Design and Test of Dual Deployment Recovery System for Collegiate High-Powered Liquid Rocketry

The Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) chapter at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is actively developing a reliable, reusable large-scale recovery system for liquid bi-propellant sounding rockets, targeting a safe descent rate of 90 ft/s under a drogue parachute and 15 ft/s under a main parachute. The recovery system comprises a single separation, dual deployment system utilizing FFF grain size black powder as a deployment method. Through demonstration of proper design around forces such as ejection forces, parachute line moments, and parachute inflation shock and proper testing of each component in pull tests, pop tests, and a solid demonstrator, risks associated with high power rocket recovery systems can be reduced to anomalies, enabling collegiate teams to launch with higher frequency and reliability. The objective of this paper is to detail the design and testing process of a robust recovery system specialized for single-separation, dual-deployment vehicles to reduce failures and increase confidence during collegiate team launches.