Specification, design and development of a solid rocket engine for suborbital sounding missions

Abstract

This project consists in the definition of the technical requirements, the design and the development of a solid rocket engine. This rocket engine must fulfil a specific mission: to propel a 0.3 kg heavy payload to a height of 100 km, while following a parabolic trajectory, in a suborbital flight. The payload could make use of the very unique conditions experienced in a suborbital flight; namely, the microgravity conditions for a certain amount of time. The rocket would take-off from a launch platform lifted up to a height of 30 km, by means of an aerostatic balloon. The engine must fulfil 3 main properties: safety, cost and robustness. It shall be safe, for anyone working on any of its associated processes: the manufacturing of its structure, the processing of the propellant, the integration of all elements, the transportation, etc. The cost of the engine shall be as low as possible, in order to pave the way for students, universities or research centres with low funds to use this launch system. Besides, the engine must be robust enough; that is, it must be able to work as expected at nominal conditions but also at slightly adverse conditions. As has already been pointed out, the project is structured in 3 phases: definition, design and development. The first phase is based on research, and it must allow detailed acknowledgement on how a solid rocket engine works, thus allowing to define the technical requirements. The design phase consists on establishing technological solutions for the requirements, while fulfilling the 3 properties of the rocket engine that have already been mentioned. Finally, the development phase is about testing some critical elements of the engine, in order to validate, or either invalidate and thus improve, the design.