Ram Rocketry Active Fin Stabilization

Ram Rocketry is a collegiate model rocketry club consisting of 40+ members dedicated to hands-on learning through experimental rocketry. Our club focuses on helping members achieve high-power rocketry certifications and offers exciting opportunities to work with CSU's NASA Student Launch Challenge team Ram Launch Initiative. Our mission is to ignite student interest in rocketry and aerospace, fostering a culture of innovation and learning. We are a community of ambitious thinkers, driven to take on real engineering challenges with creativity and purpose. Our projects reflect the power of perseverance and what can be achieved when passionate individuals unite around a bold vision. Ram Rocketry is just getting started—and we’re already reaching higher.

  The Active Fin Stabilization Rocket is a demonstration of active control surfaces on a conventional rear static fin rocket. As a testament to the Ram Rocketry's ambition, this project was conceptualized and executed with the goal of proving that attitude correction and aeronautical actualization are within the scope of undergraduate studies. The Active Fin Stabilization (AFS) rocket was imagined, implemented, and designed by students of Ram Rocketry. It is a research project driven by passion. While the research was funded by outside entities, the project itself was imagined, designed, manufactured, tested and implemented by students with the sole purpose of interest and technical development.  

To complete this objective, the rocket is designed with multiple onboard sensors to gather data of the flight, a Teensy 4.1 computing device to translate data, and four servos to respond to incoming data and correct trajectory, as well as an onboard camera. This system consists of a GNSS module, IMU, altimeter, one Teensy 4.1, and four digital servos. A PCB would allow the team to pack the complexity of the onboard system into a smaller, cleaner, and more effective package. 

Key components of our PCB include:

1) Teensy 4.1 microcontroller

2) 3 Screw terminals for power distribution

3) 1 Screw terminal for camera

4) 2 Screw terminals for ejection charges

5) 3 sensors -> ZOE-M8Q (GNSS), BMP390 (altimeter), BNO08X (IMU)

6) 1 Piezo buzzer

7) Screw terminal for four digital servos

The team would significantly benefit from PCBWay’s support! As a student-led organization committed to designing and flying advanced rocket systems, we often face challenges in fabricating custom components reliably and within student budgets. Access to fast and high-quality PCB manufacturing would enable us to iterate more efficiently and involve more members in meaningful hands-on learning. This support would encourage us to elevate our technical depth across all our projects. Some of them include our Argonia Cup initiative, where the team is passionately building the club’s first-ever two-stage rocket, which relies on robust avionics systems. Additionally, our Glider Rocket Project uses a breakthrough recovery system technology, utilizing a fixed-wing rocket to glide down with active control surfaces, demanding precise control electronics. 

With PCBWay’s capabilities, we can accelerate our development pipeline, expand educational impact, and empower students to contribute to increasingly ambitious aerospace projects at Colorado State University.