The team competed in the inaugural聽聽in April 2019,聽the only New Zealand team competing against 19 Australian university teams.聽 The student competition was part of the international聽聽event that included about 1200 rocket launches, watched by 5000 people in the Australian outback, with participants from the United States, Australia, India, Germany, Netherlands, England, and Japan.
The UC students鈥 aim was to get their rocket to as close to 30,000 feet as possible. First they had to design, build and launch a single-stage, high-powered rocket. Teams were scored on their design, the quality and innovation of their rocket, the rocket launch trajectory and the safe and accurate recovery.聽
鈥淯C鈥檚 team achieved the second best result with an apogee of 30,738 feet, narrowly bettered by RMIT University. We were the only team in the top three to recover an undamaged rocket. The University of Queensland had to dig 2.5m underground to recover theirs,鈥 said Bruce Robertson (Faculty Advisor to the team).
鈥淒ue to Australian Civil Aviation Authority airspace restrictions imposed on the Thunda 2019 event, the team was unable to launch their two-stage 鈥業nto the Black鈥 rocket, which has the potential to reach space. Our team are currently reviewing options for a second space-shot attempt from New Zealand,鈥 Robertson says.
Read more here:聽UC Aerospace Rocketeers take on Australia
Prior to the event their 鈥業nto the Blue鈥 high-powered rocket was successfully launched in NZ.聽 The purpose was to collect flight data to inform the second (competition) launch, and also to conduct an experiment in collaboration with the UC School of Biological Sciences. 鈥淲hile not the primary purpose of this launch, it also unofficially set a new altitude record for a student-built rocket launched from Australasia,鈥 Robertson says. Read more at聽mini传媒 researchers rocket into astrobiology聽
UC Aerospace rocket launch video:聽
The club also host industry talks, where professionals from aerospace-related business and organisations share their expertise with club members.
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- Contact UC Aerospace at聽info@ucaerospace.com
