Mechanical
Rocket Ground Structure
This design is the current ground structure
(as of 2022) that will be used to launch the Halcyon rocket in the Texas Rocket Engineering Lab (TREL). TREL is an organization dedicated to launching the first collegiate rocket to pass the Kármán line.
I worked in a small team of ~5 to create this structure and all of the respective components pictured below.
I worked in a small team of ~5 to create this structure and all of the respective components pictured below.
Full Structure
This structure consists of four release mechanisms connected to a steel truss made of hollow rails. Each leg of the truss is telescopic with incremental heights and has a load cell placed in the center. For precise analog movement, there are wedge jacks placed at the bottom of each leg.
Load Cell Mounts
These load cell mounts were designed to interface between the load cells (blue) and our GS truss. The design of the mounts makes it so that the weight of the rocket is centered onto the load-bearing rod at the center of the cell while still keeping the integrity of each individual leg.
Raising Wedge Jacks
The wedge jacks were designed with two purposes: to interface between the ground and the truss and to give a form of precise height adjustment for each leg. The wedges are designed to move horizontally and slide each leg up and down to make sure the stand is correctly leveled before launch.