CONCORD AEROSPACE SYSTEMS

AD SOLEM

February 2025

AD SOLEM is currently in its schematic phase. It will likely stay that way for a while due to resource and safety considerations. The motor has been designed as an M-Class motor providing just over 7,500 Newton Seconds of thrust. The front plate and casing are made out of aluminum, the surrounding airframe is made of fiberglass. The frame nozzle, heat liner, and front heat plate are all made using phenolic resin (in production, this will likely be substituted with phenolic linen), the interior nozzle (which contains the throat, experiencing the highest temperature gasses) is made of graphite. The APCP propellant formula is inspired by the numerous candidates of the MIT rocket team's ballistic tests. Using specific radial bolts that shear at a very particular force, a primary method of unintended pressure has been integrated as a safety measure. I am currently additionally working on developing software that helps calculate parameters such as wall thickness, materials, & appropriate grain geometry on the basis of desired specifications such as output thrust and weight considerations.

Material Cost: $TBD

BRAIN OF A HUMBLE SPACEFLY GENERATION III

July 2024

The Brain of a Humble Spacefly is a flight computer capable of knowing its spatial orientation using the MPU6050 gyroscope, and is aware of its altitude using the MPL3115A2 Altimeter. It utilizes a PID controller to control a thrust vectoring gimbal. Even though the microprocessor may be a bit overkill, it ensures the Kalman filter is able to provide accurate gyroscope inputs.

Originally designed on a breadboard, its components are now soldered onto a protoboard and are flight-ready. Alongside the Teensy 4.0 microcontroller and highly optimized PID controls, the Brain of a Humble Spacefly is capable of reacting to and processing stimuli over 500 times per second, allowing for stable ascent. A new generation and/or series of flight computers is planned, and will be integrated with printed circuit boards to withstand extremely high G-forces, and will be capable to transmit redundant telemetry.

Material Cost: $30.43

HUMBLE SPACEFLY GENERATION I & HUMBLE SPACEFLY GENERATION II

June 2024 and July 2024

The Humble Spaceflies are a series of thrust vectoring gimbals designed using CAD software. Inspiration was taken from BPS Space's thrust vector control mount, and a host of public 3D files. Using iterative design, I manufactured two gimbals using PLA filament. 

The first generation, pictured to the left, is capable of flying using E motors or smaller, and can handle a maximum force of about 20N. The second generation, pictured to the right, is capable of borderline high-powered flight on a G class motor. It also has higher precision and more range of motion, and can handle a maximum force of about 40N.

Material Cost: $8.06

BRAIN OF A HUMBLE SPACEFLY GENERATION II

August 2023 to May 2024

The Brain of a Humble Spacefly Generation II is another legacy version of Generation III. It is a flight computer capable of knowing its spatial orientation using the MPU6050 gyroscope, and is aware of its altitude using the MPL3115A2 Altimeter. Since it uses an Arduino UNO, its clock speed is limited and is slightly underpowered. It utilizes a PID controller to control a thrust vectoring gimbal. Generation II, however, has solid-state ferromagnetic RAM storage, which is better for recording data in high vibration than an SD card. This process is being moved into an avionics bay, and will be send down in RF as well.

Material Cost: $24.15

BRAIN OF A HUMBLE SPACEFLY GENERATION I

August 2023 to May 2024

The Brain of a Humble Spacefly Generation I is the legacy version of Generation III. It is a flight computer capable of knowing its spatial orientation using the MPU6050 gyroscope, and is aware of its altitude using the MPL3115A2 Altimeter. Since it uses an Arduino UNO, its clock speed is limited and is slightly underpowered. It utilizes a PID controller to control a thrust vectoring gimbal.

Material Cost: $28.12

WINDCATCHER I

August 2023

Windcatcher I is a quadrifilar helical antenna. I developed it prior to getting my amateur radio license, so I used it primarily to receive downlink from NOAA satellites. It was designed using PVC pipes to be weatherproof. A novel innovation I implemented was rotation couplers that allowed for quickly switching between RHCP(right hand circularly polarized) and LHCP(left hand circularly polarized) configurations. It used 50Ω coax cable, which was translated to an SMA connector to be received using an SDR(Software Defined Receiver). 

I automated the reception and translation of the signal to an image using a program I coded, alongside existing decoding programs. The images of Windcatcher I were noisy to say the least. Windcatcher II is a double-cross antenna during development as of summer of 2024, and is aimed at reducing noise and getting better reception.

Material Cost: $26.18

TIME TO FLY Software

December 2022

TIME TO FLY is software I developed in Python that aims to clock sprinters on the track. I designed it in freshman year of high school, when I joined the track and field team and noted the obscene cost of timing equipment. Using TIME TO FLY software, I was able to track my progress in the 100m and 200m sprints. I designed the software to be compatible with any wide-angle camera.

I used this software to time other sprinters at my school as well, and it consistently outputted accurate timings. Using my wide-angle camera, the TIME TO FLY software was accurate to ±0.034 seconds, although using higher FPS cameras, this could realistically be reduced to ±0.01 seconds of error.