KART

KART - Kent Amateur Rocket Team

In 2001 I was the joint Team-Leader of the Kent Amateur Rocket Team - a student group entering the NRC - a National Rocket Championship competing against other universities. The challenge was to build and launch a sounding rocket carrying a scientific payload that would safely return the data collected to the ground together with the rocket.
After an extensive design period and sophisticated computer simulation we produced 'Big Bird' - a composite structure of Carbon Fibre and Kevlar over 5 feet long. It was the most advanced rocket ever constructed at the University of Kent and featured a 'homemade' flight computer, accelerometer array, a 2.4GHz video transmitter and an innovative air-bag landing system! It was launched on the 4th November 2001 on an Aerotech J415 rocket motor at the EARS launch site in Cambridgeshire. It reached an approximate altitude of 1.5km. Unfortunately, after unexpectedly entering cloud, contact was lost and the rocket was never recovered! A reward is offered for its return!
Despite the loss we won the Astrium payload prize and were featured on the BBC news, BBC Radio 2, the Daily Mirror, and local press and radio.

Video clip of the launch (436 kb .wmv)

More information can be found from the websites below:

Official KART website: www.kart.org.uk

Video clip of the launch (436 kb .wmv) Click Here

Some of the newspaper articles: Kentish Gazette Adscene Canterbury Times