Windward Community College continued its high-power rocketry efforts by participating in ARLISS 2017-18 (A Rocket Launch for International Student Satellites). WCC students collaborated with students at Honolulu Community College on a re-engineered quadcopter that was flown at the September 2018 international rocketry competition at Black Rock, Nevada. This marked WCCs thirteenth consecutive entry at ARLISS.
Hosted by AeroPAC (the local chapter of the Tripoli Rocketry Association), this annual event challenged engineering students to design, build, test, and ultimately fly a package that emulates a planetary atmospheric probe. The payloads were peer tested against each other by being launched via high-power rockets to high altitude. At apogee, the deployed payload was required to autonomously maneuver its way to a pre-determined location on the playa about 1.5 miles away, while simultaneously taking atmospheric data. While the payload could broadcast its data results to a ground station, no command could be given to the payload.
For ARLISS 2017-18, WCC assembled a foldable quadcopter under the control of GPS-assisted software that guided the fly-back payload to the designed target. HCC designed and built an Atmospheric Sampling Experiment Package (ASEP) that was mounted on the drone. With a total mass of less than 1 kg, these two integrated components are mounted in the rocketâs payload sectionâa cylinder 10.5 cm long and 5.8 cm in diameter.

As with its twelve previous entries, WCCs participation in ARLISS 2017-18 was unique among the other competitors. WCC is the only institution that supplies its own custom-built rocket to launch its payload. The other colleges use rockets provided by AeroPAC members.

In addition to this yearâs ARLISS endeavors, WCC test launched a second rocket that is being designed for the 2019 Student Launch Initiative (SLPâformerly USLI).

While at ARLISS, WCC students were tested and certified for various rocket level certifications.