Objectives

• Test several electronic experiments

Specifications

• Total length : 172 cm
• Diameter : 10cm
• Wing span : 36,8cm
• Mass without motor : 6,45 kg
• Mass with motor : 10,15kg
• Culmination : 1450 m after 17,4s
• Maximum speed : 650 km/h
• Speed when opening parachute compartment : 112 km/h
• Total flight duration : 117 s

Experiments

Azimut has several experiments on board:

• Recuperation timer and servo motor controller (TIMEX)

  The recuperation timer is one of the most important components of the rocket. It will take care of the good recuperation of the rocket. In other words: it will open the parachute compartment after a tuned time after launch.
  When activating TIMEX it will reset automatically and control the servo motor to close the parachute compartment. Using a break wire TIMEX will detect launch and count from a pre-defined number till zero. At this point it will trigger the servo controller and open the parachute compartment. The parachute will deploy and the rocket will safely land on the ground.

• Dual digital sound recorder (Chipcoder)

  The Chipcoder is a dual channel digital sound recorder with electret microphones. One microphone is placed in the rocket's body tube, the other one in the parachute compartment. It will record during the first 20 seconds of the flight.

• Magnetic Apogee and Rotation Sensor (MARS)

  Using special magnetic sensors, MARS will use the earth's magnetic field to measure the movements of the rocket around it's vertical and horizontal axis. The results will by stored in the EEPROM of the R-DAS and analyzed afterwards to see if it is usefully to use the earth's magnetic field as a reference.

• Vibration sensors (MODEX 1)

  Using 2 mercury switches, MODEX channel 1 will measure the vibrations of the rocket during the flight. Results are stored in EEPROM using one analogue input of the R-DAS.

• Light dependent rotation sensor (MODEX 2)

  To measure the rotation speed of the rocket two light depending resistors (LDR's) will be used. Results are stored in another analogue channel of the R-DAS and can be compared with the results of the Magnetic Apogee and Rotation Sensor.

• Switch (MODEX 3)

  Two micro switches are attached in the rocket to see the time differences between the pulse given by the TIMEX to open the parachute compartment and the reaction of the servo motor and opening of the parachute compartment itself. Normally these time differences will be very small, but can give us indications if something should go wrong. Results are stored in EEPROM of the R-DAS.

• Rocket Data Acquisition System (R-DAS)

  The R-DAS is a commercial data acquisition system build by AED Electronics. It has standard one accelerometer and pressure sensors on board, but it had 6 analogue and 4 digital channels available to acquire external signals. The measured signals are stored in EEPROM. The R-DAS can be configured using the free delivered software. With this software you will also be able to analyze and present the acquired data. You will for example be able to view immediately the measured pressures and accelerations while the software will calculate the speed and height.

• Accelerometer (Axelle)

  Axelle is an acceleration acquisition system. It samples the acceleration 100 times a second and this for about 40 seconds. Results are stored in EEPROM and can be retrieved using a serial port of your PC and a telnet program.
  These results will be used together with the results of the MARS to develop more advanced rocket movement experiments.

Flight Results

• height_graph.jpg (79.53 KB)
• R-DAS_interpreted.txt (2.05 MB)
  
• Sound Files
  
  • Body (MP3 - 73kB)
    
  • Chute Compartment (MP3 - 73kB)
    

Photo's & Video's

• For photo's, see our Gallery
• Launch Campaign on French Television
  
  • Video 1 from I-Tele 8-AUG-2003 (avi - 17.6 MB)
    
  • Video 2 from I-Tele 20-SEP-2003 (avi - 19.4 MB)