Teamfoto after winning the teamworkprize

For the latest updates on the propulsion test campaign at TNO, click here.

Today the hybrid propulsion team “Dawn” was awarded the TU Delft Universiteitsfonds teamwork prize for their work and progress over the past three years. After three teams, including Dawn, gave a the presentation this afternoon to a jury and audience, they were awarded the first prize for the best teamwork effort of the last year at the TU Delft.

This whole event comes in a busy period for the whole crew because as you may know there is currently a test campaign of the full scale motor going on at the TNO rocket test facility in Rijswijk. Last Wednesday morning (the 15th) the whole test setup has been moved to TNO and set up there. Unfortunately no firing test has been conducted yet because of the weather.

The Teamwork prize
The Teamwork prize is a yearly prize awarded by the Universiteitsfonds Delft and by IHC Merwede for the best team effort by a TU Delft student team. This year 15 teams applied for the prize, including the hybrid propulsion team from DARE. Only three teams were selected for the final round, these were the Astos UAV project of the faculty of Aerospace engineering, a team from Architecture competing in an international city-neighborhood design competition and the Dawn team.

The propulsion team of Stratos was credited by the jury for the huge efforts they have put in the project through the last three years, as each of them does the project next to their regular studies at the TU. Furthermore they gave the team compliments for being a group with diverse international backgrounds, diverse faculties and the fact that they are all at different stages in their studies.

The funds that are associated with winning the prize will be used to help eight members of the team travel to the Joint Propulsion Conference in the US this summer to present their paper on the fuel characterization of hybrid rocket propellant to the international rocketry community.

You can read a full article on the Teamwork prize (in Dutch unfortunately) on the website of the Ufd: http://universiteitsfonds.tudelft.nl/.

The test campaign at TNO
Then some updates on the TNO test campaign: As mentioned, the whole test was set-up and prepared at TNO last Wednesday. The propulsion team left early that morning with the packed van to the test facility build up the whole stand.

After arriving they started with setting up the test stand in the tunnel that has been specially designed for testing these types of rocket engines. The tank rig and the thrust bench were tightened to the floor with heavy bolts and straps. The electronics and the measurement equipment was tested and near 2 o’clock the first operations could commence. These operations consisted of a number of pressure tests with Nitrogen to test if the system was leak tight and if all valves and sensors were working as expected. Everything worked fine with only minor errors; There was a small leak between the main valve and the safety valve but this was quickly fixed on the spot. Furthermore the electronics had a few hiccups but these could be mitigated sufficiently.

There was no ignition of the engine yet last Wednesday. This was not attempted simply because time would not permit it that day. The team intended to work further on it last Thursday and also today (Tuesday) but this was unfortunately not possible on either day: To test the wind needs to blow from the proper direction (approximately from the South) to make  sure exhaust fumes are blown away safely. Unfortunately the winds on Thursday and Tuesday were blowing from the North. Also for the rest of this week the predictions do not look so good, so the tests might be moved to next week entirely. Keep an eye out for the weather and our updates 😉