Club News | Palouse Aerospace | Washington State University

^{Washington State University} _{Aerospace Club}

First Attempt at Certification Completed

March 1, 2015 Elijah Shoemake

Earlier today, Paul, Kevin, Katlyn, Mario, Curtis, and I traveled to Pasco, WA for Paul and Kevin’s first attempts to achieve Level 1 NAR certification. The Tri-Cities Rocketeers were gracious in letting us launch our rockets from their stands, as well as helping us navigate everything we needed to make our certification attempt possible. While both launches resulted in failure (parachutes failed to deploy), we all had a lot of fun watching others launch as well as launching our own rockets. I’m currently prepping video of our launch attempts, but here’s some photos of the event and a video of a particularly spectacular launch by Conrad of Seattle, WA to tide you over. Enjoy!

Electronics Update

February 27, 2015 Ryan Brooks

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!!

The New and Improved Aerospace Club Room

February 15, 2015 paul.flerchinger

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am proud to announce that the Aerospace Club room has been rearranged for more usable workspace and has been THOROUGHLY vacuumed, dusted, scrubbed, reorganized!! I would personally like to thank all who contributed to the cleaning of this room because it was not a small task. (Ryan, Jon, Dallas, Kevin, Jacob, Phil, Curtis, Katlyn, Eli, and Russell) We could not have completed the task without you all! The process took about 8 hours all-in-all and is looking really tidy. That being said, please clean up any messes that you make to help keep this room looking top notch! Thanks!

Before:

IMG_20150215_104632

After:

History of Rocketry Movie Series I: October Sky

February 3, 2015 Elijah Shoemake

WSU Aerospace Club will be hosting a movie series covering the history of rocketry and spaceflight. These movies are a collection of essential space films that cover topics about the origins of rocketry and spaceflight, major events and disasters, and major accomplishments of the industry. We encourage anyone interested in aerospace, rocketry, or space to attend – especially if you haven’t seen the film before.

Flim I: October Sky

Date: Saturday, February 7, 2015
Time: Open at 1:30pm, Movie from 2pm-4pm
Location: ETRL M7 (Meet in Dana 51 at 1:00pm if you don't know where this is)

October Sky is the first film we will be showing in the series. This film tells a parallel story to what we as a club are trying to accomplish – it’s about a group of students working to do what others tell them isn’t possible by building rockets from scratch. They come from a small town in the middle of nowhere and through hard work and determination manage to be competitive in Science Fairs. Set in the late 1950s, October Sky gives you a view into America as the space race is hitting full swing, the movie starting with the launch of Sputnik.