One of the first hurdles we came across was that of the safety key. We needed something that required some positive action (a constant force acting on it) by the controller, to reduce the chance of inadvertently firing the rocket. We solved this by using a switch consisting of a button that must be held down to allow current flow, deeply recessed in a hole, and a "key" attached to the wrist of the controller.

Later on, as we were soldering the connections, we realized that we did not have a good connection between the wires and the bolts that connected the inside and outside. To solve this, we tried directly soldering the wires to the bolts. For whatever reason, this did not work, and the solder wouldn't stick to the bolts. Our best guess on why was that the bolt was losing heat to the air too quickly for the solder to connect to it.

After failing to solder the bolts, we had to come up with a new solution. We eventually hit upon using a flat piece of metal bent into a U shape and held in place by the bolts to carry the current through the holes.

After we had a testable design, we tried to melt a thin piece of metal in place of an igniter to test the functionality of what we had. The wire got red hot and started to bend, but took several minutes to do so. We were concerned that the design was flawed in some way, but someone suggested that we may just not have enough current. To test this, we wired up a second battery in parallel to the first, and voila! The wire drooped within seconds.