Rocket Egress System

After my brief flight several weeks ago, I've really dove in with rocketry. Part of that has been joining a couple of related groups at school: Boston University Rocket Propulsion Group (BURPG), and Boston University Astronomy Club (BUAC). Both have been super exciting, and I'm excited to see where they take me.

Speaking of, I've started a project for BURPG.with my new friend Shane. The group is building a 24 foot tall rocket who's details I don't know very much about. That's why I've taken on this project. It was described to me as a "ramp" but I don't think that's exact
ly the term I'd use. While it isn't terribly technical, or involved, an elegant solution here is going to be critical.

Alcove of the BURPG shop where RES will live

The previous solution to getting the 600 pound rocket out the window was a wooden ramp. As the rocket was pushed up, it would squal and shreak, and was generally speaking a poor solution to the problem.

Some design requirements:

• Must be able to hoist the rocket (12 inches in diameter, 24 feet long, and 600 pounds)
• May not frame into to structure of the lab
• Must be able to fit below the overhead piping 82 inches

Ideal design points:

• Being able to fit in the alcove below the window
• Not incredibly bulky or difficult to meanuver

I think we came up with a pretty elegant solution. Stay with me here. We're gonna make a couple of carts with ropes to hoist the rocket. Bear with me here, after some refining it gets much better, but here are some initial sketches:


        

At first each cart was gonna have a rope threaded through each side and two people would hoist from each side. After some refining, we decided to ditch the through holes for pulleys, and added a single locking winch. The pulleys reduce the horizontal forces on the vertical supports which is important, because the can't be supported horizontally due to the rocket being hoisted through the plane. By adding a singular hand crank each cart only needs one person, and if need be, the locking mechanism can reduce the entire operation to just one person.

The rope have several short lengths of PVC surrounded by foam insulation to allow the rocket to roll up and reduce the dragging.

Shane and I are still refining, and will go through numerous rounds of review before being happy with a final design and are able to bring our creation to life, however I think we're off to a decent start!