Solaris
Solaris is KXR's entry this year into IREC 2027 in the 30k COTS category. We will be representing two RSOs from UCF: Knights Experimental Rocketry (KXR) and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE). The mission of the Solaris rocket is to carry a payload made by SHPE as close to 30,000 feet as possible utilizing roll control with canards.
Solaris will be flown on a 98mm COTS O-Class solid motor. Solaris will be designed to overshoot the 30k foot apogee goal on its own, and along with controlling the roll rate of the rocket, will be able to act as airbrakes and slow the rocket down if needed to obtain a specific apogee.
The airframe will be completely student built to minimize weight while also maximizing strength by wet laying carbon fiber tubes and a fiberglass nosecone.
The team has recently finished up trade studies and completed their Conceptual Design Review ahead of the application deadline for IREC 2027. They are looking forward to getting to test out our roll control and launch to new heights at competition this year!
During last year's competition, Odysseus had an extremely successful flight! We achieved an official apogee of 9,890 feet, with a secondary unofficial altimeter reading 9,935 feet as well. This apogee put the Odysseus team at the eighth most accurate team in apogee prediction. After totaling all scores, we placed 24th out of 80 teams in the 10k COTS category and 32nd overall. This flight achieved multiple firsts for UCF and KXR, including KXR's highest apogee, KXR's first successful full scale controls system, and UCF's first successful flight at IREC ever. Find out more about Odysseus below:
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