Oronos

Description

Our place within Oronos

Aerostructure is Oronos' core. Its members are responsible for developing the rocket’s structure. The members design the flying part of the rocket. From aerodynamic simulations to mechanical design of the parachutes’ deployment systems, most of the systems are built and designed by members of the aerostructure team.

Our Projects

As its name suggests, the aerostructure department is formed by people working on the aerodynamics and the structure of the rocket. Projects are, but are not limited to, developing a homemade flight simulator, designing and building composite airframes and parachutes with their associated deployment systems. Designing those components requires aerodynamical and structural analysis.

Integrator Projects

Oronos and especially the aerostructure department are client on numerous R&D projects who take form as integrator project. This project, being a part of the mechanical and aerospace engineering degrees, allows students to initiate themselves to the conception and design in the aerospace world. These projects range from simulations tools, such as an optimization code for the supersonic winglets geometry, to fabrication tools such as composite mold.

Payload

Launching a rocket in space is an effective way of bringing scientific instruments to high altitudes. In Oronos’ Payload department, we are very interested in the development of such instruments and their integration inside the rocket. Like its name suggests, a payload is the useful mass carried by a rocket. Its systems are completely independent from the functioning of the rocket, so that it can be removed without affecting the flight.

Description

Our place within Oronos

An essential aspect of our rockets is the avionics system. This system comprises all of electronics combined with thousands of lines of code, parts which are often unseen and unknown. This is the work of the members of this department, electronics and programming passionates, who are from different programs, mainly informatics, software, electrical, mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Quick history

Before 2014, the avionics team was producing a single printed circuit board which contained all of the flight-essential functions for our rockets. Since 2014, the team has completely switched around its vision of the avionics. We added a modular system to make the implementation of new and existing systems easier. We also added a ground station, which includes a computer and a directional antenna to analyze the data sent by the rocket.

Expertise

• Integration of all essential electronic elements
• Development of all electronic components related to the rocket's internal informatic system
• Development of all code necessary for the systems
• Flight data analysis

Description

Propulsion in Oronos

Oronos and especially the aerostructure department are client on numerous R&D projects who take form as integrator project. This project, being a part of the mechanical and aerospace engineering degrees, allows students to initiate themselves to the conception and design in the aerospace world. These projects range from simulations tools, such as an optimization code for the supersonic winglets geometry, to fabrication tools such as composite mold.

What is a rocket motor?

A rocket motor works much like an airplane engine. By expelling a gas in one direction, a reactive force is created in the opposite direction (3rd Newton law) which propels the vehicle. While the airplane uses the air to do so, the rocket must carry all of the materials to be expelled in order to operate in environment devoid of atmosphere. Rocket motors are chemical engines. This means that the energy is released by a chemical reaction. The high energy gas produced by the combustion are accelerated by a nozzle and transfer their energy to the vehicle by producing thrust. There are three types of rocket motors classified by their propellants: solid motors, liquid motors and hybrid motors.

Hybrid motors

Hybrid motors are so called because one of the propellants is liquid while the other is solid. Generally,the oxidizer would be in a liquid phase while the fuel is in a solid phase. Hybrid motors regroup the advantages of solid motors and liquid motors. They are as simple as solid motors and in theory can achieve performances similar to liquid motors. Practically, the difficulty in obtaining those high performances levels limits their use to research prototypes.

The Department

The propulsion department is entirely dedicated to the development of a rocket motor. The main role of the department is the technical development of the motor: design, manufacturing and test. Eventually, it will also have the responsibility to overview integration with the rocket and the avionic systems.
The propulsion department is probably the most multidisciplinary amongst Oronos. It regroups expertise from multiple specialisations in engineering and requires strong interactions between them. By joining the propulsion team, the members will have the opportunity to contribute within the different sub-groups.

• Design and integration team
• Mechanical design of the motor
• Parts manufacturing
• Tubing and valves design
• Performances analysis team
• Performances simulation
• Chemistry of combustion studies
• Test results analysis
• Test supervision
• Development of test benches
• Data acquisition
• Execution of tests
• Ground systems design team
• Fueling system design
• Launch procedures preparation
• Management team
• Sponsors management
• Contacts with Polytechnique and responsible authorities
• Human resources and project management