Who We Are

      Rocket Shop is Iowa State University's premier high-powered rocketry club. This year, they will again be sending their competition team, Cyclone Rocketry (sponsored by Iowa State's Engineering Student Council), to compete in the world's largest international high-powered rocketry competition. The team members of Cyclone Rocketry follow a yearly design cycle and competes in the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition held at Spaceport America, New Mexico in June of every year. Cyclone Rocketry’s mission is to educate, challenge, and inspire the Iowa State students, community, and future generations about rocketry, science and engineering, and space exploration. This team provides an invaluable opportunity for students to use knowledge obtained from the classroom towards a fast-paced engineering project. The team members learn all the critical steps of what it takes to bring a project like this to fruition and take part in the engineering process while obtaining leadership and new hands-on skills.

Accomplishments

      During Cyclone Rocketry’s debut year, the University took notice of the progress and dedication of the team and was awarded the Iowa State Newcomer Club of the Year award. Putting their engineering knowledge and experience to the test, the team designed a 15’ launch vehicle, named INVICTUS, with an onboard autonomous air brake system capable of decelerating the vehicle to an apogee of 10,000 feet and a payload measuring the static electricity build up on the body during flight. With the competition rocket consisting of many metallic and composite components, students had the opportunity to showcase their manufacturing abilities. Among 124 university teams from across the globe, Cyclone Rocketry achieved 4th place overall at the 2018 Spaceport America Cup.

Chasing the Cup in 2019

      As a result of their rapid growth and competitive nature, Cyclone Rocketry is entering a more challenging division at the 2019 Spaceport America Cup. The club will attempt to become the first organization in Iowa State University history to manufacture its own solid rocket motor and fly to an apogee of 30,000 feet. These changes elevate the platform of knowledge and experience for the team and brings Cyclone Rocketry to new heights as they begin building their 2018-2019 rocket, NOVA SOMNIUM – meaning “New Dream”.

This Year’s Rocket:

Preliminary Tech Specs:

• Length: 13.5 ft

• Diameter: 4 in

• Weight: 75 lbs

• Max Speed: 1150 mph (1.5x speed of sound)

• Target Altitude: 30,000 feet

Notable Student Researched and Designed Features on This Year’s Rocket:

• Iowa State’s first high powered solid rocket motor

• On-board altitude control system using custom made circuit boards, software, and mechanical air brakes to fine-tune rocket’s max altitude

• On-board telemetry and location tracking used to recover rocket and learn more about the rocket’s performance

• Unique deployment system of our student made parachutes

• Vibration dampening payload utilizing electromagnets to reduce undesired vibrations during rocket flight

• In-house designed and manufactured composite airframe parts (fiberglass and carbon fiber) and metallic subsystem components (mainly Aluminum)

Help Cyclone Rocketry:

      Cyclone Rocketry needs your help. The construction of this rocket along with the travel to New Mexico for a week-long competition requires a lot of money. With these donations, ISU students will continue to gain valuable engineering experience building this rocket. Attending this competition, and seeing this project to fruition, is extremely valuable to our team. Check out more about Cyclone Rocketry at https://stuorgs.engineering.iastate.edu/cyclone-rocketry/

Special thanks to Iowa State University's Engineering Student Council: