This year has kicked off many exciting projects for the Propulsion Subteam. The biggest of these being the development of Cyclone Rocketry’s first hybrid rocket motor, along with all of the required simulation, testing, and operational changes that go along with it.
Our current motor is an N-class hybrid which runs off a mix of nitrous oxide as our oxidizer, and HTPB as our fuel. It is built around a 98mm combustion chamber with a 5” diameter oxidizer tank. The goal for this motor is to fly and compete in the 10k SRAD Hybrid Division of the Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Competition (IREC) in June of 2025.
In addition to developing a new motor, Propulsion is also working to develop the ground support equipment required to test and fly hybrid rocket motors. This includes tower updates required to mount the vehicle prior to launch, updates to our test stand in order to support static fires, quick disconnect umbilicals for tanking of the vehicle, remotely operated servo assemblies, and developing methodologies for safe and accurate nitrous temperature regulation in order to enable a wide variety of launch and test fire environments.
Currently, our goal is to qualify and test fire our motor in early 2025 and continue to prove out hardware and operations for an eventual flight at IREC!
Cyclone Rocketry prides itself on manufacturing almost every part of the rocket in-house, and the propulsion team is no different, fabricating almost every piece of our propulsion systems on campus by students.
While designing and manufacturing a motor to power the club’s rocket is our main objective, there are also many smaller project groups within the team working on researching other topics for future involvement.