We are an engineering design team at Queen's University that builds supersonic rockets! We compete each year at the Spaceport America Cup in New Mexico and the Launch Canada competition here in Ontario! We have successfully flown rockets in the 10,000 ft and 30,000 ft category, delivered scientific payloads that have performed exciting experiments aloft, and recovered our rockets in reflyable condition.
Our application window for this term is now over. If you are still interested, stay tuned for other opportunities later in the year. Contact us if you have any questions.
How do I decide what subteam to join?
What does the meeting schedule look like?
This sounds scary. Is it going to be too hard?
This subteam is responsible for the design and construction of the rocket's airframe, as well as modeling the flight performance. Advanced composite techniques are used in construction of the fins, body tubes, couplers, and nose cone. Flight simulation, structural analysis, and computational fluid dynamics are all used on this team, making for an excellent balance of exiting hands on work as well as technical design.
Avionics mean airborne electronics, and this subteam is responsible for the creation and integration of our on-board computers that locate the rocket and trigger the parachute deployment events. Custom PCB design and manufacture, power systems, wiring, and RF engineering are all activities that you might find on avionics.
The mechanical subteam designs and builds the internal strcutre of the rocket, including the thrust structure, mounting plates, and bulkheads. Structural FEA simulations, CAD, and machining are all skills you can develop while working on the mechanical subteam!
There's no point in building a rocket without sending something up in it! Payload creates a brand new scientific experiment each year to fly as part of the payload challenge at our competitions. This is an extremely multi-disciplinary team with a lot of opportunity for creativity, as the payload is very open-ended. Previous experiments include a magnetic gradiometry sensor that measured the changes in the earth's magnetic field, and a proof of concept dark matter particle detector.
While our rockets have previously used commercially sourced solid rocket motors, the propulsion team is developing our first ever student built hybrid rocket engine. The goal this year is a successful hot-fire test. Fluids, combustion chemistry, thermals, pressure vessels, electrical data acquisition, and structures all play a part in the successful creation of this engine.
This subteam creates and develops a business case for the technology development category at the Launch Canada competition. This subteam, like Payload, is very multi-disciplinary and allows for a lot of creativity! Last year's project was a black box.
This is our member development subteam, allowing new members to build smaller rockets to learn the fundamentals, as well as using smaller rockets to test ideas and systems that we may use on our competition rockets. This is a great opportunity to get your hands on rocketry, as several launches happen per year rather than just the one or two that we get for our full size project.