After a previous failed launch, members of the UC Irvine Rocket Project solids team harbored doubts as they arrived at the Mojave Desert testing site 13 months ago. Their new competition rocket had been built with the mishaps of the year before in mind. Learning from the motor mount shearing off and the igniter issues they had faced, the students hoped to present a more efficient and successful projectile.
As the rocket fired into the air, they watched the contrails left in its wake as it climbed higher and higher – and then team members erupted into triumphant cheers. Their winter-quarter 2024 design was a contender.
“It was the realization [that] this is what hard work and dedication bring. In engineering, things are going to fail. What matters is not how you fail but how you build up from it, using failure to build a more successful rocket,” says senior Bryan Vu, solids team manager.
The UC Irvine Rocket Project is part of The Henry Samueli School of Engineering’s mechanical and aerospace engineering program, allowing students to gain practical experience via innovative endeavors. Members enroll in a two-unit course and learn to apply their academic coursework in a hands-on environment where they can expand upon their rocketry knowledge and are given opportunities to interact with experts and industry professionals.
Comprising two individual teams, the UC Irvine Rocket Project involves researching, designing and fabricating either a solid propellant rocket or a liquid bipropellant rocket. The solid propellant team is the newest addition to the Rocket Project, fully emerging in 2022.
“Our main goal,” says Vu, an aerospace engineering major, “is to build a rocket from the ground up. Currently, we start a new design every year, and by the end of the academic [year], we have a brand-new rocket to launch specifically for competition.”
This year’s International Rocket Engineering Competition will take place in Midland, Texas, in June, giving the solids students a few months to finalize a rocket capable of reaching an apogee of at least 10,000 feet. Their entry will also participate in the competition’s Space Dynamics Laboratory Payload Challenge, launching and recovering a scientific payload – a four-unit CubeSat carrying a robotic arm, simulating a larger one that could be used in space.
Each UC Irvine Rocket Project team spends the academic year producing a worthy contestant – from designing and prototyping in fall to manufacturing parts during winter and finally test-launching fully integrated rockets by spring.
“This year is unique,” says Mark Walter, a professor of teaching in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and faculty advisor for the solids team, “because [the students] decided that they’re going to try to build their own motor. It’s very challenging, and not many teams go in that direction. It’s much easier to buy something off the shelf, but they want to do something different.”
The group is creating a sugar motor, made from sorbitol and potassium nitrate, which will replace the traditional ammonium perchlorate composite fuel typically used in solid propellant systems. However, in producing their own propulsion system, students must also account for the changes in weight – a crucial component of any aircraft. To address this key element of their rocket, solids team members are fabricating and post-processing pure fiberglass and carbon fiber parts to reduce weight. A “boat tail” will be incorporated at the bottom of the rocket to reduce drag and achieve a higher apogee for a given engine thrust value.
While primarily driven by career aspirations, students with the UC Irvine Rocket Project also aim to develop interpersonal skills with one another, Vu says, forging community through their team endeavors.
“Some people participate in engineering extracurriculars for a resume boost. However, everyone on the Rocket Project is here because of their love for rocketry,” the solids team project manager says. “Everyone is extremely passionate, which has allowed us to progress quickly but also to connect with each other and grow personally.”
As they prepare for the next stages of this year’s rocket, team members are eager to turn their 3D computer-aided design models into tangible parts and, eventually, finished products that are test-launched midwinter into spring quarter. The hope is that, like last winter, the test launches will prove successful.
“We can build a solid foundation for future teams to learn more and build bigger, better, more efficient and more successful rockets,” Vu says. “We want to take advantage of the inestimable knowledge we’re gaining as much as we can to build a legacy. The possibilities are endless.”
