Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering

Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering

Acronym	DARE
Headquarters	Delft, Netherlands 51°59′58.5″N 4°22′35″E
Website	dare.tudelft.nl
Official Language	English and Dutch (English in communications and documentation. Official legal documents in Dutch.)
Members	80
Organisation	Student Association
Established	2001
Current Projects	SRP, Cansat and Stratos 2

Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering is a student-run society within Delft University of Technology, with over 100 members. The main focus of the student group is the development of rocket technology on a non-profit basis. All development, from engines to electronics, is done in-house. Although several projects take place in DARE, the group's flagship is the Stratos project. This project included the Stratos I rocket which was launched in 2009 and set the European altitude record for amateur rocketry at 12.5 km. The follow-up of this rocket is the Stratos II+, which was launched on the 16th of October 2015, reaching an altitude of 21.5 km and breaking the European altitude record. Even though DARE cooperates with the military to safely conduct launch campaigns, DARE's technology is strictly non-military. Approximately 70 percent of members come from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of Delft University of Technology, with the remaining 30% coming from other faculties, such as Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics and Industrial Design. DARE also features a very high number of international students, with about half of the students coming from outside the Netherlands.

History

DARE was founded in 2001 by six students as a committee of the study association VSV Leonardo da Vinci of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. The number of members has increased to about 130 members in 2014. DARE is one of the university's Dreamteams, to which also Nuna, Forze and DUT Racing count. Over the years DARE has developed expertise in all three major rocket propulsion technologies (solid, liquid, and hybrid), with multiple conference papers published each year. 2009 marked DARE's Stratos I launch, which set the altitude record of 12.5 km for student rockets. Stratos II is due to launch in October 2015, and aims for an altitude of 50 km, breaking the record previously set by DARE.

Launches

DARE typically conducts two to four launch days each year for small scale rockets that go up to a maximum of two kilometers altitude. These launches take place on a military site near 't Harde in the North of the Netherlands. To go to higher altitudes, DARE occasionally participates in launch campaigns elsewhere in Europe.

Facilities

The work of DARE takes place at two locations at the TU Delft campus. The first is a manufacturing-orientated workshop (called LaikaLab) in TU Delft's Dreamhall. Here the major parts of rocket production takes place. The second workshop is an office space for meetings, theoretical design, and electronics development. This facility (called KorolevLab) is located in the EWI faculty of the university and run in cooperation with TU Delft's Robotics Institute.

Projects

DARE has a number of teams working on specific areas of rocket technology, logistics, promotion and sponsor acquisition.

SRP (Small Rocket Project)

The Small Rocket Project (colloquially known as the Scrambled Eggs Competition) is DARE's program to introduce first year members and other interested students to the basic principles of hands-on rocketry. The aim of the project is to launch a rocket to an altitude of 1 km with an uncooked egg on board and returning this egg intact. To help students achieve this goal the project starts out with several lectures explaining the fundamentals of rocketry, rocket stability and the design of parachutes, these lectures are given by senior DARE members. Furthermore, the project offers courses in lathing or milling, a workshop in the design of electronics, a workshop building a small solid rocket engine and even a solid rocket engine test. The groups are largely free in their designs, although every rocket has to pass a final safety check. Senior DARE members and dedicated mentors give advise and guidance during the design and production of the rockets. For safety reasons the design of the solid rocket motors for the rockets is provided by DARE, however each group is allowed to construct their own motor casing themselves. The project concludes with a launch day at a military testing range, where each design is put to the test.

Cansat

DARE was also actively involved in providing the launch service for the Dutch CanSat project. In particular, DARE developed, produced, tested, and launched the CanSat launchers (CSL). Over the years these launcher have undergone several development iterations, balancing reliability, producibility, and payload capacity. The current CSL Version 7 consists of an all-Aluminium frame and, propelled by a solid rocket motor, can lift about five to six CanSats to an altitude of one kilometer. The CSL V7 has recently be used as a flying testbed to test new technologies developed by DARE.

Stratos I

Stratos I set the record for the highest altitude achieved by a student rocket, at 12.5 km. It was launched from Esrange in Sweden in 2009. It was a two-staged rocket. Unfortunately, the parachute failed to deploy and the rocket nosecone crashed, although altitude data could be gathered from the launch range equipment. It consisted of two solid-fuel rocket stages.

Stratos II+

The Stratos II+ rocket is DARE's biggest undertaking and aimed to reach 50 km. It was successfully launched on the 16th of October 2015 from El Arenosillo reaching an altitude of 21.5 km, breaking their previous record for student rocketry. The rocket was initially known as the Stratos II but failed to launch in October 2014. Design improvements were made after which the rocket was named Stratos II+.

The rocket is powered by a single-stage hybrid engine, which has a peak output above 10 kN. The approximate burn time of the engine is 23 seconds, before it cuts out and continues to coast to the apogee. It carried several payloads on board to do measurements in the higher atmosphere. Among these are an experiment on radio astronomy from the Radboud University Nijmegen, a camera system with video link from the company DelftDynamics and a geiger counter from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Centre for Energy research.

Attempt	Planned	Result	Turnaround	Reason	Decision point	Weather go (%)	Notes
1	1 Oct 2014, 11:00:00 am	scrubbed	—	Weather
2	2 Oct 2014, 6:15:00 pm	scrubbed	1 day 7 hours 15 minutes	Flight Termination System failure	​(T-1:20)
3	3 Oct 2014, 3:15:00 pm	scrubbed	0 days 21 hours 0 minutes	Main oxidizer valve stuck as by-effect of leaking N2O from the feed system	​(T-0:01)
4	15 Oct 2015, 4:00:00 pm	scrubbed	377 days 0 hours 45 minutes	Igniter valve did not open resulting in failed ignition
5	16 Oct 2015, 4:33:00 pm	success	1 day 0 hours 33 minutes	-			Apogee altitude of 21.5 km

Solid Six

Most rockets of DARE run on solid propellant. The motors are developed and build by the Solid Six team and the Safety Board. All propellant combinations that DARE uses are developed in-house.

Dawn

The Dawn team develops and tests hybrid rocket motors. This work has resulted in several publications in several different journals including the journal of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In 2013 the team received the UfD teamwork prize for their work. Dawn's main project is the DHX-200 "Aurora" hybrid rocket motor which has a peak thrust of over 12 kN and was selected to power the Stratos II rocket.

Deimos

Liquid rocket engine development within DARE is done by the Deimos team. In Winter and early Spring 2013 this team conducted a series of very successful static tests on a newly developed liquid engine. Current work focuses on optimising this engine for flight, and preparing the development of advanced liquid propulsion techniques, such as active cooling and throttling.

Advanced Control Team

All DARE rockets are passively stabilised, with fin size and -location balanced such that the rocket turns into the wind once it clears the tower. As a consequence, medium to high crosswinds can severely limit the altitude a rocket can achieve. The Advanced Control Team is developing technology to actively steer the rocket to the desired altitude.

Electronics

The timers and deployment systems in use in DARE have been developed in-house by the Electronics team. Recently the team has worked on transmitting data in-flight.

Safety Board

The Safety Board does not actively develop rockets, but consists of experienced DARE members, that can join the Safety Board after a minimum of one-year training. The Safety Board oversees testing done in DARE, checks rockets prior to launch, and is responsible for all safety-related elements of DARE's work. The Safety Board can overrule any safety-related decision.