Here are some pretty pictures. The first is a mockup of a model I’m currently running CFD on to assess if and how a nosecone modeled on a Kingfisher beak might reduce our pressure drag. Japan Railways Group modeled their latest bullet trains off of this beak and saw some pretty impressive results which you can read about here. So we’re gonna see how that works out.
The second is a better rendering of our modular body sections. These will be sized to fit five different systems: the combustion chamber and nozzle, n-butanol tank, LOX tank, N2 tank, and our recovery and payload bay (combined into a single bay). Since each part just stacks on top of the other we can quickly access any part of the rocket we need with pretty minimal work. It will also make our thousand mile journey to competition a whole heck of a lot easier. We’ve done some FEA on these and are not seeing any substantial reduction in strength from the use of a modular system.
-May the coffee bean be with you,
Micah (Flight Rocket Lead)
Oregon Tech Rocketry and Aerospace 