ISS has four different teams (Micro-g, Spaceshot, RASC-AL, and HuLC) travelling to competitions this summer! Attending one of these competitions is hugely beneficial and helps student network, gain hands-on or presentation experience, and make awesome memories with their teammates. However, traveling is expensive and ISS is trying to reduce the amount each member has to pay out of pocket. Please consider donating to one or more of our teams traveling this summer. To donate to a specific team please list the team name on the donation. You can learn more about each team and the society as a whole on our website!
ISS’s RASC-AL team has qualified for its 12th consecutive year as finalists in the NASA mission design competition! This year’s design, THEIA (Trans lunar Hub for Exploration, ISRU, and Advancement), focuses on establishing a permanent lunar presence and creating a lunar market.
The RASC-AL team will be heading to Florida in June to present their work in front of a panel of NASA judges. There will be a livestream link to watch us present!
To view the design video, check out our Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgI0_EoneME
To read NASA's feature story on qualifying teams, click here: https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/langley/nasa-selects-university-teams-to-compete-in-2024-rasc-al-competition/
This is onboard footage of Kairos from an upwards-facing FPV camera showing off recovery descent, first under drogue and then main!
On March 23rd, the Illinois Space Society’s Spaceshot team conducted a subscale test launch of Kairos—a 2-stage high-altitude rocket—in Argonia, Kansas.
Some successes of the launch were the rocket held its structural integrity at an extreme angle, the rocket was stable off the rod, the avionics bays were in good condition, MIDAS—our student-designed altimeter—was mostly a success, and the sustainer recovery worked as expected!
Unfortunately, after stage separation, sustainer ignition did not occur; the sustainer was confirmed to have hit lockout at 26 degrees.
The sustainer was recently tracked down, and we were able to retrieve onboard footage from an upwards-facing camera showing off recovery descent, first under drogue and then main!
Due to water damage and damage upon impact, parts of Kairos will be rebuilt and improved, and the new rocket, Kairos II, will be launched at FAR-51025 this upcoming summer in Mojave Desert, California! This full-scale launch will send us to an altitude of approximately 80k ft.
Congratulations to our 2024 Illinois Space Society Knight of St. Patrick, Rohini Ramesh🎉🎉🎉 We are honored to have Rohini as our director, and we are incredibly proud of her achievement in and out of the classroom. Congrats, Rohini!🍀
The Illinois Space Society is so excited to be sponsored by Blue Origin for a second year in a row! We are so thankful for this sponsorship which helps us to continue working on groundbreaking projects!
Come hang out with us tomorrow in the CIF for a relaxing arts and crafts sesh!!! We hope to see you there🔥🔥
Join us on Thursday for ISS Spring Info Night!!! Location is CIF room 1038, so stay tuned to see where we’ll be meeting. We hope to see you there🚀🚀
On November 12th, 2023, The Solid Propulsion Team of ISS successfully hot-fired the first fully SRAD (Student Researched and Designed) Solid Rocket Motor in ISS History. The assembly featured an SRAD Casing, SRAD Propellant Grains, and and SRAD Test Stand. This test served to demonstrate the team’s capability to handle all parts of rocket motor production and testing, from propellant manufacturing to casing fabrication. The motor delivered a total Impulse of 203.4145 N-s with a max thrust of 86.2 N and a burn time of 3.687 seconds.
This hot-fire represented a massive leap forward for the Solid Propulsion Team, and a huge step for ISS Propulsion in general. The team looks forward to bigger and better tests next semester with new and improved techniques for propellant manufacturing and casing fabrication, as well as a state-of-the-art test stand in production!
Happy Friday Folks! We are delighted to share that Micro-G NExT was selected by NASA to build their design COMET (Carrier Of Mission EVA Tools) and test it in the NASA Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Huston in June. Congrats to everyone on the team, great job guys!
AE 199 kids finishing up their L1 rockets for an end of year launch 🚀
On November 18th 2023, the Illinois Space Society’s Spaceshot team successfully flew its first 2-stage rocket, Stargazer 1.2! This launch served as a subscale proof-of-concept launch to test staging techniques. The booster and sustainer stages each used a J-class rocket motor, with the sustainer surpassing Mach 1 on its way to a maximum altitude of 6,982 ft. The sustainer separated and ignited perfectly following booster burnout, and both stages were recovered with no damage.
Following two previous failed launch attempts with the rocket, this marks an incredible milestone for the team. The team is continuing with the design of Stargazer 2, a significantly larger staged rocket. Stargazer 2 will have its first test flight in March in preparation for a competition launch this coming summer at FAR-51025, where it is estimated to fly to 100k ft.
Today is our Mia Za’s fundraiser! Make sure you show this flyer at the register with purchase. We hope to see you all there !!!!🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕
Last week, the ISS NASA Micro-G NExT team submitted their proposal for their tool COMET or Carrier Of Mission EVA Tools. After over a month of careful brainstorming, research, and CAD, they wrote a detailed description, including everything they would need to buy and all the steps necessary to manufacture the device. Special Thanks to Team lead Emma Held, Design/Manufacturing lead Aj Bernardo, Research/testing lead Alana Falter, communications lead Drew Eimer, and Faculty Advisor Professor Lembeck.
This past weekend, members of ISS went camping at Illinois State Park, Starved Rock! Huge thank you to our social director, @david._.howard for putting this all together🔥🔥🔥🔥
Micro-G NExT is a NASA challenge to design an astronaut tool, where NASA will test our tool in simmulated low gravity with astronaut equipment. Come Monday at 5pm to Everitt 2101 to hear about what Micro-G NExT is, the timeline for the year, and to hear about the 4 challenges we will vote on. Any questions or are interested in Micro-G but can't attend the meeting, email Emma Held at mailto:ejheld2@illinois.edu
Come join us for the first Spaceshot Avionics meeting of the semester. Learn more about our team, our work, and future endeavors! See you Saturday August 26 at 4pm in ECEB 3017🔥🔥
Happy Friday folks! Here’s a reminder that you should register for AE - 199 Introduction to Rocketry! AE 199 is a student led class worth 2 credits hours to give any major or year an introduction to building their own F class motor rocket (larger and more complex than a standard AE100 rocket) with an electronics system. Have the opportunity to design and research all the components of a model rocket to launch at the end of the semester!
Just under a month until the 10th annual Illinois Space Day! Voyage into the Cosmos will take place on September 23, 2023. Join us on this aerospace filled day as we mark a decade of ISS Educational Outreach's largest event!
Register for free using the QR code above or by visiting: https://www.illinoisspacesociety.org/isd.
Don’t forget we can always use more volunteers! We hope to see you all there🔥🔥
Cant make it on Wednesday? Don’t worry and come join us on Thursday at 6pm in Everitt Room 1302 for a second info night🤩🤩
