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Design Philosophy

The best projects are the ones that actually happen. That's why KegRocket is being designed from the ground up to be relatively inexpensive to build while targeting value selections for critical components to maximize safety and reliability.

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KegRocket is not meant to be a cutting-edge, high performance rocket. It's meant to be fun and inspiring to design, build, and fly.

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Our project expressly relies on the public knowledge base of liquid rocketry and does not incorporate protected ITAR/EAR technologies in its design.

 

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Mountains in Clouds

Design Details

This info is evolving, so check back often!

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Structure

Key Vehicle Specs:

  • Tanks: 2x 30 liter (1/4 barrel) 304L stainless steel beverage kegs

  • Custom Formed Aluminum Spars

  • Composite nose section

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The main structure of KegRocket consists of two 30-Liter beverage kegs and custom formed 5052 Aluminum frame members. A thin aluminum skin makes the rocket more aerodynamic and protects the sensitive equipment inside from the elements.

 

The Recovery & Avionics nose module is constructed from readily available glass composite tube.

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Nearly all fasteners in the rocket are 304 Stainless Steel for corrosion resistance and low-temperature strength.

Rocket Launch

Propulsion

Key Propulsion Specs:

  • Fuel: 95% Ethanol

  • Oxidizer: Liquid Oxygen

  • Thrust: 1000 lbf - 660 lbf

  • Burn Time: 11s

  • Max Chamber Pressure: 215 psia

  • Mixture Ratio: 1.45

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KegRocket's engine is affectionately dubbed "Growler" since its about the same size as a beer jug, often called a growler. The combustion chamber is "cooled" by a ablative composite liner for simplicity. The propellant is fed to Growler by the expansion of the pressurized gas space in the kegs, resulting in a blowdown (decaying) thrust profile.

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Electronic Wires

Avionics

Key Avionics Specs:

  • Common STM32F405-based microcontroller architecture

  • CAN Bus inter-node comms protocol (dubbed Beer CAN)

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Our avionics and ground systems are composed of a networked multi-node architecture based on a common board that controls the rockets sequencing and equipment using common off-the-shelf components.

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