The vehicle (or as members of general public would say: "the rocket") will deliver the payload to the target altitude (1 mile = 5,280ft).

Our vehicle will be a single stage rocket propelled by an M-class hybrid motor. M-class motors deliver between 5,120Ns and 10,240Ns of total impulse (depends on a specific motor). Hybrid motors burn a PVC fuel slug using N₂O as an oxidizer. Hybrid motors are environmentally friendly and unlikely solid motors based on ammonium perchlorate (NH₄ClO₄) are not classified as explosives.

Both 2D and 3D drawings of our vehicle are on Figure 1a and Figure 1b resp. The rocket is named The Dart (for obvious reasons). The large top barrel section will host the payload of two DSLR cameras and a GPS system (for tracking). See Figure 2 for detailed scheme of the rocket (including the placement of all important subsystems).

The payload and the booster portions of the rocket will separate at the apogee. The booster will begin a quick descent to 500ft, where the main booster parachute will be deployed to provide a soft landing for the booster. The payload section will deploy its only parachute at the apogee and will begin a slow descent at the rate of 15fps. The cameras will be activated and synchronized pictures will be taken every 5 seconds. The pictures will be stored in memory cards in the cameras. Figure 3 shows the whole flight sequence.

Because the rocket flies to one mile, it could drift very far under a parachute and might not be found at all. To prevent this from happening, we will use a dual deployment recovery technique for the booster (click on the link to learn the details of dual deployment).

In short, dual deployment means that the rocket opens a small parachute (a drogue or a pilot parachute) at the apogee, descends fast to low altitude (say 500ft) and then deploys the main parachute which slows the descent to a safe landing speed. The complete flight sequence of our rocket is shown on Figure 3.

Unfortunately, dual deployment is not really an option for the payload part of the rocket. If we are to collect a sufficient number of images, we need the payload to stay aloft for at least several minutes. Under windy conditions this can mean a difficult recovery (rocket drifting out of sight of into difficult to access areas). An added complication is the total cost of the payload (two DSLR cameras and advanced electronics, all totaling about $3,000.00). An onboard GPS will broadcast the position of the payload for the whole duration of the flight. Sonic and AM-radio beacons will serve as a backup for GPS tracking (see the drawing of the payload to find about its components).

An up-to-date detailed description of the project can be found
in the Flight Readiness Review document in the Documents section.