Critical Design Review
“The Distribution of Ionizing Radiation with Altitude”
Left to Right:
Izzy S.Tom L.James Z.Dr. Marintsch Youssef B.Paul T. Randall H. Aldo F. Not in Photo:
Audio Visual
Payload
Construction
Head Mentor
Program Manager
Rocket design
Safety
Outreach/Publicity
Mr. D. Laney,
Mr. M. Loughlin
St. Thomas High School, Houston, TX
http:// rocketry.sths.org
Agenda
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Mission Statement and Goals
Project Update
Launch Vehicle and Payload Summary
Vehicle Body System
Propulsion System
Recovery System
Payload System
Scale Launch
Payload Experiment
Planning of System Tests
Safety
Budget and Outreach
mission statement and goals
Mission Statement
Our mission is to supply accurate data about cosmic
radiation by building a safe and functioning rocket that
can provide ample time for data collection.
Goals
•Reach an altitude of one mile.
•Payload records data on ionizing radiation.
•Both parachutes deploy at predetermined altitudes.
•Land within one square mile.
•Rocket retrievable with payload intact.
•Shed light on radiation variation with altitude.
Project update
Work done since PDR
• Removed canards and shortened the fins in the rocket
design
• Built and successfully launched the scale model
• Testing of rocket electronics
• Successful usage of dual deployment
• Established a plan with the school advancement office for
acquiring funds from school alumni
Work still to be done
• Building full-scale rocket
• Modifying fins
• Setting up payload
• Fiberglass the tubes
launch vehicle and payload summary
Vehicle:
Length - 90”
Diameter - 5.40”
Motor - K560W
Mass with Motor - 10,078 g
Stability Margin - 2.53
Launch System - 1.5”x1.5” (10’)
Recovery:
Drogue – 28” at Apogee
Main – 120” at 1500 ft.
Payload Experiment Summary:
Measure levels of cosmic radiation with altitude through the
use of Geiger Mueller Tubes whose data will be
correlated with time and altitude.
SYSTEMS
Vehicle Body
Propulsion
Recovery
Payload
(1) Vehicle Body System
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Nose Cone & Upper Body Tube Middle Body Tube (Payload)
Lower Body Tube
•Modified LOC Precision Magnum 3e
•Three Body Tubes (5.40”- size needed for payload)
Lower (31”) – K560W, Drogue, G10 Fins, Camera
Middle (28”) – Payload Bay
Upper (11”) – Main Chute
•Nose Cone (21”)
GPS Transmitter
(2) Propulsion System
•Motor:
Aerotech K560W
•Thrust / Weight:
5.7:1 (Thrustcurve) [560N / (10 kg x 9.8m/s )]
5.1:1 (Rocksim) [497N / (10 kg x 9.8m/s )]
2
2
•Velocity off Launch Rod:
59.3 ft/s
•Rail Length:
10 ft
•Burn Time:
4.6 s
(3) Recovery System
Drogue Chute
• 28” LOC Precision
• Deployed at Apogee (18.8 s)
Main Chute
• 120” Public Missiles
• Deployment at 1500 ft (70.8 s)
Redundancy Plan
• 2 Perfectflite Dual Deployment Altimeters
• Each one will connect to a drogue and main ejection
charge
Landing
• Landing at 162 s
• Velocity at Landing: 16.8ft/s(V); 10.3ft/s(H); 19.7ft/s(M)
(4) Payload System

Top view

Side view
(4) Payload System
Within Middle Body Tube
•Bay #1 - Geiger Mueller Tubes with Circuit board and
Processor.
•Bay #2 - Gamma-Scout Geiger Counter.
•Bay #3 - Two Altimeters – Linked to ejection charges
at either end of Payload Bay.
Within Nose Cone
•GPS Transmitter
Outside of Lower Body Tube
•Video camera
(4) Payload Set-Up
Scale Launch
Scale Model
• ½ Scale
• G80 motor
Launched with
• 2 Perfectflite Dual
Deployment Altimeters
• Booster Vision
camera
Results
• Reached an altitude
of 1098 ft.
• Successfully
deployed 2 parachutes
Scale Launch Pictures
Scale Launch Pictures
payload experiment
Hypothesis
After consideration of the
effects due to terrestrial
radiation, we would
expect the counts to
increase with elevation
as the net absorption of
Secondary Cosmic
Radiation by the
atmosphere decreases.
payload experiment
Full scale
tube array
construction
Testing of 
GammaScout
Planned tube
array design
Prototype 
array of five
tubes
payload experiment
Significance
(1) Radiation is measured with altitude using 12”long Geiger Mueller Tubes expected to record
up to nearly 500 cpm over 140 s of descent and
19 s of ascent.
(2) Radiation levels are suggested to be associated
with changes in atmospheric conditions (such
as cloud formation and global warming;
chlorine production and ozone depletion)
(3) Radiation levels are linked to the breakdown of
DNA in organic tissue and so merit further
study.
payload experiment
Electronic usage
Gamma Scout – Because of a long
measurement interval time, the
GammaScout will primarily be used for
calibrating the Geiger Muller tube array
Tube Array- Will be used as our
primary data source when interpreting
and graphing the data.
System testing
Tested
•GPS – Locality tracking.
•Camera – Video testing.
•Vehicle – Scale model launch.
Testing
•Payload – Geiger Counters and
(a) consistency of data collection,
(b) background counts,
(c) isolation of ray sources.
Will Test
•Recovery – Ejection charges and chute
deployment. Safety and RF Signals.
•Propulsion – (a) Inspection of parts,
(b) assembly supervision.
safety plans
Prior to each project phase:
Review system risks and mitigations.
Review Safety Codes.
Pass test on Safety Procedures.
Sign Safety Statement.
budget and outreach
Budget
Current major purchases
• Geiger Counter with data storage ($445)
• Geiger Mueller tubes ($200)
• 120” parachute ($190)
Imminent Purchases
• Five additional GM tubes ($570)
• Rocket Parts ($295)
• GPS System ($450)
• Video camera ($100)
Subtotal $1680
Subtotal $570
Outreach
• Collaboration with school advancement office
• Current preparation of Informational
Flyers/Brochures.
• Formulation of presentation/workshop strategies.