WPI High Power Rocketry Club (HPRC) is WPI’s competitive student rocketry team. In the 2019-20 compeition year, HPRC competed in the college division of the NASA sponsored USLI competition. The USLI competition involves the design, construction, testing, and launch of a high power rocket as well as a payload which is required to complete a specified mission. Teams are scored on performance in the competition as well as periodic design reviews and documentation throughout the course of the year-long project. The team designed and built a high power rocket named Pheonix with a projected apogee of over 4000 ft. Additionally, the team developed a quadcopter payload called Icarus, tasked with flying to a designated area and returning a simulated lunar sample. 

This was my first year on the team and my work was split between different subteams on the rocket during the compeition year. In the beginning of the year I worked primarily on the design and documentation of the fins for the rocket, and helped with the construction of the carbon fiber fins for both the subscale and full scale rockets pictured above. I also spent some time working on the recovery subteam, learning about parachute sizing and recovery hardware for the full scale rocket which featured a dual deployment recovery system. Unfortunately, the compeition in Huntsville, AL was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The team was succesful in launching a subscale flight and test flight of the full scale rocket however. I really enjoyed becoming a part of this team and learning about the various subsystems on the rocket, and I am very excited to keep working on future HPRC projects.