Sheffield students win US rocket competition

Viktor Fedun reports on success for SunrIde, a team of students from the University of Sheffield who designed and built a rocket

Sheffield University Nova Rocket Innovative Design Engineering (SUNRIDE)

Sheffield University Nova Rocket Innovation Design Engineering (SunrIde) was the first ever student-led rocketry team from the UK to participate in Spaceport America Cup (SA Cup) 2018, the largest space industry backed annual rocketry engineering competition in the world. The main objective of the SunrIde was to design and build a high-power reusable rocket in the 10,000 ft above ground level (AGL) category with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solid propulsion system. The rocket should reach the projected apogee within the smallest margin possible while carrying either a dead weight 3-unit CubeSat payload or a scientific experiment, both weighing no less than 8.8 lb (4 kg), with a 5% allowance. The University of Sheffield team launched and recovered a self-designed rocket that reached an altitude of 10,017 ft (3,053 m) above ground level (AGL). It won the James Barrowman Award for Flight Dynamics with the most accurate altitude prediction at 99.83%. This success sets an important precedent for aspiring STEM students across the UK by encouraging them to expand their engineering skills through practical projects and increases the UKs high-power rocketry presence