With the beginning of a new semester project HELVETIA enters a new project phase.

The project officially started its year 2022 with its testing campaign, more specifically, the nosecone separation test. So let’s do a quick dive into this critical step in our project.
The separation mechanism works as follows: A flight computer is connected to a valve connected to a cartridge filled with CO2. When the flight computers detect apogee (here, an artificial signal fed in from the outside), the valves open, and approximately 50g of CO2 fills the space between the nosecone and the upper-fairing, leading to an increase of the inner pressure. The nosecone is only held by some shear pins, breakable at a specific load. When the pressure reaches a certain threshold, the pins break, and the nosecone is pushed outwards, pulling the parachute with it. We have a nosecone ejection. All of this results in the separation shown in the video below. It is only 14 seconds long, but there is 5 months of hard, intense work behind it with some all-nighters and pulled out hair. The excitement of the team is worth all of that in the end.
As with all tests, we ran into problems. But as every problem has its solution, we figured out how to fill the CO2 cartridge more efficiently using some good old thermodynamics. The following steps entailed a separation test with the entire system and the parachutes in place and some limit testing to find the exact amount of CO2 needed to eject the nosecone successfully. This will ensure that the separation works while minimizing the risk of a cartridge failure due to overpressure as the CO2 will need to remain sealed for multiple hours in the 50-degree New Mexico desert.
After this successful test and building onto that momentum, we will continue with an ambitious testing campaign, including but not limited to small-scale rocket launches, helicopter drop tests, tensile and compression tests, as well as a Maiden Launch in Switzerland.

Team HELVETIA is excited to continue towards its goal of winning the SA Cup 2022 and is back from the exam phase break to work with more energy and determination than ever.