Kentucky Re-entry Universal Payload System: Recovery System and Training

The Kentucky Re-entry Universal Payload System (KRUPS) is a low cost, re-entry vehicle under development by undergraduate students through senior design projects at the University of Kentucky. KRUPS aims at advancing aerothermodynamic physics while serving as a universal payload system for upper atmospheric and microgravity experiments. The design of KRUPS has been continued for 5 years, starting from conceptual design to sounding rocket tests. This proposal is two folds. First, it aims at funding a senior design project that would directly benefit the greater mission of KRUPS. The students will be tasked on designing a recovery system so that, following a sounding rocket test flight, the capsule can be located and recovered after splashdown. The second part of the proposal aims at providing the students with hands-on rocket payload development by having them attend the RockOn! workshop at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, in Summer 2018.