I was a member of the BYU Rocketry High Power Team for the Spaceport America 2024 Cup. The entry for cup was a competition vehicle named 'Alta.' Within  the team, my role was the GNC Team lead, whose task was to oversee the data acquisition and telemetry systems of the rocket, as well as ensure the rocket is successfully recovered after each launch. Additionally, along with another student, I conducted a modal analysis of the rocket which can be found here. 

Within the team, I was personally responsible for constructing hardware and physical casing of the avionics bay, conducting a force analysis of the recovery harness for the rocket,  and designed the configuration for electrical systems of the rocket including both avionics and telemetry. The details of each of these subsystems and a complete analysis is documented the team's technical report, which available to download at the bottom of this page. 

The structural basis of the avionics bay consists of a 14 in. long carbon-fiber coupler section of the airframe with a 2 in. thick switch band nested between two bulkheads. The switch band contains two 1⁄4 in. holes for pull pins to be inserted and removed from the system, activating altimeters. These holes, along with two additional 1⁄4 in. vent holes were drille 90° apart from each other on the switch band. This was done to ensure accurate barometric readings from the altimeters and follows standards such as using a 1⁄4 in. diam hole for every 100 in^3 in a given section of the rocket. This is also in agreement with the user's guide for the primary and secondary altimeters14, which recommends using multiple, smaller holes if possible.

The bulkheads are constructed of two 1⁄2 in. thick wooden sheets, reinforced with an 1⁄8 in. thick carbon-fiber plating. The carbon-fiber plating is attached to the interior side of the bulkhead to prevent excessive cracking or fracture of the wood. This choice was made due to the superior stiffness of carbon fiber (E ≈ 160 -180 GPa)15 over wood (E ≈ 8.6 GPa) or other materials. The bulkheads and coupler section are held together by 3⁄8 in. threaded rods. The rods are also threaded into a 7.5 in. long 3D-printed polycarbonate (PC) sled onto where the altimeters and batteries are mounted. Due to possible high temperatures experienced within the rocket while awaiting launch on the pad or awaiting recovery, polycarbonate was chosen for its exceptional heat deflection temperature of 117 °C, compared to other filaments such as PLA (57 °C), PETG (79°C), or ABS (97°C).

Hand calculations were used to obtain an initial estimate of forces critical linkage would expereince throughout the flight. In this case, a worse case scenario situation was simulated from OpenRocket, and a predicted value of 40 G of acceleration was found. This level of acceleration, combined with the total mass of the rocket, was used to determine the largest load case the connection g U-bolts could experience. With the rocket weighing about 70 lb., the total amount of force the U-bolt cold expereince is 2,800 lbs. This loading case assumes the rocket maintains a constant mass and that the force is entirely transmitted axially to the U-bolt. 

With forces determined by hand calculations, the Von-Mises criteria for evaluating failure loads was used to determine the factor of safety. Next, a tensile test was performed on the U-bolts with the same boundary conditions as within the rocket, and relevant force/displacement data was analyzed. 

 Additional force analysis was performed on the mounting structure for the telemetry system into the noise cone, where a similar process was used. FEA was used to verify hand calculations instead of a physical test due to lack of spare parts. 

The telemetry system used in the rocket is outlined here. It was the same one used in the previous year's entry: Solitude. However, many improvements were made to improve sensor accuracy and the strength of the telemetered connection. 

A full report outlining every aspect of the competition vehicle may be found in the technical report, which was authored by various team members.  

Overall, the BYU Rocketry High Power Team placed 2nd in the 10k COTS category, 1st in the SDL Payload Challenge, and also won an additional award for the team's promotional video.