Maverick Engineering Social Media

The Rocketry Team – Taking it to the Limits

[Pictured above (left to right): Josh McGuire, Shawn Edwards, Jason Brown]

Most engineering sophomores take a break from their studies by partying, taking in a movie or doing anything not related to their courses. So you wouldn’t expect a group of mechanical and aerospace engineering students to be doing anything that required utilizing technical skills. But you would be wrong.

Amit Alex, Jason Brown, Shawn Edwards, Jose Guzman, Thomas McCall, Josh McGuire, Sobhan Rahimi and Matthew Waller make up an informal group of rocketry enthusiasts. They design and build their own rockets – some almost six feet tall - from scratch, using only one pre-manufactured part – the motor. And their finished products aren’t plain cardboard tubes with taped-on fins; they’re sophisticated systems, hand-crafted with carbon fiber bodies, machined nosecones and designed fins, and sometimes outfitted with telemetry equipment.

Dr. Bernd Chudoba is the team’s advisor, and he’s impressed with the team’s initiative. “The rocket team has been a group of truly dedicated undergraduate students,” he said. “Although no formal aerospace society has been provided at this time, these students excelled at accomplishing the design and construction of their flight hardware. The team has vividly demonstrated the power of enthusiasm, resulting in a display of work ethics best characterized by being on time, on budget, and on target.”

The team recently participated in a “Battle of the Rockets” sponsored by Praxis, a large engineering and management services company, and Rockets magazine. There were two challenges at the event. In one, contestants had to shoot a Mars Lander to a height of 1200 feet, separate the Lander from the launch vehicle, and have both parachute safely to the ground. In the other, the goal was to achieve the highest altitude.

The team succeeded in one challenge, but failed in the other.

“We came close in the Mars Lander competition,” said team spokesman Jason Brown. “On our first attempt, our rocket reached 1,330 feet, close to the target height, but both chutes failed. Josh, Shawn and I [the three team members who went to the event in Virginia] worked overnight to fix the problem and were ready for another launch the next day. This time both chutes worked, but the Lander bounced and ended up on its side.”

The team really excelled in the highest altitude challenge. “Our rocket reached 6,201 feet,” recounted Jason. “The second and third places went to teams whose rockets reached only 2,400 and 1,700 feet. Another team’s rocket exploded after only a couple of hundred feet.”

The team believed some of their success came from their choice of rocket motors. “It was a matter of impulse,” said Jason. “The amount of thrust times the length of burn. Most teams chose a more powerful motor that had a short burn time; we chose a motor that had less thrust, but burned for a longer period of time.”

The only problem the team encountered with their rocket’s high altitude was that the descent took longer, allowing the spent rocket to drift with the wind, eventually ending up about a mile away in a 50-foot-tall tree. “We developed new skills in tracking, climbing and sawing to retrieve it,” Jason said with a smile.

The team’s efforts resulted in taking first and second place prizes in the Battle of the Rockets.

What’s in the future for the team? “We’ll be searching for new team members and also for sponsors,” said Jason. “If we are able to get enough money before the next competition starts up next year, we will start designing our own motors. And next year we want to compete in the same competition and also a second competition that’s sponsored by NASA.”