ISGC Student Hands-On Spotlight: CyLaunch – Iowa State University
CyLaunch is a team of undergraduate students at Iowa State University building and designing a rocket for the NASA Student Launch Competition. This year, the team designed a rocket that is completely 3D printed out of PETG material. The team consists of 13 members with most of the members having a major of Aerospace Engineering and a few members having majors of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Engineering. The entire rocket design, testing, and build is completed all by the team of students. The rocket is built to meet all NASA handbook requirements.
This year, the rocket will fly to around 4,500 feet and contain a payload that will take pictures of its landing site upon the rocket landing on the ground. The team is split into two internal teams: the payload team and the vehicle team. The vehicle team oversees the design of the rocket body, the recovery system, building the rocket, and completing all the rocket calculations to make sure it meets the needed requirements. The payload team oversees building a design that fits into the payload bay of the rocket that completes the task that NASA specifies for this year’s competition. This year, the task is to have a camera poke out of the payload bay and take multiple pictures at different angles of the landing site.
CyLaunch will be competing in the NASA student launch competition in the spring. The rocket pictured was fully developed by the team and is fully 3D printed. Front Row (Left to Right): Wren Latcham, Bryan Pope, Katherine Jacobson, Gabriel Ortiz, Stephen Mann, and Shiarette Contreras Rivera. Back Row (Left to Right): Daniel Rolwes, Casey Collins, Kaden Kotvis, Erik DeMeyere, Jeffrey Price, and Logan Wessel.