Bearospace
Rocketry Team

About 2 weeks into my first quarter of my freshman year, I had been trained in CAD and understood what was available to me. I was tasked with designing a payload which could level upon landing. The above image shows my first attempt which lacked awareness of potential issues with manufacturing, electronics functionality, etc. This was the lesson they taught me after reviewing my design. I obtained a much richer appreciation and understanding of the deisgn process through this critique.

Eventually, after various design reviews from NASA panelists, we were able to produce the above payload. I helped design the encasing structure and produced drawings for the parts up to ASME standard, in the scenario where we could manufacture. Due to COVID restrictiosn at the time, this was purely a design competition. In an effort to help us stand out, I proposed to use Solidworks Composer to create an assembly guide with Lego manual-esque step by step instructions of how to assemble the payload. After creating a guide for the payload, we expanded and created guides for each of our componenets, which helped us place 2nd in the design division.