Experience

Prior to the 2024-25 school year, SARP was making plans for a gyroscope payload to put in a competition rocket. A decision had to be made on whether to use a mechanical or fiber optic gyroscope. I was tasked with  doing research into the cost, difficulty, benefits, and value to the team of the fiber optic option.

For my research, I read several papers about the development and use cases of fiber optic gyroscopes as well as looking at what options were available from manufacturers. I found that a system like this would function in exactly the way we were looking for and provide incredibly accurate data, as well as being very feasible to implement with our team's experience level and time schedule. However, I ultimately decided against going with this option because I came to the conclusion that it would not be beneficial to the development of our skills. Ultimately the main goal of the organization is to give students valuable real world experience, and this system would not accomplish that. A fiber optic gyroscope would effectively act as a "black box," something that we would just attach to the rocket and let function on its own without needing to develop, test, or troubleshoot it. I decided that a mechanical gyroscope that our team built from scratch would provide us with more valuable engineering experience.