SimLE Science Club
Dec 22, 2021
Two last posts of mine were about aerospace activities that take place within the science club I’m part of. Let me tell you a little bit more about it.
I’m a student of Gdańsk University of Technology. In the beginning of my studies I have heard about a rocket team that is doing something that I have been really interested at the time. I have been recommended to join a science club, and after following SpaceX for years and building rocket.watch website this was the only way to go.
In the end I landed in the stratospheric balloon team called “Stardust”. This is where I spent the last 3 years working on the balloon platform and experiment we conducted with microbiologists from the university. I started from learning electronics, did some programming and in the end worked on system engineering aspects. In the end I was the main person responsible for the electronics for the BEXUS mission we did this year.
It was quite a journey and I have learned a lot while there!
In the meantime there are some other projects. Namely the SimBa team which is working on rockets. It is quite advanced team, with their own hybrid engine development. Did you know that solid rocket motors are considered explosives, and there is no clear path to buy and store them in Poland? This makes rocket development somewhat harder than what you might be used to in the USA for example. The team has also very strong relations with Polish Rocketry Society. It is the largest rocketry group in Poland, and it provides resources and legal structure to launch rockets in Poland. It is how we can get access to military sites and test our rockets before competitions.
Other projects within the club are:
Silverhand - the team of medical engineering are constructing a 3D arm prosthetics that is really cheap and highly customizable, with hopes to help people that cannot afford an expensive prosthetics.
Throughout the years there has always been a team working on sea-bound vehicles like an autonomous boat (Seafarer) and this year a port drone called Sea-sentinel.
The club has existed for almost 10 years now, and the projects are just the recent history of the club. The very first project was a flight simulator called “Skyhawk”, where students constructed a working replica of a cockpit of a plane with the same name - Cesna Skyhawk.
The latest development in the history of the club is also a personal one for me. I have become the president of the club, and have been trusted with coordinating the efforts within the club through the coming years. I hope to do a great job and not to diminish the legacy of this amazing organization.