Hoo-Rizon 1: Subscale Sounding Rocket; Painted in a Different Light: How Military Contractors Use Civilian Applications to Garner Support

The capstone project aimed to design, build, and fly a single-stage, subscale sounding rocket with the goals of reaching a target altitude of 3,000 feet, recovering the rocket, and acquiring atmospheric data. Throughout the year, design reviews were conducted to demonstrate progress to advisors. Design requirements were based on the Tripoli Rocketry Association’s guidelines and the team’s objectives. The rocket launched on April 5th; however, an electronics issue with parachute deployment resulted in no recoverable data. Despite this setback, valuable insights were gained in problem-solving, structural analysis, and control systems, laying the groundwork for future sounding rocket projects. The research paper explores the intricate relationship between military technologies and their civilian applications, highlighting the instances in which these technologies successfully transitioned into civilian use, as well as cases where they have not. It evaluates whether funding obtained under the pretense of benefiting civilian society truly fulfills that promise after initially serving military purposes. The study delves into the use and ethics of common appliances with military origins, as well as emerging dual-use technologies, such as Spot from Boston Dynamics and the Vision 60 Q-UGV from Ghost Robotics, examining their functionalities and the implications of their origins. The paper posits that the promotion of military technologies integrating into civilian sectors serves as a strategic means to garner public support for defense budgets. A sociotechnical systems framework is employed to analyze how societal perceptions of a technology can influence its development and how new technologies can impact society. Ultimately, this paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse surrounding the advancement of military technologies and their ethical considerations, which vary based on the technology’s utility in different markets.