Collin Quirke

Led design of a student-researched-and-developed 38mm H-class motor, the team's first, targeting 500 psi chamber pressure. Sized chamber and grain geometry by hand, optimized performance results with decision matrix in MATLAB, cross-validated performance in OpenRocket and BurnSim4, and ran thermal/fluid analysis in ANSYS. Designed a two-part aluminum/phenolic-insert conical nozzle for manual-lathe manufacturability. Case and closure manufacturing began before the project was paused by the university for review; development continues independently.

Built and flew a 4 inch diameter Blue Tube airframe rocket to certify Level 1 (H550) and Level 2 (J425) with a 36" main on a chute-release/ripcord dual-deploy setup, no onboard avionics. L1 flew clean with a good recovery. L2 coned near apogee, likely a combination of reduced stability margin at low velocity and wind gusts at apogee, then suffered a deployment failure when a recovery knot failed, compounded by ripcord zippering leading to a week-long recovery and a warped aft airframe. Currently rebuilding: replacing the damaged aft section with an added lower coupler for structural margin, and designing a low-cost custom flight computer PCB for real deployment data ahead of re-flight.