Lander Challenge

Colibri has reached 100 meters! ???? In just 60 seconds, Colibri ascended to 105 meters, diverted 30 meters south-east, and safely landed following a GFOLD optimal trajectory. ?? This is the flight we’ve promised from the very beginning. No reusable rocket demonstrator has ever flown freely in #Europe. In just three years, with funding under 250kCHF, our small team developed, built, and flew Colibri over 50 times. Thank you to everyone who has supported us for the past 3 years, we would not have achieved our project without you! To follow our next adventure, follow PAVE Space SA ? Platinum partner ??: Almatech SA Gold partners ??: VectorNav Technologies / Association des communes de Crans-Montana (ACCM) / JAVAD GNSS / Meili Technology SA / Alpin Mécanique Sàrl / SWISSto12 / Brütsch/Rüegger Tools / Kistler Group / Astrocast / FribourgCH et Fribourg Development Agency FDA ? ? ? #Colibri #100MeterFlight #RocketHopper #Innovation #SpaceTech #Aerospace #GFOLD #Breakthrough #StudentProject #Europe #Gruyère #Engineering #Inspiration #RocketScience #Milestone

Our rocket is gracefully #landing! ?? As we continue to extend Colibri’s flight envelope, we can take advantage of each flight to tune our hopper’s landings. We’re now achieving more #accurate and #smoother landing as can be seen in this 21st flight of Colibri! ?? Each flight brings us one step closer to mastering precision landings! Platinum partner ??: Almatech SA Gold partners ??: VectorNav Technologies?/ Association des communes de Crans-Montana (ACCM) / JAVAD GNSS?/ Meili Technology SA?/ Alpin Mécanique Sàrl?/ SWISSto12?/ Brütsch/Rüegger Tools?/ Kistler Group?/ Astrocast?/ FribourgCH?& Fribourg Development Agency FDA #Rocket #Landing #Colibri #Space #Flight #Aerospace #Innovation #Technology #Precision #GNC #Propulsion #SpaceTech #Engineering #StudentProject #GruyereSpaceProgram #Milestone #Achievement

Historic rocket vertical landing in #Europe! ?? We are thrilled to announce that Colibri has successfully achieved its #first #landing with impressive accuracy! ???Landing at only 6cm of the planned target, Colibri’s landing also marks a first, being the largest rocket ever to propulsively land in #Europe. This accomplishment is a major #milestone for our team and sets a new benchmark in European aerospace! We would like to take advantage of this occasion to give a huge #thank you to our Platinum #partner, Almatech SA, for their financial support. ?? Almatech delivers comprehensive #engineering solutions in lightweight structures, thermal protection, and #precision mechanisms. They are renowned in the #space sector for developing landing leg systems for European #reusable #launchers. Platinum partner ??: Almatech SA Gold partners ??: VectorNav Technologies?/ Association des communes de Crans-Montana (ACCM) / JAVAD GNSS?/ Meili Technology SA?/ Alpin Mécanique Sàrl?/ SWISSto12?/ Brütsch/Rüegger Tools?/ Kistler Group?/ Astrocast?/ FribourgCH?& Fribourg Development Agency FDA #rocket #landing #aerospace #engineering #Colibri #innovation #space #teamwork #technology #milestone #Europe #achievement #precision

