A requirement of the design is an onboard data collection package that will

record the coefficient of drag over time. The coefficient of drag is calculated through
the equation:

C d=

2 m( ag)
V 2 A

Where Cd is the coefficient of drag, m is mass, a is the acceleration of the rocket, g

is the acceleration due to gravity on earth, is the density of air, V is the speed of
the rocket and A is the frontal area of the rocket.
In order to calculate the coefficient throughout the flight an Arduino
Mega2560 is used in combination with an Adafruit High-G accelerometer and an
eeprom storage chip. Throughout the flight the accelerometer sends acceleration
data to the Arduino, which uses the values to estimate velocity, and then calculates
the coefficient of drag. The Arduino then sends the values to the eeprom chip to be
stored for the rest of the flight. After the flight the Arduino is connected to a
computer and the data is downloaded and processed.

Figure 1 Data Logging Electronics Schematic