Is this FAQ a good place for writing technical design decisions?

Heck no! There are other places to do that.

What's the point of DAVE?

Payloads such as the muon detector benefit from extended time in the air. Other potential payloads may benefit from a more gentle descent, or placement in a specific location. Additionally, DAVE-specific payloads may be interesting, such as aerial mapping, rocket-spotting, etc.

Why not just like, build an RC plane?

Getting a conventional UAS to this altitude can actually be quite difficult at this scale. While it is certainly doable, there may be applications for this sort of vehicle in a situation where rapid response and having a presence at these altitudes is important. The autonomous functionality is critical in these scenarios. For example, while fighting a fire, being able to quickly get a picture from the sky may be useful for firefighters on the ground.

I have a cool idea for a payload that should go on DAVE. What should I do?

Write it down on the Trello card and message in #payload-dave! Even if we are actively focusing on IREC payloads, we can always be writing down good and interesting ideas.

Purpose

DAVE is the payload subteam's primary research project intended to be flown on a 6 inch diameter rocket. DAVE is planned to consist of a semi-autonomous, passively stable glider, a mechanism to deploy the glider from the rocket, and associated test platforms.

Deployment

DAVE deploys just after apogee, or the apex of the rocket's flight. In doing so, it uses its ejection mechanism to leave the payload bay in the launch vehicle's interior and pursue its own free-fall path to the ground. Doing so allows DAVE and its cargo to undertake a longer, more controlled flight separate from the parachute and the rocket fuselage.

Aerostructures

Due to DAVE's full flight structure needing to be contained within a 6" diameter tube, the glider must be collapsable. In particular, both its primary wings (of Rogollo type) and its elevators must be collapsable in some fashion.

Additionally, the manipulation of our weight, lift, and drag force vectors are essential to DAVE having a controllable flight. DAVE currently has no mode for producing thrust, but a thrust-producing cargo may be pursued in the future. Calculations to determine the correct geometries (including wing sizing and placement) are located on the DAVE Trello board under Aerostructures.

Vehicular Control

As we would like to be able to control DAVE's flight from the ground, we will need on-board avionics. These avionics will control two types of control surfaces on DAVE: elevators and rudders. The elevators give DAVE control in the roll and pitch directions, while the rudders give the glider yaw control. Both of these will be located at the rear end of the vehicle - the Rogollo wings will be fixed and uncontrolled.

Experimental Cargo

The grand purpose of DAVE is to carry onboard experiments that benefit from its unique deployment and flight pattern. Although the current designs for cargo carrying are not set, a goal is to have a modular interface, so any cargo concept that matches can go aboard.

Initial tasks assigned as follows:

Created Trello board (must log in, message in #payload-dave for access):