Safety

This page is archived; the Safety team no longer exists. You're welcome to take the quiz though!

Introduction:

Welcome to the safety team! Since the safety team doesn’t construct any part of the rocket as part of its duties, the intro project is mostly about understanding some core safety concepts and resources. The project is formatted as a quiz: you should read each question, do any relevant research into safety documents, legal regulations and wording, and hazard analyses, and write down an answer to the question. Being exactly correct is not important; the point of answering the questions is to determine how to answer these questions by researching safety information, and to be able to provide analysis of safety-related operations that our club personnel, and hopefully you as well, will be performing throughout the year.

Resources:

• @Grant Posner will hold STAR office hours to answer any questions you have about the project itself, or about safety-related information.

• National Association of Rocketry High Power Rocket Safety Code [NAR HPR SC]

• California State Regulations

• Some examples of Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS):

  • West System 105 Epoxy Resin

  • Ammonium Perchlorate

Project:

Write down answers to the following tasks and questions, and send them to the safety subteam lead for review. Remember, it’s not pass/fail -- the purpose is to think about safety hazards in a useful way.

1. Examine at least the two example MSDS provided, and answer the following for each:

   1. How should the material be stored?

   2. What hazards are associated with its storage?

   3. How can we mitigate the material’s storage hazards?

   4. What hazards are associated with use?

   5. How can we mitigate the material’s use hazards?

2. Look at the NAR High Power Rocket Safety Code:

   1. What is the minimum amount of time before approaching a rocket after a misfire?

   2. Why would we want to wait before approaching the rocket after a misfire?

   3. Suppose we’re constructing a rocket with an L motor. How far should personnel be from the pad during launch?

3. Look at the California Code of Regulations. Which division of the code most applies to the safety team?

   1. Find the laws regarding fireworks in CA. Do high powered rockets count as fireworks? Why/why not?

   2. Find the laws regarding experimental high powered rockets in CA. Does this apply to us? What limits are there regarding motor impulse?

4. What is the purpose of, and when should we use, each component of PPE/safety equipment that we have?

   1. Safety glasses

   2. Closed-toe shoes

   3. Latex gloves

   4. Welding gloves

   5. Face shields

   6. Flammables cabinet

   7. Wall mounts with chains/straps (hint: GN2 cylinders)

5. What hazards are associated with constructing a rocket? Think about what each subteam works on, and what specific risks each subteam’s personnel may face (and feel free to talk to me or to any of the other subteam leads about what all the subteams work on!):

   1. Airframe

   2. Electrical

   3. Payload

   4. Propulsion

   5. Recovery

6. What hazards are associated with launching a rocket? You can use the NAR HPR SC for insight.

7. What does a Risk Assessment Code describe?

8. [For returning members] Describe a safe aspect of the design of last year’s SL rocket, and an unsafe aspect of the design. How could we have mitigated the unsafe design aspect?

9. Examine last year’s propulsion design and load procedures. Describe a couple failure modes of the system, along with a way to mitigate each. Please ask me or the propulsion leads if you have any questions about the propulsion design!