PSU Magazine Winter 2000

flight computer twice as powerful as the one last used, Greenburg says. All this is leading up to LY2, a project still on the drawing board, which will be launched sometime in 2001. Greenburg predicts that the rocket will rise 55,000 feet and will have state-of-the-art avionics, which will one day let the rocket control its own trajectory. For the first launch of LY2, a steady stream of two-way communication with the ground will allow the crew to control it in flight. This 11-foot rocket, outfitted with color video camera, can reach a height of 12,000 feet. 14 PSU MAGAZINE WINTER 2000 So where does one launch a rocket as powerful as these? In the desert-in this case about 20 miles outside of Bend , near the Pine Mountain Observatory. It's perfect-with little or no air traffic, few people, and miles and miles of sagebrush . Another launch site is Black Rock Desert in Nevada, which O'Neel describes as the West Coast mecca for private and amateur launches. But no matter how remote the launch site, some kind of permission is needed. The society has obtained waivers from the Federal Aviation Administration allowing the group to launch at specific times and dates. The FAA has an additional review process for rockets going higher than 25 ,000 feet; the Society does not yet have clearance for its LY2 rocket. But O 'Neel isn't worried. Other groups have gotten permission for launches much higher than anything the Society is working on. And where does one go to make a rocket?Where any red-blooded techie would: a garage. Although the soc iety has meetings on campus, all manufacturing is done at members' res idences. In one member's garage is a milling machine for making aluminum and titanium parts. It is at places such as this that talents in the soc iety come together. "Andrew is into electronics," says O 'Neel. "I'm into airframes and recov– ery hardware. We have people who can do anything-weld, machine parts, write code for microcontrollers." Because society members use their own time and resourcefulness to build the rockets, costs have been surpris– ingly low. Except for a $1,000 grant from AT&T, the rest of the group's funds-between $2,000 and $3,000 by Greenburg's estimates-have come from the members' pockets. Titanium comes fa irly cheap from the Boe ing surplus store in Seattle. Microcontrollers can be purchased through electronic stores. "Just about anything that was on the Apollo 11 you can buy off the shelf," says O 'Neel. "I heard on the news that there's as much computer power in a Furby toy as in the 1969 Lunar Excursion Module." The fuel is a composite made of ammonium perchlorate and aluminum and is similar to that used on space shuttle boosters. To buy and store the explosive material requires a permit from the U .S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms- a surprisingly simple process. "The ATF are actually very nice people," O 'Neel says. Another cost control factor is that almost everything except the fuel is recovered. Each rocket is equipped with a set of parachutes to gently land the spent craft back to earth. The LY2 will have a parachute system that will even steer the rocket and components back to the launch area. "We try to avoid the lawn dart concept," says Greenburg. The ultimate goal of the Portland State Aerospace Society is to develop novel and inexpensive ways to launch small satellites---called nanosatel– lites-into orbit. The technology would be important for private indus– try as well as NASA. Greenburg would also love to contract with other universities in high altitude research. Reaching that goal is a long way off, but in the meantime the group is having a lot of fun aiming at the stars. D