Astra V

title: ASTRA - Autonomous Stabilised Thrust Recovery Ascent author: Manan Sharma (@Manan) description: A basic paraffin powered rocket which goes up, falls down and lands on 4 legs.

created_at: 2025-07-14

14th July, 2025 - Doing research, I've been researching for about 5-6 hours now and i came to a conclusion - I am going to use hybrid oxidising motor to power my rocket as i can control them and make them work the way I want. I am locking in paraffin wax and n2o chargers for the fuel for now. I am gonna use whipped cream chargers as they suit the requirements here. Other than that I am right now studying how solenoid valves work and how can I effectively use them. Packing up for today - Its 4am.

hours - +4

15th July, 2025 - Did a little more research and finalised everything - the structure and layout of everything including the positioning of the parts etc. now time to search for all the crucial hard to find parts and start with the cad model.

hours - +2

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Started with Open Rocket - made a basic model of our rocket. Going to complete this tomorrow and simulate some test flights. signing off for today. hour - +2.5

hours - +2

29th July, 2025 - Need to speedrun this project in the next 3 days. ran some simulations, things look good.

hours - +4

30th and 31st July, 2025 - Completed the cad model, with the calculations for Centre of Gravity and everything else. Decided the dimensions of the things like landing legs etc. hours - +7

-- Also completed the research for the fuel system - the way everything will work and like the flow of the energy. Finalised the chamber design for parrafin wax and no2 chargers and all the other things. Also started working on the flight controller - researched for the parts and found the suitable things which complement each other - rn we are using - 2 lidars on either side, STM32 L052K8U6 as the MCU, MPU6050 as gyro, and BPM280 as the altimeter. Also using a RF module to make the launching system's trigger. hours - +14

-- Completed the schematics -

hours - +5

August 1st and August 6th - well while making this thing - i submitted it for an event but soon i realised that the pcb ive made is quite cooked, i should not use a stm as a first timer. so rn my goal is to remake this whole thing in the coming 3 days and ask for a rereview. lets see - these are the current things.

this pcb took around - 17 hrs