The solid propulsion research team was restarted in the 2024-2025 school year to provide SDR members experience in formulating, handling, producing, and hotfiring solid rocket propellants similar in composition to those used in the commercial space and defense industry.
During the 2024-2025 year, the team formulated three new propellant variations, and conducting 13 motor firings with 12/13 successful. In total, the team fired over 40 pounds of experimental solid rocket propellant - a cadence not seen at SDR for over a decade. During the 2025-2026 school year, the team looks forward to scaling motors to the 4" diameter scale, and producing motors that are able to fly scratch-built rockets over Mach 3 and 50,000 feet.
The motors that the SDR solids team has fired over the last year include 9 ballistic evaluation motors, with the purpose of characterizing propellant performance, and 4 flight-capable motors at the 2" and 3" diameter scale. Of these 4 motors, the two 3" diameter motors were fired nominally at 500lbf thrust. Of the 2" motors, one underwent a casing rupture, and the other was successfully flown in a member's personal rocket.
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