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Current Missions

NASA Student Launch Project (SLP)

Spaceport America Cup

NASA Student Launch Project (SLP)

“Student Launch is a research-based, competitive, experiential exploration activity. It strives to provide relevant, cost-effective research and development of rocket propulsion systems. This project offers multiple challenges reaching a broad audience of middle and high schools, colleges, and universities across the nation.” (NASA)

For the Student Launch Project, teams construct both a launch vehicle and a payload specifically designed for the criteria of that year’s competition. For the 2019 SLP, launch vehicles must reach apogee between 4,000’ and 5,500’. The design of the launch vehicle must adhere to numerous regulations outlined in the NASA Student Launch Handbook.

For the 2019 SLP, teams were allowed to select from two different payload criterias. They either needed to design a UAV or a Rover (for soil collection). The Mission 6 Project Imua Team selected the Rover competition. Similar to the the vehicle, the payload is required to adhere to regulations also outlined NASA Student Launch Handbook.

Project Imua (Mission 6) Team

The team designing this year’s SLP launch vehicle and rover are Mission 6 of Project Imua. This team is a collaborative effort across four campuses within the UH system. The UHCC team is split into four major teams: the Rocket Team, the Payload Team, the Safety Team, and the Website Team. WinCC (in collaboration with KapCC and UH Manoa) is the Rocket Team. HonCC is the Payload Team. The four campuses work together collaboratively on the Safety and Media/Website Teams. The teams will be working together to complete all necessary milestones.

To ensure satisfactory completion of the project, the team identified all necessary roles for the completion of this project and assigned each role to a student.

More information on the Project Imua Team can be found on our Team page.

Launch Vehicle

The design of the Launch Vehicle for this year’s project was designed to meet the Vehicle Requirements from the NASA SLP Student Handbook (2019). This vehicle’s dimensions and major components are summarized below.

Payload

The payload titled “Deployable Rover/Soil Sample Recovery” is comprised of two parts. The first section is a cylinder where the rover will be retained during flight. The second section is a nose cone which will contain the deployment system and electronics for communication with the base station. The rover itself will be programmed to move at least 10 feet from the rocket where it will then attempt to collect a soil sample of at least 10 mL. If the initial sampling is unsuccessful, the rover will continue to move to new locations for reattempts until it succeeds.

Spaceport America Cup

Members of the Project Imua Team are leading an effort to participate in the 2019 Spaceport America Cup.

The team submitted a proposal for the competition in early December. Updates on this will be posted as the team makesfurther progress on their effort.