https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/student-rocket-smashes-world-record
A student-built suborbital rocket has shattered the world record for the highest altitude reached by a non-governmental and non-commercial rocket.
Students at the University of Southern California’s Rocket Propulsion Lab (USCRPL) designed and built the rocket named Aftershock II.
The launch occurred on October 20th from the Black Rock Desert, Nevada, US.
It soared to an incredible height of over 470,000 feet (143,256 meters) above Earth’s surface. Aftershock II is said to be the “world’s first civilian-built rocket” to reach such a high altitude.
Interestingly, it surpassed the previous record of amateur rocketry by 90,000 ft (27, 432 meters).
Aftershock II broke the 20-year-old altitude record of 380,000 feet (115, 824 meters) made by the Civilian Space Exploration Team in 2004.
“This achievement represents several engineering firsts,” said Ryan Kraemer, executive engineer of USCRPL and an undergraduate student majoring in mechanical engineering.
“Aftershock II is distinguished by the most powerful solid-propellant motor ever fired by students and the most powerful composite case motor made by amateurs,” Kraemer added.
Advanced rocket design.
In 2019, the USCRPL made history by becoming the first college team to launch a rocket, Traveler IV, beyond the Kármán line into space. The Kármán line marks the boundary between our planet’s atmosphere and outer space.
Since then, they’ve been striving to set a new world altitude record in amateur rocketry.
To soar to unprecedented heights, the students revamped the design of the Traveler IV rocket.
This new rocket weighed only 330 pounds (149 kg) and measured 13 feet tall with an 8-inch diameter.
Aftershock II was outfitted with advanced technology, including a new avionics system that enhanced its safety features and data collection capabilities. Remarkably, the rocket accelerated to 5,283 feet per second (1,610 meters per second).
The rocket’s ability to withstand the extreme heat and pressures of hypersonic flight was crucial for its success. This was made possible by a specialized thermal protection system consisting of a new type of heat-resistant paint and titanium-coated fins.
“Thermal protection at hypersonic speeds is a major challenge at the industry level, and the protective paint system that we developed performed perfectly, enabling the rocket to return largely intact,
We also made an important upgrade to the fins, replacing the bare carbon edge of previous iterations with titanium leading edges. The titanium not only prevented fraying but actually turned blue from the intense heat during flight through anodization, which really demonstrates the extreme conditions our rocket successfully endured,” Kraemer explained.
