The Argonia Cup is Tripoli’s collegiate rocketry competition that involves launching a golf ball payload to 8000′ and returning it as close to the launch site as possible. With the first competition in 2017 and 3 college teams participating, it has grown to over 10 participants in 2019. This competition is particularly good for new college rocketry teams as the rockets are limited to an L motor or smaller. Other competitions can become very expensive with long-distance travel and hotel stays to go along with multi-thousand dollar motors and rockets.
I’ve participated in this competition all 3 years since it has been around, and I’m proud to say Oklahoma State University has won all 3 years. In 2017 we attempted to build an autonomous quadcopter that ultimately didn’t work, but a second flight attempt with basic dual deploy happened to win the competition.
In 2018, we had 2 teams register from OSU: the rocketry team and my senior capstone team. The rocketry team went with basic dual deploy to recover the golf ball and rocket, and our capstone team went to improve the rocket-launched quadcopter technology with a more advanced drone and cheaper composites manufacturing techniques. Read more about the project here. We didn’t get the quad to fly, but the rocketry team took another win with basic dual deploy. There seems to be a trend.
In 2018, I helped the rocketry team with another basic dual deploy rocket for the competition and the year’s seniors also entered a capstone team. The rocketry team went with a more minimalist rocket, only 3″ in diameter to fly on a K740 instead of the beefy full L motors most other teams used. I handled electronics and recovery operations for this rocket, and for reasons I still can’t explain, we had drogue charges fire, but no separation at apogee, despite redundant altimeters. The main charges fired an separated the nosecone but because of the rocket’s high downward velocity and drag, it wasn’t enough to pull out the main parachute. It was the failure next to a lawndart, but at least the motor hardware was undamaged. The senior capstone team went on to win with yet another dual deploy recovery due to their glider not deploying on the first flight.
I endorse this competition for a number of reasons.
- It requires a Level 2 certified flier. Some competitions operate outside of Tripoli and NAR which may have certain advantages, but they tend to be engineering competitions, not rocketry competitions. Because of this fact, overly ambitious and inexperienced college teams can disregard safety and attempt launches that they may not be prepared for. While this could still happen at the Argonia Cup, the total impulse launching is limited to a commercial L motor which reduces the potential impact on people’s safety. By requiring a Level 2 certified flier to launch the Level 2 motor, it ensures a more accountable level of responsibility, safety, and experience.
- Each participating team is assigned a mentor to help with pre-flight preparation and oversee safety as necessary.
- Its central location in the United States has brought teams from as far as Wyoming, Texas, Colorado, Mississippi, Illinois, and Michigan, and as close as Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma.
- The Kloudbusters have one of the best launch sites in the country for launch and recovery. They host the competition and do a wonderful job coordinating the competition flights while also allowing regular fliers to launch the same weekend.
