#PATHTOSPACE

Pursuit

BURPG’s biggest project to date, Pursuit aims to redefine the current boundaries of university liquid rockets and solidify BURPG as the leading university for liquid bi-propellant rockets.

Learn more

Pursuit

Building a record-breaking liquid bi-propellant launch vehicle is no easy task. Lightweight structural systems, complex propulsion and feed components, industry-level avionics and controls architectures, and a sophisticated engine design are all necessary factors. Pursuit is a high-altitude test platform for BURPG’s future space shot rocket and will redefine BURPG’s #PathToSpace.

Named after BURPG’s relentless pursuit towards space, Pursuit is a design derivative off of the now-retired Starscraper platform. Pursuit shares hardware components and a propulsion system with its ancestor but with significant improvements in the design and overall performance of the vehicle while keeping cost down. Pursuit is expected to launch to over 50 km in altitude, not only making Pursuit BURPG’s highest flying rocket but also the most complex. Every second of experience gained as well as every data point are directly feeding into BURPG’s next space shot attempt.

Project Updates

Regeneratively Cooled Propulsion

Pursuit will be propelled to over 50 km in altitude by BURPG’s Lotus Dev 2 engine. Originally designed to fly on Starscraper, LD2 uses isopropyl alcohol and nitrous oxide to produce a record-breaking 2,500 lbf of thrust. With a copper regenerative cooling jacket and triplet injector, LD2 is optimized for flight and ready to perform.

Check Out LD2

Common Dome Architecture

Pursuit features an all-new tank architecture to minimize mass as much as possible. By combining two of the tank’s bulkheads into one, Pursuit is capable of holding the high pressure isopropyl alcohol fuel and nitrous oxide oxidizer in the lightest way possible. What’s typically a method only employed on orbital class vehicles, Pursuit will extract as much performance as possible.

Gas Generator and Heat Exchanger System

To counteract the performance disadvantages of a pressurant blowdown system, Pursuit features a gas generator and heat exchanger system to heat our cryogenic nitrogen to 200°F which decreases pressurant density and increases vehicle performance.

Actively Controlled Fins

A method of controlling a rocket that was first explored on the ASTRo launch vehicle, Pursuit will incorporate actively controlled fins in order to correct the vehicle’s trajectory on its most upward path. Due to liquid vehicles’ low thrust-to-weight ratio and their tendency to have an aggressive gravity turn, Pursuit will be able to actively control pitch, yaw, and roll to correct this.

Check Out ASTRo

Help Make Pursuit A Reality

Sponsor the Team