Air-Launched. Low-SWaP, Space-Capable Sounding Rocket

With the goal of being the first civilian university to reach space, The Stanford Student Space Initiative's Spaceshot Team (SSI Spaceshot) has designed a custom rocket-balloon (rockoon) system to achieve an apogee height of greater than 100 km (i.e. to cross the Kármán Line, a widely-accepted definition of the boundary of space), while demonstrating a cheap, low Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP), suborbital launch technology. Suborbital launch represents a high-potential space for growth in aerospace as it provides a high-value market for aerospace research and a low-cost, lower-risk opportunity for agents with less capital to access space. Technologies such as this open-source rocket-balloon system provide an incredible opportunity to democratize space and provide access to aerospace to all. Leveraging the experience of an international-award-winning rockets team, a world-record-breaking high-altitude balloon team, and members who have built satellites, high-voltage DNA synthesizers, and more, SSI is building an integrated rocket-balloon system. The system consists of a zero-pressure balloon platform which will carry a 20 kg rocket with a commercial-off-the-shelf motor to 27 km. At that height, the rocket will launch to reach a final expected apogee of 125 km. Although the underlying architecture has been verified and tested for decades, from NASA to modern space startups, SSI's design is heavily optimized to be low SWaP, affordable, and accessible as an open-source platform. In the process of creating an efficient, effective design in this problem space, SSI has created custom composites designed for the hypersonic thermal load, designed robust payload bays to survive high-shock, and investigated different stability methods for high-altitude, low-atmospheric-density launches. This project hopes to advance the emerging field of accessible aerospace by publishing our simple and achievable design for suborbital launch technology.