Rocketeers
Background
The Rocketeers group of LVL1 is a new special interest group spawned from a team at the University of Louisville who competed in the 2012 NASA University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) competition. The team won 5th place overall, best rookie team of the year, and best website. Construction of the rocket, which stood ~11 feet tall and 6 inch in diameter, took place mostly at LVL1 Hackerspace in Louisville, KY. LVL1 was a great place for this because of the open access to professional tools like the laser cutter and woodshop. With the conclusion of the competition, 2012 rocket team member and LVL1 member, Nathan Armentrout, began the Rocketeers group at LVL1 to carry forward and spread interest in rocketry in the Louisville area.
Projects
The Rocketeers group is interested in many facets of rocketry. The current goal of the group is to build a small pulse jet engine from a predesigned template. This project was chosen because it is a small, versatile machine and it trains the group in metal working. As of July 10, 2012, the group has received all metal working tools and will begin construction on July 11. The group also chose to pursue a second project in building a rocket engine test stand. A mini prototype version for solid state hobby rocket engines has been built and tested. This prototype will be enlarged to incorporate larger engines like the pulse jet engine. Rocketeers are also encouraged to experiment with hobby rocket designs however they wish. Nathan has built custom lightning fins for a rocket called Thunderstruck and is in the process of building a Nyan Cat rocket (both based on the Estes Baby Bertha model). Another rocketeer is working on a custom laser-cut rocket engine cluster.
For the future, the Rocketeers group would like to participate and host community events and launches as it matures.
