Jun 16, 2015 | By Simon
With more efforts than ever to explore beyond our outer atmospheres, it’s no surprise that everybody from billionaires to college students have been looking at ways of making space exploration easier and cheaper than ever before.
Of course, while billionaires including Elon Musk of SpaceX and Richard Branson of Virgin are capable of spending millions of dollars on multiple design and engineering iterations, the same can’t be said for most universities that are busy training our next generation of intergalactic explorers. Enter 3D printing.
More recently, a group of UC San Diego students from the UC San Diego chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space have been spending their time developing a 3D printed rocket engine, which they have been actively testing in the nearby Mojave Desert.
While the ability to 3D print a rocket engine is one thing, the students have much loftier goals when they launch it at the upcoming Intercollegiate Engineering Rocket Competition - a competition hosted by the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association from June 25 to 27 in Green River, Utah - they want to set a new world record. Currently, the world record for the longest 3D printed rocket flight is held by the Bagaveev Corporation, who generously donated their $2,600 winnings to the SEDS crowdfunding campaign.
“We’re going to break the world record for the longest flight of a 3D printed rocket engine,” said Darren Charrier, a first-year engineering student at the school and business manager for SEDS. “We’re aiming for our rocket to fly 10,000 feet in the air. We all watched the first record being set a few weekends ago – the first 3D-printed rocket engine went 60 feet in the air.”
Although the 3D printed engine, which is roughly 10 inches long and weighs about 10 lbs, was engineered by the UC San Diego students, it was printed through a sponsorship by GPI Prototypes, a 3D printing service provider located in Chicago. The final design is engineered to generate 750 lbs of thrust and is made out of high-grade alloy.
Previously, the UC San Diego students have found success with their other rocket designs including a recent appearance at Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR), where the school became the first university to successfully design, print and test a 3D-printed rocket engine in 2013.
“The last stretch of the drive to FAR is the longest,” added Charrier. “The drive takes five hours, and even longer for those towing the test stand! The fact that so many students were willing to make the trip this close to finals week really shows how passionate they are.”
If the enthusiasm and success of their test launches are any indication, then the team has a lot to look forward to when they attempt their world record later this month.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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