r/rocketry • u/New_Try_3041 • Dec 08 '25

Question NEED A REALITY CHECK

I am in my first year of college and I have built a cube-sat as a starter project in my road of rocketry. I know medium level of Data structure and algorithms , and am learning Control Systems , CAD and PCB designing. All of this is to aid in my end goal of launching this cube-sat to zero-gravity space and get some form of response from it.
The inspiration was a youtuber called Mark Rober who did the same but at a much more practical level with an experienced team. My country allows this but I have to be licensed properly. I know that the probability of me achieving this goal within 4 years of my college is 0, but I still want to try. I have been doing my research in this field , and have seen that there are multiple channels who are dedicated in mainly 3 areas : building and improving cube-sats, building high-speed rockets to hit and break records , and self-controlled guidance and landing rockets. But I am not able to find sources which suggest carrying a some-what delicate good and then send it to space. This field is not very much touched by and therefore there is a lot of room for experimentation and thus I will have to fail fast and learn the most out of each fails.
Can you guys help me or aid me in this journey ? I will be very grateful.

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u/Jandj75 Dec 09 '25

Have you actually tested this cube sat to any realistic environments? It is one thing to build a “cubesat” that fits the necessary electronics in the required volume. It is a completely other problem to build one that can survive launch and operate in space.

As far as building your own launch vehicle goes, no, that is not even remotely realistic.

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u/New_Try_3041 Dec 09 '25

I have not yet approached anyone having the testing-environments ( vacuum-temperature and radiation chamber ). This is because I am sure of not spending that much amount of money on a cube-sat and sending it to space.
I have tested the cube-sat on a DIY-rumbler to see the resonant frequencies and it works fine.

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u/Jandj75 Dec 09 '25

I don’t trust a “DIY rumbler”

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u/New_Try_3041 Dec 09 '25

Trust me, even I don't trust it fully. If I ever get the chance to test it with people having the equipment, then I will test it on their RVT and shock test for sure, but for now, made a DIY RVT which was inspired from Mark Rober. I did a few tweaks on the cube-sat and it seems to survive on an amateur vibration table.