Rocket Team

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McGill Rocket Team is a McGill Club that engages in competitive rocket building. The club is associated with and receives funds from EUS, but is also open to accepting members from all faculties, with any level of experience. The team usually builds two rockets each year, a basic model and an advanced model. The team competes in national and international competitions, most notably the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) during the summer. The team is quite large, currently at about 140 members.

Subteams

McGill Rocket Team is split into seven sub-teams. The sub-teams include Aerodynamics, Structures, Payload, Propulsion, Avionics, Business and Multimedia.

Aerodynamics

The aerodynamics team is responsible for designing and building the external shape of the rocket, which involves geometric reasoning in order to reduce drag as much as possible. Structures involved in the exterior of the rocket include the nose cone, body tube, boat tail and fins. Additionally, the team is responsible for researching and choosing materials that will be used to construct the external structures of the rocket, as well as determining the assembly of these materials and structures.

Structures

The structures team is responsible for the design and construction of the mechanisms behind the internal components of the rocket. These mechanisms include the ejection charges, parachute deployment, payload ejection, and decoupling. The team conducts research on plausible internal designs as well as materials and construction of the desired components. Finally, the team is involved in construction, where all internal structure components are ideally built locally, assembled, and installed.

Payload

The payload team is responsible for designing and building a specific component to the rocket that will carry out some function following rocket deployment. The team utilizes mathematical modeling and computer-aided design (CAD) to later produce and test the payload, which can be scientific or technical in nature. The payload executes the ultimate goal of the rocket launching.

Propulsion

The propulsion team is responsible for everything related to our rocket motor systems. Currently, we are working on a Hybrid Motor, a Rotating Detonation Engine, Thrust Vectoring, and Nozzle design. The Propulsion Team also selects appropriate purchasable solid motors for our smaller rocket.

Avionics

The Avionics subteam is responsible for a wide array of electrical systems of the rocket, including but not limited to: decoupling detonation circuits, communications, and rocket telemetry. Avionics is also responsible for the design of the compartments in which the electronics are situated, which include the avionics bay for the main electronics, the engine ignition bay for ignition electronics, the pitot tube bay, and the decoupler bay. These compartments are designed in coordination with the Internal Structures and Aerodynamics subteams. The Avionics team converts the rocket from a ballistic tube to an electric tube that flies safely (depending on how well we do our job).

Business

The business team is responsible for maintaining the financial oversight of the construction of the rockets, which involves forecasting an estimate of the budget needed to complete the projects and preparing a list of potential companies and organizations to be approached for potential sponsorship.

Multimedia

The multimedia team is responsible for the management of all social media outlets for Rocket Team, team photography and videography, website design and managing, team graphic design, and designing/ordering team merchandise.