ERFSEDS: Project Phantom

Project Prometheus Process Improvement Sub-Team

Project Phantom - General Member Aug. '22 - Aug. '23; Team Lead Aug. '23 - May '24.

ABOUT

Project Phantom is the experimental sub-team within Project Prometheus where we trim through the mixing and testing SOPs with a fine-toothed comb and evaluate where improvements can be made. 

2022-2023

Before becoming the team lead, I served as a general member where we worked to develop a shaker table for the purpose of minimizing the risk of air pockets forming during the packing and curing process of propellant grains. A large amount of time was dedicating to testing the shaker table to determine a safe duty cycle and cooldown period to be implemented into the mixing SOP such that the concrete shaker used to operate the table was kept under a safe temperature. 

Project Phantom conducted two mixes where the shaker table was utilized: the densities of each grain were measured after trimming and the thrust curve was compared to other Prometheus hot fire data.

2023-2024 

During the Fall semester, Project Phantom successfully hot fired PHANTOM-02 on 10/03/2023 in the AMS Test Cell producing a max thrust of ~130lbf and a burn time of ~2.5 seconds. In preparation for this test, Phantom dedicated its time to reviewing the testing SOP and ensuring all members involved in the test were properly trained and informed as test day approached. 

With the static fire complete, the next goal was to research a pourable propellant formula from other institutions that have been proven to work. The reasoning behind this is to move to a more documented propellant formulation to reduce the turnaround time while communicating with EHS. Additionally, a pourable propellant will allow for us to inhibit the ends of the grains: with the current packing method, there is a risk of the ends of each grain burning instead of just the core burning radially outward. 

To finish the Spring 2024 semester, the team has relucted to test a three grain 54mm motor with an offset core to induce a "moon burn" in the AMS test cell on campus. The goal behind this is to compare thrust data to a traditional BATES grain motor of the same size, and to evaluate a common stress point on the motor casing: for every motor tested, there exists a hold burned through the casing located between grains two and three. If there still exists a burn hole in the same location, more evaluation will be done to understand this issue. Going forward, the team will conduct grain geometry experiments, where a pourable formulation will be necessary for more complex cores.