SARAH
SCHMIDT
M.S. ENGINEERING, SCIENCE, & TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Project Karman
2015-2019
Project Kármán is a rocket that will travel 62 miles to the Kármán line, which is the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space. I began working on this project with Northeastern's AIAA club when I arrived at Northeastern in 2015. During that year I worked with a team to determine the most efficient thermal coating for the rocket that could withstand extreme temperatures in order to cover the shear pins and prevent them from melting prior to the correct deployment time and so the rocket could be used for more than one launch.
I also worked as a part of the airframe team where we worked on designing a separation method to deploy parachute at apogee when there is no atmosphere. Since this rocket will be reaching higher speeds and temperatures than what we have built in the past we cannot use our regular methods of separation, such as shear pins.
For my senior capstone project I worked with a team to design a yo-yo de-spin mechanism that would the parachutes to deploy and for clear photos to be taken at apogee. This project was done in tandem with a second capstone group that was designing canted fins to use spin stabilization during ascent. A more detailed explanation of this project can be found under "Capstone".
Introduction to Rockets
Spring 2015
When I first arrived at Northeastern University I knew that I wanted to get involved with rocketry. I went to the club fair to seek out the "Rocket Club", also known as the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIA). As this was my first semester in engineering, I did not know much about rocketry so I decided to join Intro to Rockets. As a part of this section of the club I was able to work with a team to design, build, and launch a small-scale rocket.
With my team we were able to successfully design a rocket using OpenRocket, build it, and successfully launch the rocket, pictured above.
While working on this project I was also beginning my work as a part of the Project Kármán team. The information I learned from joining the introductory rocket group allowed me to gain a better understanding of rocketry and helped me get where I am today as a part of the Project Kármán.