After 11 attempts and more than 2 minutes of combined hot fires, we have finally won our second $15,000 prize from the Lander Challenge for completing the throttling milestone! This makes us only the second team to do so, and the first in Europe. ? The goal of the challenge is to throttle a liquid rocket engine from a high nominal thrust above 500 lbf (2.23 kN) down to less than 40% of this and back up again over a burn of at least 10 seconds. This must all be done within thrust tolerance bounds of +/- 5% relative to the high nominal thrust. After lots of iteration and tuning of our engine controller, we made it fully within the bounds for a full 10.5 second test on our 11th attempt! Congratulations to the whole team on this achievement! ? Thank you to the Lander Challenge for supporting us once again through our challenge attempts, as well as to our main sponsors Alloyed and Autodesk. Having such rapid test cadence would not have been possible without both our new regeneratively cooled engine as well as our new hot fire electronics system developed for this year. Stay tuned for more details on this soon... #trusttherocket ?????? #ICLR #Alloyed #autodesk #fusion360 #engineering #euroc #imperialcollegelondon #sporadicimpulse #London #students #aerospace #rockets #rocketry #rocketscience #space #imperialcollegelondon #nasa #esa #spacex #aeronauticalengineering #mechanicalengineering #imperial Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://lnkd.in/ejBYczdJ License code: EODRJLG3I8WSGU5W

For the #first time, #students have completely designed, built, and #flown a #rocket #hopper! ?? We have conducted our first attempt at a #tethered flight of #Colibri. The flight went according to plan, the vehicle ascended to 1m above its #launch position, hovered for 8 seconds before shutting down its engine and being caught by the safety harness. The total flight duration was 10 seconds, long enough to demonstrate the #throttling capability of our engine, as well as #attitude and position #control provided by the thrust vector control and reaction control system. We have gathered all the #data we wanted and are currently pursuing all the improvements we can implement before the second flight. This flight is a major milestone for our project and it certainly would not have been possible to get to this point without the help of our #sponsors. We would like to thank all the people that have supported us and believed in our team for the past 3 years. ?? It has been a long journey and a lot of work still lies ahead of us, but this accomplishment is a great start for our tethered test #flight #campaign! ?? #Next up will be more flights to validate our systems and make adjustments before moving to launch and landing tests without the stilts. Platinum partner ??: Almatech SA Gold partners ??: VectorNav Technologies / Association des communes de Crans-Montana (ACCM) / JAVAD GNSS / Meili Technology SA / Alpin Mécanique Sàrl / SWISSto12 / Brütsch/Rüegger Tools / Kistler Group / Astrocast / FribourgCH & Fribourg Development Agency FDA Link to launch video ?? : https://lnkd.in/eRzjCbFa #First #Student #Rocket #Hopper #Flight #Engine #Control #GNC #Launch #Success #TVC #RCS

We are proud to announce that SLO Propulsion Technologies is the 1st team to complete the Lander Challenge's Throttle Milestone! After a total redesign of the liquid engine and fluid system, our HOP team put in the work when characterizing and validating the new system. HOP's small team of 6 students utilized 25+ hot fire burp tests to achieve this milestone on the first ever attempt with this new system, all at Cal Poly's on-campus propulsion lab. Once again, we couldn't be happier to show what rapid, hands-on engineering can achieve. Not to mention that we're ecstatic to bring home the gold in this international collegiate competition for Cal Poly Engineering. In the winning attempt, our Nitrous-Oxide/IPA engine successfully throttled from 900 pounds down to 275 pounds, and then back up to 900 pounds over a total of 11 seconds. This final attempt is the cumulation of 15+ throttled hot fire tests, making SPT one of the most-experienced collegiate teams with throttling rocket engines. You can see the winning attempt here: https://lnkd.in/dzpzKuCV And the compilation of the full campaign here: https://lnkd.in/dYEGa7U5 The SPT team continues to show off the core values that separate us from the rest: safety, education, and extreme ownership. Being able to fully own and understand the system you're working on is key to making a safe and reliable system, as well as bolstering the in-class education that our members receive. Combined with a culture of rapid, hands-on engineering, you have a recipe for success at the international, collegiate rocketry stage. We can't wait to show off more in the near future, onwards and upwards from here! Thank you to SPT's families and friends for your support and belief in our members. Thank you to our sponsors Cal Poly Engineering, Cal Poly Aerospace Engineering, Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering, the Lander Challenge, Stoke Space, Toray Advanced Composites, Ansys, VectorNav Technologies, and Epsilon3 for enabling us to go and achieve greatness despite the challenges.