April 8, 2016
This April the Longhorn Rocketry Association returned from their first major competition with two first place trophies in hand. The UT Austin student-run organization participated in the first annual Central U.S. Rocketry Tournament organized by the Aero Mavericks from The University of Texas at Arlington. The KLOUDBusters, a high-power rocketry organization, hosted the competition on April 2nd at their launch site in Argonia, Kansas.
UT Austin was one of four university teams from the central U.S. that competed this year. Other universities that participated included UT Arlington, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Colorado Boulder.
The competition offered three events. The Maximum Altitude Flight event required teams to launch their rocket as high as possible. The Budget Rocket event called for teams to build a maximum altitude rocket within a budget of $75, and the Heavy Lift Rocket event required teams to design a rocket capable of carrying and deploying a payload of 15 kilograms or less, with both the rocket and payload being recovered successfully.
LRA competed in the Maximum Altitude Flight and Budget Rocket events, claiming first place in both. In the maximum altitude competition, LRA’s rocket, dubbed Mach 2, reached an impressive altitude of 15,143 feet. The LRA budget rocket, named Jeremy, reached a height of 5,962 feet, more than a thousand feet higher than their simulations predicted. They received bonus points for having $4.06 left over from their budget.
Except for the electronics, LRA members fabricated the rockets themselves. Over the past two years, senior Carlos Pinedo and his high-powered team designed, built and tested a minimum diameter carbon fiber rocket. The rocket, which would later become Mach 2, measured 3 feet long, had a diameter of 38 millimeters and weighed 3.19 pounds.
Once LRA’s vice president Zach Ralstin saw Mach 2, he knew it was perfect for the tournament; it was lightweight, small, could travel extremely fast, and was expected to reach an altitude near 15,000 feet.
For the Budget Rocket competition, LRA members replicated Mach 2 at a cheaper scale, Ralstin said. Unlike their other rockets, which are primarily made of fiberglass, Jeremy was built using a reinforced cardboard tube and a plastic nose cone. The rocket was a little over 3 feet long, with a diameter of 38 millimeters. It weighed 1.5 pounds on the launch pad. To minimize the stresses applied to its cardboard airframe and prevent the motor from shooting out of the rocket, the budget rocket used a high impulse motor that output nearly constant thrust over a long burn period.
Ralstin said that it has been rewarding to apply the knowledge and skills he has learned in LRA toward real-world applications.
“We’ve transitioned to focusing exclusively on high-power rocketry and we’re finally at a technical level of readiness where we can go and apply our knowledge to compete in these types of competitions and beat other schools, which is great,” he said.
LRA members said competing in the tournament was the first exposure they had in comparing themselves with other rocketry clubs. Senior Kelsea Sadler, who has been a member of the LRA since her freshman year, said that it was good to see the organization’s progress to this point and that they will continue competing against other schools.
“It was nice to get that affirmation that this organization is one of the best collegiate rocketry clubs out there,” Sadler said. “Personally, I’m glad to be a part of this and witness it before I graduate.”
