IMPROVING ON EVERY SYSTEM – SWIFT

In less than nine months our second rocket SWIFT was built. The launch took place on the 20th of November 2022. SWIFT reached an apogee of 1930 m and had a maximum speed of 1006 km/h. Flight and recovery were successful and the rocket is ready to fly again!

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES

  • Demonstrate and test self-developed assemblies and components in flight
  • Demonstrate dual-deployment capabilities
  • Recover the rocket without damage
  • Achieve an altitude of over 1600m

Recovery

  • Improved CO2 cartridge ejection system, accompanied by a black powder charge as a backup
  • Dual parachute deployment featuring redundancy for the system
  • Drogue parachute deployed at apogee (descent velocity < 25 m/s)
  • The main parachute deployed <500m (descent velocity < 8 m/s)
  • Reduced landing distance from the launch pad

AIRFRAME

  • Height: 1.68 meters, diameter: 83 mm
  • Total mass without an engine: 2.7 kg
  • Capable of speeds above Mach 1
  • An airframe that consists primarily of composite materials – manufactured by our team

Avionics

  • Student researched and developed (further SRAD) flight computer
  • Commercial flight computer (Easy Mini) as a backup system
  • Backup tracker (RS41) – located in the nose cone
  • SRAD recovery station for the recovery team
  • SRAD base station
  • Onboard camera

SRAD FLIGHT COMPUTER

  • GPS location data
  • Live data transmission (using LoRa) to the base station
  • Two ways of storing data (Flash and Micro SD for redundancy) 
  • Barometer (MS5607) based apogee detection
  • Launch detection using acceleration data (BNO055)
  • Kalman filter implementation

FLIGHT

  • Launched from Cēsis Airfield on the 20th of November 2022
  • The rocket was safely recovered – both parachutes deployed when inented
  • Successful and uninterrupted data transmission throughout the flight
  • All data and video footage were recovered
  • Apogee – 1930 m, top speed – 1006 km/h
DETAILED REPORT

FLIGHT FOOTAGE

AIRFRAME

RECOVERY

Avionics

RIGA TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY | HIGH POWER ROCKETRY TEAM

E-MAIL: RTUHPRTEAM@GMAIL.COM
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