KY EPSCOR: FY 23:KY Space Grant TP-22-013: Kentucky Re-entry Universal Payload System: Enhancing Instrumentation Suite

The Kentucky Re-entry Universal Payload System (KRUPS) is a low-cost atmospheric 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 ongoing for 5 years, starting from conceptual design to sounding rocket tests. Over the coming year, KRUPS will undergo several critical system validations by being tested in rocket flights. This proposal is two-fold. First, it aims at funding a senior design project that would directly benefit the greater mission of KRUPS. The students will be tasked to add additional instruments into KRUPS, including an on-board camera facing the back of the capsule to capture the parachute deployment and dynamics following a sounding rocket test flight, and a spectrometer to measure emission signatures in the front of the capsule. The second part of the proposal aims at providing the students with hands-on rocket payload development experience by having them attend the RockOn! workshop at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in summer 2023.