layer fiberglass layup to compensate for the reduced strength of the section due to the removed material. Beyond this, we worked with the advanced research team to validate and test our airbrakes before launch.

Test Launch & Results

Aurora reached Mach 0.87 and 14,244 feet at the Lone Star Cup. Clearly, we overshot our goal altitude. Unfortunately, once we were at the launch site, we found that the connection from the flight computer to our airbrakes was damaged, so we had to launch without it.

Despite this setback, the flight went otherwise flawlessly. The flight went up stable, and recovery went off without a hitch. We attribute the success of this flight to the improved manufacturing processes that we developed due to the failure of Olympus. Now, we are working hard to ensure our airbrakes are fully functional by IREC this June.

Competition Launch & Results

Coming July 2026.