The objective of the Suborbital Technology Experimental Vehicle for Exploration research project is to design and build a Level 3 Rocket that can serve as a research platform for launching and testing..
The objective of the Suborbital Technology Experimental Vehicle for Exploration research project is to design and build a Level 3 Rocket that can serve as a research platform for launching and testing payloads. The development of this research project will help students to test various size payloads and science experiments to gauge future efforts to design and develop larger payloads for larger suborbital or orbital national and international platforms. Final rocket design, specifications, and payloads are being constructed at the Payload Applied Technology Operations (PATO) lab using state-of-the-art materials, manufacturing and 3D printing techniques. The design and fabrication of the payload bay area was optimized to have four TubeSats and two Nanolabs. By using ANSYS static structural analysis, the preliminary results simulate the maximum acceleration loads that the payload will experience during the main parachute deployment. Through this analysis, the resulting maximum acceleration load the payload would experience was determined to be 310 m/s^2 (12,174 in/s^2). Another observation made through this analysis was the location of the maximum stress, located on the connecting rods. The deformations observed are protected by the structure of the payload. The design for the coupler tubes and nose cone have been finalized and are ready to be fabricated. Fabrication of rocket components, such as coupler tubes, nosecone, and motor tube, are being carried out within the Aviation Maintenance Science (AMS) building using fabrication techniques such as CNC machining. After the carbon fiber hand layup of the motor tube, it was necessary to sand the motor tube to its desired diameter of 0.273 m (10.75 inches) and machine the fin alignment jig to make it sturdier. Working with this department, the fabrication of the motor tube and the alignment jig, used for fin alignment, have been completed.