Imperial College London Rocketry
The Altitude Record Team at Imperial College London Rocketry
The Altitude Record Team (ART) is a project within Imperial College London Rocketry (ICLR) which exists to break United Kingdom Rocketry Association (UKRA) altitude records. The team formed in 2019, with its first two launches in early 2021. Three further launches took place over the 2021-22 academic year, including our first record-breaking flight. As of 2024, the team is continuing to work towards more altitude records using advanced rocket technology.
I led the aerodynamics and simulations sub-team, using computational methods to model and optimise the behaviour of our rocket. We used packages including OpenRocket, StarCCM+, and ESTECO modeFrontier.
ASTRA
This is a family of test-bed rockets used to verify systems in preparation for record-breaking flights. Three successful flights took place during my tenure, testing progressively more advanced systems. The family has continued to be used for increasingly complex test flights.
APEX
The APEX family of rockets are designed to break UKRA altitude records for various motor classes. Rocket motors are classified based on their total impulse (essentially a measure of the 'amount of push' they provide). The ICLR Altitude Record Team now holds the record for an I-Class rocket as of 2024.
APEX I reached 9333ft (3845m) with a single motor, breaking the previous record of 9199ft. It travelled at supersonic speeds (Mach 1.55) thanks to its highly optimised design.
modeFrontier
ESTECO kindly provided ICL Rocketry with licenses to use their powerful multidisciplinary optimisation (MDO) software, modeFrontier. This 'plugs in' to many engineering modelling packages and can be used to optimise complex designs in much shorter timeframes, and with much greater control over simulations, than our previous methods. The team successfully used it to break the I-Class record with APEX-I. Documents on our use of the tool can be found below:
openRocket-modeFrontier Integration
NSGA-HYBRID Performance Evaluation
Flights
ASTRA Mk.I, 11.04.2021 (EARS event)
First ART flight
Successful launch and (partial) recovery of a rocket
Use and validation of in-house avionics systems
Verification of OpenRocket predictions for low-mach flight
Successful implementation of in-house lugless launch system
Validation of ASTRA's structure
ASTRA Mk.II, 13.06.2021 (EARS event)
Successful launch and recovery of a rocket
Use and validation of revised in-house avionics systems
Data collection for verification of ASTOS simulations
Lugless launch system improvements noted (caused slight wobble)
Validation of improved recovery system
APEX I, 03.07.2022 (Supported by SARA)
I-Class altitude record
Successful use of improved launcher system
Launch system fin strike identified and issues investigated
Further validation of tracking and recovery systems
Testing of APEX's CFRP and GFRP body tubes
ASTRA Mk.III, 10.07.2022 (MRC event)