2025-2026
Jackpot
NASA Student Launch · Senior design and competition archive
Vehicle and season
The 2026 payload challenge required the collection and analysis of a substantial amount of soil for its soil properties. Our payload, ZOMBIE + GRAVE, accomplished this by ejecting from the nosecone upon landing, standing itself up with its legs, and drilling into the ground with an auger to collect soil.
Pictured in the bottom middle is the improved version of the club’s modern airbrakes system, optimized to increase surface area and reduce friction, capable of taking off ~1200 ft of apogee.
Pictured in the bottom right is the 2025-2026 subscale rocket, Government Work. It was the first club rocket to feature a FIRM responsible for a major subsystem.
Mission system: ZOMBIE + GrAVE
Challenge: The payload has to survive the launch, deploy autonomously after the rocket lands, and extract a substantial volume of soil from the ground. Teams were tasked with proving their mechanism could penetrate the terrain, secure the physical sample inside a containment unit, and record data during the extraction process without human intervention.
Design/Execution: The payload system consisted of two integrated mechanisms: ZOMBIE, a self-righting lander, and GrAVE, the deployment system used to eject it from the nosecone. The launch vehicle was named Jackpot. GrAVE used a set of internal rails, an electronic latch, and a lead-screw pusher plate to eject ZOMBIE from the nosecone after landing. At its top, ZOMBIE contained a compartment housing four STEMnaut figures. Once deployed and on the ground on its side, ZOMBIE unfolded four legs hinged to its base. These legs were attached with struts to a collar that extended via a second lead screw, rotating the payload housing into a vertical, upright orientation. Once stabilized, ZOMBIE deployed an extending auger that simultaneously rotated and advanced into the soil, drilling effectively into compacted launch field terrain. As the auger reached full extension, it continued to spin, directing soil through fixed internal elements into a collection chamber. A 7-in-1 soil sensor positioned within the chamber collected pH, electrical conductivity, and nitrate-nitrogen readings from the funneled sample. All measurements were timestamped and stored on an internal SD card.