The Aerostructures Sub team is in charge of manufacturing the airframe. Each year we perform a full design, analysis, and build cycle in preparation for the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition alongside many test rockets. This year Aerostructures is focusing on reliable manufacturing airframes and researching new techniques to do so.
For this year aerostructures is tasked with the research and manufacturing the airframes of two fully student-built rockets, Helios and Selene. During the first semester the team’s effort is to design and manufacture the airframe for Helios, our 30k rocket and second semester the plan is to complete Selene, our 10k hybrid rocket. To do this the team manufactures body tubes, couplers, nosecone, and fins.
Using previous years research and development, the team is able to reliably manufacture carbon fiber body tubes through filament winding using the team’s X-winder. This allows for affordable, strong, customizable tubes to fit the needs of any rockets. Last year’s 30K rocket, Vesta, was able to come down intact even though it took a sharp turn at trans-sonic speeds.
This year the team invested in a durable, reusable aluminum female coupler mold to replace the use of foam which is fragile and often breaks. This helps to create couplers without constantly getting new foam, speeding up the layup process. Some smaller projects include a detailed CAD model for both rockets, fin analysis, and nosecone analysis.
