On December 2, the new scientific development tournament “Star Track” was held for the first time at the Noosphere Engineering School. It was a great opportunity for young scientists to exhibit their unique developments.
It is a joint project between the “Oles Honchar Dnipro National University and Association Noosphere. It was held to draw the attention of students to the new types of suborbital rockets, which are believed to be the future of aviation.
The tournament was held on the following topics:
- CanSats
- Advanced Rocket Systems
- Open topics
28 participants in 7 teams competed by presenting detailed breakdowns of their projects.
Based on their presentations, the teams DniproSkiyLAB, UniversalRocket, CLASNARocket, RocchettaSpaceVehicle, and DH were declared the winners of the tournament.
The winning teams presented the following innovative designs:
- The CLASNARocket team presented a single-stage, meteorological research rocket based on the original idea of using a dual-mode engine, which gives it a boost when it first launches.
- The RocchettaSpaceVehicle team worked on solving the same problem, and presented the idea of using a hybrid rocket engine in place of a traditional one for this type of rocket.
- The representatives of DniproSkyLAB created a launch vehicle for CanSat launches, since one is not available in Ukraine yet. The design can carry 4 CanSats to a maximum height of 6 km. The project innovation was of the use of three-layer structures made of CFRP and GRP to make the rocket. These technologies reduce the weight of the body of the rocket, requiring less thrust, and reducing manufacturing costs.
- The UniversalRocket team presented the project of the Ukrainian segment of the international CanSat program, which was aimed at researching better ways to build CanSat rockets, launch pads, and payload systems.
The winners not only received prizes, but also the funds to implement and test their projects and demonstrate them by April 12, 2018.
It is worth noting that Association Noosphere and Max Polyakov plan to support events like these for youth regularly. Star Track will be a regular tournament aimed at motivating students to explore rocket and space technology.