Fly A Rocket! Programme: assembly, testing and post-flight review of a sounding rocket payload

The Fly a Rocket! programme is a hands-on project offered by the European Space Agency’s Education Office in collaboration with Andøya Space Education and the Norwegian Space Agency (Norsk Romsenter). The programme, which comprises an online pre-course and a hands-on launch campaign, represents a unique opportunity for european university students from different backgrounds to build, test, and launch a sounding rocket and obtain practical experience. The pre-course strengthened the understanding of rocket science of the students, and taught them about topics such as the rocket dynamics, propulsion, and orbital mechanics in preparation for the campaign. The students were divided into three teams, each with different responsibilities: Sensors Experiments, Telemetry and Data Readout, and Payload. The paper will focus on the work done by the team responsible for the rocket payload. The Payload team was responsible for the sensor placement of the rocket. They ensured the readiness of all the sensors and key components of the rocket. In addition, they were an integral part of the countdown procedure, the arming of the rocket and the performance of the sensors. After the launch, the data was analysed and presented according to four previously defined scientific cases. A GPS and a barometer were used in order to obtain the rocket trajectory. Both methods showed similar results. The GPS detected an apogee of 8630.11 ±2.4m. With an optical sensor it was possible to detect clouds which were verified with a humidity sensor. Additionally, the spin rate of the rocket could be detected with the optical sensor and a magnetometer by doing a Fourier Analysis. The rocket reached a spin rate of about 19 Hz after approximately 10 s after the firing. The results of the spin rate correspond to the results obtained with an accelerometer