Double distinction for the Aerospace team of the University of Western Macedonia: Build a solid fuel rocket

The ASPiRE student aerospace team managed to win significant distinctions University of Western Macedonia which won second and third place in the Spaceport America Cup 2021 world competition, which was attended by 153 teams from around the world. The tender provided for the design and construction of a solid fuel rocket, which would be launched at 10,000 feet and in the process would take measurements of atmospheric conditions.

The competition took place from June 18-20 and as he underlines speaking to the Athens News Agency, the head of the student research team, a fourth-year student of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Iraklis Blatsoukis, “had this year’s competition. It was held online, while the participants were judged exclusively by their technical reports, their overall presentation in the competition and by the interviews given by the team representatives to the organizers “.

The competition was great with participation from Polytechnic universities around the world, while out of the 153 teams, only 76 managed to reach the final competition process. The competition was attended by universities from countries with a long tradition in missile systems, space research and technology, and nevertheless, the team of the University of Western Macedonia managed to reach the second place among 20 study presentations that analyzed the characteristics of its wings. rocket, receiving the Charles Hoult Award for Modeling & Simulation after Monash University, Australia.

For the fact that the student aerospace team designed and built with its own materials and know-how the solid fuel engine that can raise the rocket to 10,000 feet (SRAD 10k Solid Motor category), the organizers awarded them, giving them the 3rd place in the general classification, right after the State University of New York at Buffalo and George Washington University.

A team of 35 students worked hard to build the rocket and complete the project. consisting of Electrical, Mechanical Chemical Engineers Industrial product and systems design and Economists.

“The pandemic, the restrictive measures and the strict quarantine, forced us all to work from home”, points out Iraklis Blatsoukas and remembers that it took a few times, with a special permission granted by the university, “to come to the laboratories to complete our measurements for the completion of the technical data sheets of the project “. The obstacles due to the lockdown did not only concern the internal communication and cooperation of the team but also the cooperation with companies that had declared their participation in the construction of mechanical parts of the rocket, in the electrical and electronic systems.

“Some companies that had promised us that we would cooperate, due to the pandemic, faced problems, with the result that in the middle of quarantine we have to find alternative solutions,” he adds, as broadcast by the Athens News Agency.

For his part, the professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering Pantelis Angelidis who is the supervisor of the student team and has every reason to feel happy that in almost two years, amid lockdowns and harsh bans in Kozani and elsewhere, students have achieved a lot. «It is the first time that a Greek university has won distinctions in this competition, which has been held for 15 yearsMr. Angelidis characteristically emphasizes.

The conditions of this year’s competition did not allow the live presence of the teams and the launch of their rockets, but as the children of the student group say, “we will try to launch from the new academic year on western Macedonian territory after first bureaucratic details are settled and civil aviation permits and other competent authorities. “

Photo source: Athenian News Agency