Team of the Week: UNSW

This week on Team of the Week is AIAA UNSW Rocketry! For the upcoming competition, the team has been hard at work manufacturing their rocket ‘Ainsworth_203’, getting it flight ready for Thunda! The team has also been busy running weekly workshops for new members and engaging in industry through their Project Fairs! Have a look at their exciting progress below, with an exclusive sneak peek at their technical payload!

Progress Overview

We’re a bunch of UNSW students who love to fly rockets, ‘send it’, hang out and laugh together. In terms of the AURC- we’ve been putting in hard yards with fabrication experts DMG Engineering to get our rocket ‘Ainsworth_203’ built and tested for Thunda! Of course, being hard at work on our upcoming technical report, we’ll keep it short and sweet!

Alongside the competition build, we’ve been upskilling our new members weekly, running workshops and building small low-power kits which were then launched at the recent NSWRA Launch Weekend! “This made my day…(literally)”. Members are keen to graduate down the pipeline, join the association and attempt their MPR Certs!

On the business end, UNSW held the first of many Projects Fairs where the team was able to engage with industry and join the engineering network at large. Part of this network is BLUEsat UNSW- the student group responsible for developing our technical payload, which is carrying a scientific bacteria experiment conducted by Biosphere UNSW. This makes for a truly interdisciplinary effort!

From us all at AIAA UNSW Rocketry, we would like to thank our major supporters UNSW and Cubic, as well as the Ainsworth family for supporting our honorary naming scheme for this project rocket, ‘Ainsworth_203’. We would like to finally thank the competition organisers at AYAA as well as our team coordinator Luan for sharing our story here on the Team of the Week Feature! That being said, we look forward to carrying our team spirit along with us to the AURC and checking out what the others have in store!

Follow our story on social media!

Originally posted March 20, 2019

Team of the Week: UWAA

Our Team of the Week this week hails from Western Australia. University of Western Australia Aerospace (UWAA) has been hard at work over the past few months, making great strides with their prototype vehicle, launching it to an impressive altitude of 2.86km! Check out their progress below, and get to know their team lead structural engineer, Joel, as he tells you about what he’s learnt from his AURC journey thus far.

Progress Overview

The UWA Aerospace Team have made great progress in the AURC over the last few months having successfully launched and recovered our prototype to a height of 2.86km. We’ve recently spent last month finishing off the analysis and experimentation necessary to further optimise and improve our simulation accuracy and are now working on finishing off the technical report and our competition build ahead of the launch.

In addition to the team’s technical pursuits we’ve also found the time to give back to the local community through running fun and engaging outreach workshops which encourages local high school students to pursue careers in STEM-related fields.

Member Feature: Joel – Lead Aerostructures

My earliest memories of space are the nights I spent stargazing with my dad as a kid. I can still remember the glow of an old boxy satellite we spotted as it burned up on its way down to Earth. I’ve been drawn to space ever since, though I’m mostly known for making (breaking) things in my garage.

The AURC has provided a convenient outlet to both my love of the stars and the desire to build sweet machines. As the lead structural engineer, I’ve learned about composite airframes, aerodynamics, team communication, and working to tight budget limitations. While it’s been a challenge to work in a part of Australia without much aerospace funding or expertise, the brilliant team of passionate peacocks at UWAA more than makes up for it.

Originally posted March 11, 2019

Technical Report Submissions Open

Submissions for the Project Technical Report are now open! The report is due on March 18th and is worth big points and your efforts now could make all the difference in your team’s result.

Originally posted March 7, 2019

Sponsor: BAE Systems Australia

The AURC is excited to be partnering with BAE Systems Australia as in-kind sponsors for the inaugural competition!

BAE Systems has multiple sites throughout Australia and provides the Australian Defence Force with a wide range of capabilities spanning air, land, sea, space and cyber security. Their work in space solutions includes satellite communication and ground station design. Applications for BAE Systems Australia’s graduate program are now open for 2020 and they also support students through their internship program.

We are also excited to have BAE Systems providing site tours to our Adelaide-based teams, so stay tuned for more updates!

Originally posted March 5, 2019

Team of the Week: UTS

For our first Team of the Week feature, the AURC committee are excited to showcase UTS Rocketry. UTS Rocketry have been working hard on their rocket, Asteria, to participate in the 30,000 ft division at the the AURC in April. Alongside working on their Level 2 Certification, the team have also been busy designing and testing a range of smaller rockets for their members to get some hands-on rocketry experience.

Progress Overview

The UTS Rocketry Team is working actively towards meeting the competition deadlines, with our main rocket Asteria (L: 229cm/D: 13.5cm/31.35kg/N-Class) largely manufactured and ready for our initial test flight in early March. Asteria is designed to carry our full technical payload to 9000km and comprised of a full Carbon Fibre exterior and a mixture of Balsa, CF rod, and 3D-printed PLA acting as the key structural components. Currently, our mechanical team is finalising the production of our nose cone, made from a carbon fibre wet lay over a vacuum formed mould. We have put effort into forming a mass manufacturing process for this (amongst other parts) as we have identified the nose cone as a part in need of frequent replacement and modularity.

Having finalised their payload PCB design, our Electrical team is organising its initial print while configuring what will be our onsite tracking and data streaming. In addition to the competition mandated package, our payload is designed to accomplish two key missions – Firstly, the recovery of flight data to corroborate our flight simulations, which includes a flight camera for full HD onboard video. Secondly, to equip our community outreach partner (PAAS) with a host of sensors to perform a tailored atmospheric experiment at apogee.

In addition to our competition rocket we are endeavouring to design and manufacture a host of UTSmade rockets. The first of which is dubbed Charmander (L: 56cm/D: 3.5cm/400g/G-Class) A smaller class rocket manufactured using an SLS 3D printer. It was designed to give the wave of newer members first hand launch experience & a chance to familiarise themselves with basic rocket features. The second is Cyclops (103cm/D:7.6cm/1.1kg/G-Class) designed to test out payload housing/flight video systems and manufactured almost entirely out of carbon fibre to give the team experience with the procedures. We are also currently developing a clustered motor design for launch later this month. The goal is to create an environment for all our members to learn as many facets of rocketry as possible and focus on broadening what ideas we can bring back to our competition design.

The team most recently travelled 6 hours to Mullaley to launch a rocket dubbed Godzilla as we continue to work towards our Cert 2 for the competition.

Originally posted March 4, 2019