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Washington State University Aerospace Club

Welcome to Palouse Aerospace

The Aerospace Club was founded in 1995 with the end goal of equipping students with a supplementary aerospace skillset. In its first decade, the club made Design, Build, Fly competition airplanes from the Crimson Phoenix to Toto.  Starting in 2014, the club began its foray into rockets: Competing in IREC three times with Carbon Cougar, Crimson Fire, and Project Knarr. The WSU Aerospace club was also built the first university team in the world to successfully built and demonstrated Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) utilizing liquid hydrogen as fuel.

Since COVID, our club has been focusing on rebuilding and growing the club. This included a name change to Palouse Aerospace and participation in the 2023 Spaceport America Cup. At the 2023 competition our rocket team competed in the 10k COTS category placing 45th overall of 119 teams. Within the 10k COTS category they placed 31st out of 66 teams. Throughout the 2022-2023 school year, the Planes Team has been working on rebuilding some of the institutional knowledge lost due to the pandemic. Our newer aviators have been learning about composite fabrication including vacuum bagging and compression molds. They have now begun the construction of a 12-foot wingspan cargo plane.

In addition to being a place for Aerospace competition teams to meet and collaborate, the Aerospace club prides itself in facilitating people in building their own personal Aerospace related projects, from custom foam-board airplanes to helicopters and ion thrusters. We welcome all WSU students and faculty members to join the club, no experience is required. Upon graduation, many of our members have moved on to their “dream jobs” in the aerospace industry.

Current Projects:

Spaceport America Cup 2023
Rocket Certifications
Cargo Plane

MEETINGS: Fridays at 5:30 pm in Frank Innovation Zone – DANA 15

Our clubroom is DANA 51

305 NE Spokane St Pullman, WA 99164

Joins us on Teams!

For questions, please send us an email at palouse.aerospace@wsu.edu

Hope to see you at our meetings! Go Cougs!

 

 

Structures

IMG_20150311_180217After Many Tests we have finally moved on to doing the full body section! To keep the body stiff we have decided to add a layer of Aero-Mat as an inner layer. This will add the compression strength we need to ensure there is no buckling during the burn of our motor.IMG_20150305_101500

The final body is planned to include one layer of carbon fiber followed by a layer of Aero-Mat followed by two more Layers of carbon Fiber.

Electronics Update

Successfully tested stratologger deployment capabilities at 10,000 ft and 50,000 ft within a vacuum chamber. Some deviation occurred during the 50k ft test, as the main chute deployment was delayed by more than 90 ft. This could be due to rate of depressurization of the chamber or an uncalibrated barometer on the altimeter. Further testing will be needed. Configuration settings and locating tone as advertised.

Electronic housing specifications have been narrowed down. Use of a 1″x4″ wooden plank for a support structure with threaded steel rods running lengthwise through the plank and surrounding bulkheads will be implemented. Bulkheads will consist of a carbon fiber bulkhead and aluminum face supplemented with wooden bulkheads that are o-ring sealed for the altimeter sensors. Currently waiting on ordered parts and diameter specifications of threaded rods/rocket body before further construction can take place.

Testing of carbon fiber housing around the recently purchased transmitter will take place ASAP. Further testing of the altimeter will be taking place next week along with some exploration into safety critical circuit arming techniques for use with current electronics bay design.

SOME PICTURES!!

IMG_20150227_190725 IMG_20150227_192200 IMG_20150227_192432