“Eligimus Dura” - We Choose the Hard Path
UCI Rocket Project Liquids Team
About the Project
The UCI Rocket Project Liquids Team is an extremely competitive aerospace engineering team of over 40 students at University of California Irvine, working on complex propulsion, aerodynamic, and ejection systems. These systems follow stages of professional modeling and simulation software, innovative manufacturing, fabrication solutions, and strict validation procedures.
As a team solely comprised of undergraduate students, we aim to break the collegiate methalox altitude record of 13,205 feet while reducing our cycle time from 6 years down to 2 years. We are currently working on our next rocket, MOCH4 (catchy acronym for the methane and oxygen propulsion system used), for our upcoming launch in Spring 2025.
To the right, you can find the official video of our first launch in April 2023 with detailed interviews and footage of our ground-breaking success.
Applications Engineer - My Work Thus Far
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My position as Applications Engineer consists of building partnerships with industry professionals and companies by attending industry-related events/conferences, working with our subteam leads to implement CADed rocket parts, and completing thorough research to locate needed materials for our project.
Since August, I have accumulated over $7500 of donated parts from companies for the team, including engine nozzles and rocket stringers. -
During Cold Flows, weekly tests of our rocket MOCH4’s propellant flow simulated with liquid nitrogen, my duty as Documentation Officer is to keep logs of crucial data such as tank pressure leakages and LN2 fill times.
To keep documentation organized, I created a template for official cold flow timelines for the project. Within these documents, important notices and timestamps are logged to keep track of team progress as we proceed to do more tests and procedures on our rocket leading up to launch.
Sample template of cold flow timeline:
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Throughout my fall quarter at UCI this year, I have made it a priority to help out with any other Operations-related tasks with my subteam leads. This includes:
Redesigning the Project CRM, which lists all company relationship standings within the project
Engine-nozzle integration with Propulsion team members
Assisted with project manufacturing timeline as well as a rocket component data spreadsheet to analyze the total mass of our rocket
Engine Nozzle Integration
In addition to my role as an Applications Engineer, I have been working closely with the Propulsion subteam to learn more about the components of our rocket and how each plays into one another. Below is a timelapse video of us using RTV to seal ablative material and a nozzle to our welded engine before our vertical test fire in December.