 Fond du Lac rocket launch at a past competition |
 UW Madison "Cow" rocket lifting off |
2022-2023 Space Grant (in-the-) Midwest High-Power
Rocketry Competition - the "Precision Landing Challenge"
A general announcement and a competition handbook are posted below. More details were provided at the informational / kick-off videocon at 7 p.m. Central Time on 9/19/22 (and at the repeated videocon at 7 p.m. Central Time on 1/12/2023).
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: As
announced by e-mail in December, lead time for
Cesaroni motors has increased so motors need to be
ordered asap. Do not wait till February
(as mentioned in the handbook and in the videocon
slides). All teams will need at least one Cesaroni
H225 motor (for the first flight at the
competition), at possibly more than one (if you
plan to use that same motor for test flight(s)),
so this applies to all teams, including
teams planning to use an AeroTech motor for their
second competition flight. Contact Gary Stroick to
order competition-day motors. Contact your local
launch site vendor (that might also be Gary), to
order test motors. ASAP!
The Minnesota Space Grant Consortium (MnSGC) announces its intention to run the Space Grant (in-the-) Midwest High-Power Rocketry Competition. The fly-off will be held in Minnesota, but this competition is open to college/university student teams from across the nation during the 2021-2022 academic year. This competition is an opportunity for students to design and construct high-power rockets to be launched in May 2022 from a Tripoli high-power rocket club launch site just north of Minneapolis.
2022-2023 “Precision Landing Challenge” (summary description -
highlighted parts are clarifications from original
posting): College/university
student teams will design and construct a single
motor, single stage, high-power rocket that will fly
twice during the competition. The challenge is (A)
to use a steerable parachute during a
totally-unpowered descent to guide the rocket
booster to land as close as possible to a
specified ground target, probably about 1000
ft from the launch pad, and (B) to land the
booster so that it remains upright. For the
purposes of this competition, the “booster” is
defined to be the section
of a rocket that fully contains the motor and
also has the main stabilization fins and an
up/down camera system on it.
(Aside: The booster is allowed to separate from, and
descend independently from, the upper section of the
rocket, as long as all parts of the rocket land at
safe speeds and are recovered in re-flyable
condition.) If the
booster is separated from other sections of the
rocket in flight, all independent sections must
contain tracking devices unless the separation
occurs at or just prior to landing so that all the
sections of the rocket land within 100 ft of one
another.) Rockets will fly first on a
Cesaroni 273H225-14A “White Thunder” (2-grain, 38
mm diameter) motor, and must exceed 1000 ft
AGL (Above Ground Level). The second flight will
have a target apogee as close as possible to, but
not exceeding, 3000 ft AGL, and can be on any
Cesaroni or AeroTech I-class or J-class 54 mm
diameter motor. The rocket must carry a
“non-commercial” (i.e. not sold for rocketry)
data-logging sensor suite to characterize flight
performance, including logging (at least once a
second) GPS, av-bay pressure, 3-axis acceleration,
and 3-axis rotation. The
intent of the gps part of sensor suite is to track
the booster. Thus, the sensor suite must be within
the booster, or at least in a part of the rocket
that is tied to (i.e. descends with) the booster,
at least until landing (or very near landing). Do
not separate the gps (at least) from the booster
section at apogee, and have them descend
separately (possibly landing far apart).
The booster must also contain a look-up and
look-down camera system, to collect video of the
rocket motor boosting, the rocket separating, the
steerable parachute in action, and the rocket
landing. Bonus points will be given to teams whose
members increase their certification level using
individually-built rockets (which will be unrelated
to the (team-built) competition rocket described
above). Additional details about the competition
will be included in a handbook. Note that all
fabrication work on the rocket(s), except for
possibly machining of plastic and/or metal parts,
must be performed by students.
Logistical questions may be directed
to James Flaten, MN Space Grant, U of MN, flate001@umn.edu.
Technical questions may be directed to Gary
Stroick, Tripoli MN, president@offwegorocketry.com.
INDUSTRY SPONSORS:
- TBA
IMPORTANT DATES:
·
Kick-off/informational
telecon: Monday, Sept. 19, 2022 (repeated Thursday,
Jan. 12, 2023) from 7 to 8 p.m. CST (contact
James Flaten, flate001@umn.edu, for call-in
information)
·
Garner your state’s Space
Grant sponsorship and submit a (Non-binding) “Notice
of Intent to Compete” by Oct. 1, 2022
·
$400 Registration Fee†
is due by Jan. 31, 2023, of which up to $100 will be
applied toward purchase of competition motors
·
In-person Competition
dates: Presentations & Safety Checks on
Saturday, 5/13/23* (mid-afternoon &
evening) then flights on Sunday, 5/14/23*
(all day, plus an evening banquet)
·
Alternate (Weather-delay)
flight date: Monday, 5/15/23* (as long as
needed)
† Schools that entered
teams in the COVID-aborted 2019-2020 Space Grant
Midwest High-Power Rocketry Competition that did not
compete in 2021-2022 may elect to have their
previous registration applied to this new
competition, but may not extend registration credit
beyond 2022-2023.
* If Minnesota has a
particularly wet spring and the launch site clearly
will not be useable by mid-May, the competition
dates might need to shift. This will be announced in
as far in advance as is practical. See details in
handbook.
DOCUMENT ARCHIVE FOR THE 2022-2023 "PRECISION LANDING CHALLENGE"
- Announcement of Competition (circulated August 31, 2022):
- Handbook for Competition (v5 posted 2/13/23 - minor edits on page 42 (and 31 and 32)):
- Slides and link to recording from Informational / Kick-off Videocon
- Non-binding "Notice of Intent to Compete" Form (due Oct. 1, 2022 - send form by e-mail to James Flaten, MN Space Grant, flate001@umn.edu)
- Reports by a past year's winning team (UMD) - optional reading
- Instructions for paying the $400 registration fee (if your team isn't using a pre-paid fee from 2019) - due Jan. 31, 2023
- "Declaration of Competition Attendance" Template (due Feb. 10, 2023) - submit by e-mail to James Flaten flate001@umn.edu
- Information about hotels and camping options, plus stores (like hardware stores) and other "local attractions"
Last Modified: 2023-04-26 at 21:23:20 -- this is in International Standard Date and Time Notation