INFO
Recovery is an essential part of manufacturing a sounding rocket for competitions. In order to have a successful landing the recovery system must work in harmony with the rest of the rocket. A typical method of landing is making use of 2 parachutes, a small drogue chute to reduce descent speed and a larger main chute to prevent it from drifting afar.
CuInspace aims to have a hybrid motor rocket flown in 2025 which cannot work on the conventional recovery system, therefore requiring a smaller and more advanced method of recovery, Reefing.
Skirt Reefing
A method of recovery that works by having a Kevlar line run through the skirt of the parachute restricting it’s diameter (Drogue Chute) until desired altitude where a line cutting mechanism will cut the line allowing the parachute to inflate to its full size (Main Chute)
Purple Box
In order to perform dis-reefing, my team and I designed a wireless cutting mechanism which would involve an Easymini altimeter sending a signal to a custom Pico PCB board housed in a 3D modelled box, named purple box. This signal would then be transmitted by the Pico in the purple box to another present in the Blackbox which was placed on the parachute skirt.
Blackbox
This 3D modelling housing contains the receiving custom Pico board as well as another Easymini altimeter in case of redundancy. The Pico would receive signal from the purple box Pico and would then proceed to send a charge via its custom PCB board to a line cutter conveniently placed along the box. The ‘Mako’ line cutter had the Kevlar line running through it, which would be cut as soon as the charge from the PCB board fired through the connecting e-match, thus dis-reefing the parachute successfully.
Rocket Recovery State
Post Nominal Flight Celebrations
Recovery System Assembly