DPF stands for a Dollar Per Foot
UCF, Knight Experimental Rocketry, with 4,884-Feet on July 15, 2023
UCLA with 22,437-Feet on March 18, 2023
Purdue with 4,257-Feet on June 5, 2022
SDSU with 13,205-Feet on February 1, 2020
The Rules are as follows:
- Open to US and Canadian Universities and Colleges only
- No High-Schools
- All team members must be current students or has graduated in the school year of the launch
- Single-Stage Rockets Only
- No dropping tanks or other portions of the rocket
- Liquid Propellants Only
- No solids or hybrids
- Can be monopropellant
- No water or boiling water as a propellant
- Starting January 1, 2024; all DPF contestants must use a bipropellant rocket utilizing liquid oxygen as an oxidizer.
- Must use Two-Stage Recovery
- Deploys drogue-parachute at apogee
- Deploys main-parachute below 1000-feet
- Deploying the main parachute at apogee will disqualify the team
- Recovers Successfully
- Returns on main parachute
- Returns with nosecone and drogue parachute tethered to rocket
- Sustains only minor damage
- Fin broken off on landing
- Rocket engine nozzle damaged on landing
- No structural damage
- The rest of the rocket must be in flyable condition
- It is highly recommended that GPS/Telemetry be added to your rocket to enable easy location of your rocket when it lands.
- If you can't find your rocket, you will not be given the DPF money.
- Rocket must be rail launched
- No active control systems
- No movable fins
- No canards
- No TVC
- Launches must be performed at FAR Site
- Launches must be attempted on a normal FAR launch Saturday
- Some exceptions can be made due to bad weather or high attendance on FAR Saturdays
- Altitude must be determined by two commercially available recovery electronics
- The altitude must be determined by the lowest altitude measured of the two
- The rocket or rocket engine have not received the DPF award before
- Must meet FAR/Mars safety requirements
- See FAR-Mars Safety Form
- Safety form must be presented before rocket is placed on the launch rail
- To compete, the team must agree to provide FAR with a complete set of the rocket design plans so that they may be shared with other student groups-our mission is rocket education! If another student group successfully builds and launches this design, they will receive the one-dollar-per-foot prize AND the original design team will also receive the same one-dollar-per-foot amount!
- Launches requiring a new FAA COA
- A predicted altitude over 120,000-feet
- Rocket total impulse over 18,416 lb-sec (81,918 N-s)
- Launch team is responsible to acquire a new FAA COA
- COA must be coordinated with FAR
- Copy of COA must be sent to FAR two-weeks before launch
- Registration
- Register through FAR Competition Registration webpage
- Register two-weeks before launch
- This registration does not substitute for a launch request
- File a Launch Request two-weeks before launch
- Currently there is no end-date for this contest
- Register through FAR Competition Registration webpage
Award:
- $1 per foot of altitude above the end of the launch rail
- Payable to the launch team's school account