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In 2024, our team entered into category 2 of the Mach-X competition, the highest-powered UK-based rocketry competition. This saw us pitched against the top UK space technology university teams. The task was to design and build an innovative payload and launch vehicle with the goal of deploying the payload at a 3000m apogee, and this was our first year entering any HPR (High Power Rocketry) competition.
Our vehicle, 'Draig Tawe' (Dragon of the river Tawe), was produced alongside our payload 'Big Cyg' (derived from the swan genus 'Cygnus'). As well as the countless hours of planning, designing, coding and simulation, the team produced a series of presentations in support of the design and build progress; adhering to the deadlines and demands of the competition throughout the year.
After a successful flight, telemetry data reported a maximum altitude of 3031m. With only minor cosmetic damage, the flight was a huge success, and the rocket could theoretically be relaunched immediately. Unfortunately, our payload's drogue-chute failed to deploy, and due to high speeds experienced upon main-chute deployment, it was therefore also unable to fully open. Big Cyg lost contact with the ground station upon impact, however telemetry indicates that it’s electronic systems were all fully functional for its maiden flight. Big Cyg was thought to be lost, but against all odds, at Mach 25, the team was presented with the remains of our payload!
Despite the non-recovery of our payload, SwanSEDS managed to thoroughly impress all competition organisers and attendees alike with our high quality team and entry, and ultimately secured first place. Our team’s professionalism, preparedness, documentation, launch performance, and teamwork, all being highlighted as contributing factors.
Draig Tawe
Draig Tawe
SwanSEDS’ target for the Mach-24 competition was to create a simple rocket, capable of fulfilling the competition requirements, while also functioning as a learning platform for the team to gain experience in rocketry.
Most airframe parts for the launch vehicle were sourced as commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts. This allowed the inexperienced team to focus on a high quality design & assembly process, producing a very tough and precise airframe. Draig Tawe flew on a Cesaroni L910 motor, the largest ever flown by the team at that point by 5 whole motor classes.
The avionics bay was built into a one of the airframe couplers, and COTS flight computers were housed within. Their on-board sensors recorded telemetry and controlled pyrotechnic charges, deploying the drogue and main parachutes with redundancy for a successful recovery of the airframe.
Recovering with very little damage, Draig Tawe has lived on, travelling all around Swansea and the UK as a whole on display for outreach, conferences, open-days, and more!
Big Cyg
Big Cyg
Our payload used a 3D printed clamshell design to house a custom multispectral camera system seeing in the visible and near-infrared. This was built on the raspberry pi ecosystem and was designed for biomass monitoring through NDVI imagery, and also incorporated atmospheric sensors and COTS flight computers for live telemetry.
Upon the year-delayed recovery of Big Cyg, it was clear that most, if not all subsystems and deployments had been functioning apart from the drouge parachute. This was over-tightly packed into a low-pressure zone at the top of the payload, and would only have been thrown into the airstream by a heavy tumble. This combined with a very low centre of mass created by the steel faceplate at the bottom of the payload to meet Mach 24's 1kg minimum weight requirement, and the on-board camera footage from Draig Tawe showed a perfectly straight fall, keeping the parachute from unfurling.
The lesson taught by this was to not rely on any assumptions with how parachutes enter airstreams - if not forced into one by an ejection charge, or in one to begin with, the parachute will likely never deploy!
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