Our Avionics

Our Team

We have 6 members working on designing the main flight computer, sensing, apogee detection, onboard recovery system, the battery management system, and the electro-mechanical integration of the electronic hardware spatially inside of the rocket. We have fabricated and tested the main flight computer which has a microcontroller board, a long-range radio module, an altimeter, an accelerometer, and a GPS measurement unit all working together to track in-flight motion.

Sensing

We use a custom PCB for GPS, barometric altitude, accelerometer, and radio-based telemetry. Currently implemented with breakout boards, we aim to transition to a fully surface-mount layout in future iterations. We’re also exploring adding onboard cameras.

Power Electronics

Our rocket is powered by a double-redundant lithium-ion battery system. Custom circuitry transmits battery telemetry to the ground station to ensure safe and reliable operation throughout the flight.

Recovery

At apogee (10,000 ft), the avionics system activates a pyro-based ignitor to trigger stage separation and deploy the drogue parachute. The system is designed for maximum reliability and real-time responsiveness.

Communications

A 900 MHz long-range radio transmits flight data from the rocket to our custom ground station software in real time, allowing us to visualize and log every stage of flight.

Software Engineering

From launch to recovery, our software ensures all avionics components are aligned with flight objectives. Our main computer coordinates data from all sensors, decides when to deploy recovery systems, and streams key metrics (e.g., GPS, battery voltage, sensor readings) every second. It also writes data to an onboard blackbox for post-flight analysis.

Microelectronics Research

Looking ahead, our team is exploring Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) design and building a custom standard cell library using Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) techniques. These projects aim to create scalable solutions—from basic logic gates to advanced system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs for future rockets.

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