Sunday, November 11, 2007, 10:12 PM
Today ASA successfully test fired the rocket motor created by the Aerospace Systems Engineering team. The motor fired for 20 seconds (as planned) and produced as much as 1500 lbs of thrust.
Here is a picture of the test firing, taken from the test control area:
ASA is very proud of the team's work and wishes to thank our sponsors once again for making this possible. Additionally, the students and volunteer engineer/mentors have worked tremendously hard on this program and deserve many thanks and congratulations.
The primary goal of the ASE program was to teach engineering skills via the construction and test firing of a rocket motor, and in that we were successful. A secondary goal was to create a useful propulsion system for next year's ASE program, but unfortunately the rocket motor is not ready. A few hardware failures in the motor system prevented a full exercise of the motor's capability and therefore the motor needs to be re-tested prior to continuing the program.
The most dramatic example of one failure can be seen on the test firing video www.asa-houston.org. The nozzle blew apart at ignition resulting in reduced thrust and motor efficiency. A preliminary review of the data suggests that the motor experienced a "hard start" at ignition and the resulting pressure wave may have caused the nozzle to break. A full team review of the test data will occur soon and hopefully the cause of this failure can be determined.
Here is a still shot immediately after ignition:
Aside from these developmental issues, though, the rocket motor development and test was a great educational success and will continue to be next year.
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Saturday, September 29, 2007, 08:36 PM
ASA met today for the first time since our first attempt to test fire the rocket motor. We started the day with a complete review of the footage from the failed test firing attempts and although the failures were frustrating they are all fixable. Our failures were caused by hardware, software, and procedural issues - all of which can be fixed in the next few weeks.
After the data review, we discussed ways to improve the next test firing attempt, worked on upgrading the ignition system, and came up with a few ways to improve the LOX fill process.
We will meet 3-4 more times and then we will head out to the field to test fire the motor. Preliminarily, we will shoot for November 11.
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Sunday, August 26, 2007, 11:29 PM
This weekend we attempted to test fire the rocket motor at the BCMA model airfield. We spent all day on Saturday setting up but were not able to test a few key components. These tests had to be pushed onto our Sunday morning schedule, but we worked hard and made up the time.
On Sunday we attempted to test fire the rocket motor three times. Each attempt was foiled by either hardware or software failures. This was very frustrating for the team but was certainly a good lesson in problem solving and field-engineering for the students.
Following this weekend's failed attempt, ASA will take a one month break and will then regroup and attempt another test firing.
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