RockSat Rocket Payloads

Through suborbital rocket programs, students learn how to build experiments for the space environment: vacuum, temperature extremes, radiation, and microgravity.

An image of a rocket during launch. Carthage students participate in the Colorado Space Grant Consortium’s RockSat sounding rocket payload programs. Students spend nine months designing and building a payload experiment for launch aboard a NASA two-stage sounding rocket from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, VA.

Carthage students also participate in the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium Collegiate Rocket Launch Competition.

Recent Payload Projects

  • Mission: Measure Very Low Frequency (VLF) Electromagnetic Radiation in the upper atmosphere to infer ionospheric dynamics.
  • Advisor: Brant Carlson
  • Team: M. Becher, A. Boissonnas, S. Bradshaw, M. Hernandez, N. Lee, A. McCulloch, B. McMahon, J. Rice, and T. Shannon.
  • Mission: Investigate Normal Field Instability in ferrofluid suspensions during low gravity excitation in a uniform magnetic field.
  • Advisor: Kevin Crosby
  • Team: Jordan Rice, Kevin LeCaptain, Tessa Rundle, Justin Barhite, Amelia Gear
  • Final Report
  • Project Poster
  • Mission: Investigate Normal Field Instability in ferrofluid suspensions during low gravity excitation in a uniform magnetic field.
  • Advisor: Kevin Crosby
  • Team: Brendan Krull, Kevin LeCaptain, Tessa Rundle, Justin Barhite, Amelia Gear
  • Final Report
  • Mission: test the ability of an experimental modal analysis (EMA) technique to measure the volume of a settled, non-sloshing propellant simulant under microgravity conditions.
  • Advisor:Kevin Crosby
  • Team: Steven Mathe, Kevin Lubick, Eric Ireland, Steven Metallo