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National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration

DATE

NASA STEM

NASA Student Launch ARW 

Payloads

PRESENTED BY NASA Student Launch

DATE July 24, 2023
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The launch vehicle shall carry a science or engineering payload that 

is designed by the team and approved by NASA personnel.

SLI (Grades 6-12 Teams) can choose to undertake the USLI (College 

& University) payload mission or design an engineering or scientific 

payload of their own

Data from the science or engineering payload shall be collected and 

analyzed by the team following the scientific method and reported 

in the team’s PLAR.

Engineering: Clear goal for final product 

• What are we trying to do or produce?

Scientific: Clear hypothesis or experimental question

• What are we trying to find out? What do we think will 

happen?

SLI Payload Requirements

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Atmospheric Science

• Temperature, pressure, humidity, etc.

Biology 

• High G effects on slime molds, ladybugs, bamboo

• Bacteria in atmosphere

• Cricket respiratory effects

Engineering

• Solar panel efficiency

• Hard drive latency

• Fly wheel for roll stability

• VR 360° rocket launch video with data overlay

UAV/Rovers

• RC airplanes, steerable parafoils, etc.

• Deployable drones to detect landing-colored objects

Past SLI Payload Ideas

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Portland Rocketry Team 2022-2023

Used IMU data to understand the position of the rocket in 

all 3-axis along with velocity and acceleration. 

Incorporated a Kalman filter to cancel out shaking form 

the rocket itself and focus on data produced solely from 

the thrust of their launch vehicle. 

They created a modular design so the flaps could extend 

not at all, fully, or anywhere in-between based on the 

real-time data their Arduino uno would receive 

Airbrake Demonstration and System Trial Video

Past SLI Payload Example 

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Cedar Falls Rocketry Team 2021-2022

The RVFD (Reusable Virtual Flight Display) has two 

systems, a camera array to record

360° video footage and a circuit board that collects 

orientation, accelerometer, and altitude data.

The camera array consists of 3 GoPro Hero 10s that 

record in the ‘Super View’ setting.

The cameras are mounted inside of 3 aluminum rings 

milled on a CNC lathe. These rings are spaced apart 

using ABS spacers.

Cedar Falls Competition Flight

Past SLI Payload Example

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Design, build, and launch a planetary lander capable of landing in an upright 

configuration or autonomously up righting after landing. 

Self-level within a five-degree tolerance from vertical.

Take a 360-degree panoramic photo of the landing site and transmit the photo 

to the team. 

USLI Payload Challenge 2020-2021

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Design a payload capable of autonomously locating the 

launch vehicle upon landing by identifying the launch 

vehicle’s grid position on an aerial image of the launch site 

without the use of a global positioning system (GPS). 

University of North Carolina at Charlotte 

Autonomous Vehicle Imaging Localization (ANVIL)

USLI Payload Challenge 2021-2022

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Develop an on-board camera system capable of autonomously 

receiving a radio frequency command (RAFCO) and perform a series 

of tasks with the camera

USLI Payload Challenge 2022-2023 

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Questions? 
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