Skyward

For 10 years, the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology has trusted and supported us in the creation of our projects, becoming a key reference for the association. Thank you @aerospacepolimi for your support and for helping us go higher and higher!

8 were the hours of bus ride to reach Roccaraso. During our last trip, our team has been working on all Pyxis components to make sure everything works perfectly at the next launch. On October 10 we will leave again for Portugal to participate in @euroc_pt 2022, cheer for us !!!

A couple of weeks ago we left for Roccaraso! There, on September 17, Pyxis performed its first test launch in preparation for EuRoC 2022: 1.100 meters of apogee and a rocket recovery in perfect conditions! See for yourselves: youtu.be/H2NGxOks5WU

Pyxis is finally completed and it is with immense joy that we can show it to all of you in all its glory! For the occasion, we organized a presentation to the public in the magnificent space of our partner Kaos Design we thank for their hospitality.

Countdown iniziato! Oggi è previsto il lancio di Pyxis. Si passerà la mattina a seguire le procedure d’integrazione, la finestra di lancio di oggi è prevista tra le 12:00 e le 13:00. Seguiranno aggiornamenti!

Last year we had an incredible experience in Portugal. And it is there that we will return in exactly one month, on 11 October, with our new Pyxis project, the compass that will guide us in this new edition of EuRoC 2022

The #Recovery team carried out a test to evaluate the ejection and extraction system of the two drogues from inside the recovery compartment. All mechanisms worked perfectly, making this test a great success.

Today we would like to talk to you about Inicon, an Italian company specializing in galvanic treatments. Not only did they carry out surface treatments on all the parts we needed, but they also produced parts for us, such as the rings you see in the photo.

The longest bay of all in our rocket is the #recovery bay! It is longer than last year because inside it we find not only the #parachute but also the #parafoil for the payload recovery.

Returning to the structure of #Pyxis, its central section, the electronics bay, is extremely important! Here there is the rocket’s avionics, fundamental for collecting and processing data to decide when to eject the nose cone and how to move the air brakes.

As reaching the target altitude of 3000 meters is an extremely important part for the score in the European competition, we want the air brakes extraction system to be well made and of high quality. For this, we relied on our partner Rollon

For many of the rocket's parts this is already the second year we are partnering with Talicarb, an Italian company that has established itself as an excellence in the production of precision tools for milling and drilling operations

@Dewesoft’s data acquisition experts gave us a lot of help during our tests. The SIRIUSie-8xSTG+ acquisition system, with the support of its professionals, was essential to improving and optimizing data collection.

#Pyxis is composed of several compartments joined together. Starting from the bottom we find the engine bay, used to correctly fix the solid motor during flight and to transmit the thrust to the whole #rocket.

We would like to thank @Dewesoft for having 3 team members of ours Paolo Gnata, Alberto Nidasio, and Francesco Miccoli invited to Dewesoft Summer Camp. It is an event consisting of 5 days of intensive courses, where students from major Italian technical universities are invited.

Unlike #Lynx, #Pyxis has carbon fiber and fiberglass fuselages, so the aluminum parts were not screwed but glued together using high-performance two-component epoxy glue. To align the pieces we mainly used dowel pins combined with other systems, often #3D printed.

Pyxis, just like Lynx, is designed to reach an altitude of 3000 m, but of course we look for ways to get there as efficiently as possible. A big improvement is the use of a boat tail, that allows us to reduce the thrust required to reach 3000 m.

As the rocket is subjected to very high forces during flight, we have to make sure that the parts do not fail due to stress. For this reason, for the production of the connection flanges between the electronics bay and the recovery bay we relied again on Andreini.

The third Static Fire Test is undoubtedly where we had the most satisfaction.

Last week, the HRE team carried out the first successful static fire test of our Chimaera hybrid engine. We are happy with both the test and the significant progress we are making during this period. All the sensors worked and collected a lot of data for performance analysis.