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Rocket club

The printed avionics bay held open in one hand, wired boards inside, with the servo mount and the white nose cone beside it

Launch log · Leadership

Rocket club

2022 – 2024President3 clips8 photos

A student rocket club in the Mangystau region of Kazakhstan. I was its president.

Role
President
Where
Mangystau region, Kazakhstan
Built with
Fusion (CAD), Cura, 3D printing, Arduino

Why

The job was less about rockets than about a loop a beginner could join.

How the rocket on this page was built: airframe sections modelled in Fusion and printed as separate parts from Cura, Arduino avionics tested on the bench before they went inside, and the whole thing assembled by hand.

The build

CAD, print, bench

Each section of the airframe was its own part: modelled in CAD, sliced, printed, then fitted by hand. The electronics got printed parts of their own. Five frames, from the slicer to the bay in hand.

  1. Nose cone sections modelled as separate parts, open in the Cura slicer on a laptop screen
  2. The bench: the white airframe tube, the avionics bay, printed rings, precision screwdrivers and a tool case
  3. A white 3D-printed sled holding an Arduino board and a 9 V battery
  4. The Arduino avionics powered on the bench, LEDs lit, a battery attached and servo leads trailing
  5. The avionics bay fitted between two airframe sections, the whole body held upright in one hand

Scroll sideways · open a frame to see it whole

  1. Nose cone sections, modelled as separate parts, in the slicer.
  2. The bench: the airframe tube, the avionics bay, printed rings and tools.
  3. A printed sled holds the Arduino and a 9 V battery.
  4. The avionics powered on the bench, LEDs lit, battery attached.
  5. The avionics bay, fitted between two airframe sections.
Nose cone sections modelled as separate parts, open in the Cura slicer on a laptop screen

Avionics

Bench first

An Arduino Nano with sensor boards and servo leads on a perfboard, tested on the bench before it went into the airframe.

Top-down view of the avionics perfboard: an Arduino Nano, sensor boards and servo leads, a finger pointing at the Nano
The board from above: an Arduino Nano, sensor boards, servo leads.
Live telemetry: the serial monitor streams accelerometer, temperature, pressure and altitude as the board moves. 0:24

Thrust vectoring

The same board drives two servos on a 3D-printed gimbal. Tilt the board, and the gimbal follows.

Thrust vectoring: two servos on a printed gimbal follow the board as it tilts. 0:20

Launch day

A school yard, rockets on the pads. Near the end of the clip, one climbs on a smoke trail.

Launch day: the rockets on their pads, then up. Sound · 0:29

The loop

What a beginner joined

  1. Design a part
  2. Print it
  3. Find out why it failed
  4. Do it again
A framed certificate of thanks («Алғыс») made out to Jakhangir Tynshimov for contributing to youth policy in the Mangystau region, 2024
A certificate of thanks, Mangystau region, 2024.