Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering
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| Acronym | DARE |
|---|---|
| Headquarters |
Delft, Netherlands  51°59′58.5″N 4°22′35″E / 51.999583°N 4.37639°ECoordinates: 51°59′58.5″N 4°22′35″E / 51.999583°N 4.37639°E |
| Website | dare |
| Official Language | English and Dutch (English in communications and documentation. Official legal documents in Dutch.) |
| Members | 136 |
| Organisation | Student Association |
| Established | 2001 |
| Current Projects | SRP, Cansat and Stratos III |
Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering is a student-run society within Delft University of Technology, with over 100 members. The main focus of the student group is the development of rocket technology on a non-profit basis. All development, from engines to electronics, is done in-house. Although several projects take place in DARE, the group's flagship is the Stratos project. This project included the Stratos I rocket which was launched in 2009 and set the European altitude record for amateur rocketry at 12.5 km. The follow-up of this rocket is the Stratos II+, which was launched on 16 October 2015, reaching an altitude of 21.5 km and breaking the European altitude record. Even though DARE cooperates with the military to safely conduct launch campaigns, DARE's technology is strictly non-military. Approximately 70 percent of members come from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of Delft University of Technology, with the remaining 30% coming from other faculties, such as Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics and Industrial Design. DARE also features a very high number of international students, with about half of the students coming from outside the Netherlands.
DARE was founded in 2001 by six students as a committee of the study association VSV Leonardo da Vinci of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. The number of members has increased to about 130 members in 2014. DARE is one of the university's Dreamteams, to which also Nuna, Forze and DUT Racing count. Over the years DARE has developed expertise in all three major rocket propulsion technologies (solid, liquid, and hybrid), with multiple conference papers published each year. 2009 marked DARE's Stratos I launch, which set the altitude record of 12.5 km for student rockets. Stratos II is due to launch in October 2015, and aims for an altitude of 50 km, breaking the record previously set by DARE.
DARE typically conducts two to four launch days each year for small scale rockets that go up to a maximum of two kilometers altitude. These launches take place on a military site near 't Harde in the North of the Netherlands. To go to higher altitudes, DARE occasionally participates in launch campaigns elsewhere in Europe.
The work of DARE takes place at two locations at the TU Delft campus. The first is a manufacturing-orientated workshop (called LaikaLab) in TU Delft's Dreamhall. Here the major parts of rocket production takes place. The second workshop is an office space for meetings, theoretical design, and electronics development. This facility (called KorolevLab) is located in the EWI faculty of the university and run in cooperation with TU Delft's Robotics Institute.
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