UCLA Rocket Project: A Legacy of Innovation and Achievement in Rocketry

Introduction

The Rocket Project at UCLA is more than just a student engineering team, it's a launchpad for future aerospace leaders and a testament to the power of hands-on learning. For over a decade, the project has provided students with invaluable experience in the complete design-build-test cycle of rocketry, pushing the boundaries of collegiate rocketry and achieving remarkable milestones. From humble beginnings with solid propellant rockets to record-breaking liquid bi-propellant rockets, the Rocket Project exemplifies innovation, dedication, and a passion for reaching for the stars.

A Foundation of Hands-On Learning

Rocket Project at UCLA cultivates experienced rocket engineers through hands-on exposure to the complete design-build-test cycle, giving students an opportunity to apply classroom subjects to a project with real-world challenges and thrilling results. The club focuses on giving its members the proper resources and understanding to participate, and knowledge transfer is very important to this club. It’s done in a way where it does not matter what your major is.

From Solid to Liquid: A Trajectory of Growth

Initially, student rocket groups focused on building solid propellant rockets, which rely on a pre-mixed solid fuel and oxidizer, and are the simplest and easiest to build and launch. In the past, the Rocket Project at UCLA has entered solid and hybrid rockets in the annual Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC), held each June in New Mexico.

However, recognizing the limitations of solid fuel, the Rocket Project expanded its scope to encompass liquid-fueled rockets. Liquid-fueled rockets are the predominant type used by industry for space launch due to their high performance, but are typically not done by student groups. A fully liquid rocket uses both a liquid fuel and a liquid oxidizer, both of which must be fed in sync to the rocket’s engine, mixed with a precisely designed injector, and ignited at an appropriate mixture ratio for a perfect fire and launch.

This transition marked a significant step forward, aligning the project with industry standards and providing students with experience relevant to major aerospace endeavors. It also requires countless hours in the lab. One tool our team relies on heavily is Grafana. With our dashboards, we can quickly visualize data and monitor potential hardware issues during critical phases of testing and launch.

Project Ares: Reaching for Record Heights

Project Ares, the club’s flagship liquid bi-propellant rocket team, exemplifies the Rocket Project's commitment to pushing boundaries. The goal of the project is to cultivate experienced rocket engineers through the design, build, and test of a liquid bi-propellant rocket.

On March 18, one Project Ares team broke the collegiate world record for highest liquid rocket altitude and also won the Dollar Per Foot Challenge, a competition hosted by the Friends of Amateur Rocketry. The organization rewards teams with a dollar for every foot of altitude, for the purposes of rocketry education. Ares won $24,000 from last year’s competition, which allowed them to design new industry standard regenerative engines that can be launched multiple times.

This achievement was the culmination of years of hard work, innovation, and overcoming challenges. The bright flame and roar of the rocket, Phoenix, as it goes supersonic are a sight and sound to behold.

Prometheus: Nurturing Future Engineers

While Project Ares represents the pinnacle of achievement, the Rocket Project also focuses on nurturing the next generation of rocket engineers through programs like Prometheus, the project’s rookie team. The Prometheus's hybrid propulsion rocket from this year is pictured.

Anjali Koganti, a seasoned Rocket Project member, took on the role of instructor for the undergraduate Engineering 96 course: Rocketry Introduction for Student Education. Having honed her skills building rockets from concept to launch, Koganti’s time at UCLA Samueli has solidified her love for engineering and allowed her to foster new passions, such as coding. The positive experience deepened Koganti’s resolve to pursue a career in the aerospace industry.

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The Power of Software in Rocketry

Software plays a crucial role in modern rocketry, enabling data collection, visualization, and control.

Ground software is essential for telemetry, providing real-time updates on tank pressures and system state to facilitate smooth launches, and providing metrics like thrust that we can use to analyze engine performance after engine tests. It also allows for control, so engineers can quickly change stages of the tank-filling procedure remotely to achieve our target tank pressure.

Flight software ensures observability over the success metrics of the rocket after launch. Just like how any good product needs to see if it’s hitting its KPIs, we need to know how high our rocket goes, among many other measurements (e.g. IMU data).

The software team writes code for microcontrollers to read values from sensors (load cells, pressure transducers) across our launch system (pneumatics, tanks, fill table) and transmits them via wifi to a laptop which acts as a MQTT* broker. In other words, we “publish” data to our MQTT broker, and other programs could “subscribe” to receive this data.

Grafana: Visualizing Success

One tool Project Ares relies on heavily is Grafana. With their dashboards, they can quickly visualize data and monitor potential hardware issues during critical phases of testing and launch.

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The team uses Grafana to observe the pressure and temperature of liquid oxygen and fuel tanks and to make sure that our valves are properly actuating. Having a timeline in Grafana that displays when the relays actuate also allows us to make sure we are properly cycling through the correct order of switches. Additionally, the quick visualization of data helps us calibrate our sensors to properly convert the raw voltages into useful metrics.

Overcoming Challenges and Embracing Innovation

The path to success in rocketry is rarely smooth. The Rocket Project has faced its share of challenges, from failed launches to technical setbacks. For example, Rocket Project at UCLA spent hours across months building a fuel tank. “That was a kick in the stomach because that was objectively the worst thing to happen to the club in a while,” Sheth said. “We bounced back from it, but that was very close to just calling the year and letting the rocket not get built at all.

However, these challenges have only strengthened the team's resolve and fostered a culture of innovation. Every single year we try to innovate and do something different than the year before that and try to reach a higher apogee, according to Sheth.

A Launchpad for Future Aerospace Leaders

The Rocket Project at UCLA has become more innovative, and the technical competency of the club has also increased. Students are more ambitious than the year prior, and their data collection and rocket parachute deployment system have both improved.

The skills and experience gained through the Rocket Project have propelled many alumni into successful careers in the aerospace industry. For example, Anjali Koganti applied for the Brooke Owens Fellowship and was selected as one of 47 fellows. As an intern at The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California, Koganti is developing a modeling and simulation software and hardware system for satellites.

Beyond the Rockets: Community and Inspiration

Beyond the technical achievements, the Rocket Project fosters a strong sense of community and inspires a passion for STEM. Fee also said that the true core of the Rocket Project is its members’ dedication to their goals. “I’ve never met a group of people that is more hard working and genuinely passionate about rockets than the people in this club,” Fee said. “They don’t do it for the resume, they don’t do it for the internship - they do it because they’re genuinely interested in it.”

Rockets, in general, inspire people to pursue STEM and there’s this excitement about the spectacle of seeing a rocket go off.

Looking to the Future

Looking ahead, the Rocket Project aims to continue pushing the boundaries of collegiate rocketry, developing new technologies, and inspiring the next generation of aerospace leaders.

Other Achievements at UCLA

Aside from Rocket Project, UCLA has many other achievements, such as:

In March of 2005, researchers have for the first time been able to capture and digitize electrical signals at the rate of one trillion times per second
In April of 2005, researchers discovered and isolated a natural molecule that can be used to heal fractures and generate new bone growth in patients who lack it, the most significant advancement in bone regeneration since the 1960’s.
In October of 2005, researchers led by professor Yang Yang hope to meet the growing demand with a new and more affordable way to harness the sun’s rays: using solar cell panels made out of everyday plastics.
In February of 2006, Children with congenital heart defects may soon have an alternative to invasive open heart surgery that will mean less time in the hospital, a quicker recovery and no need to break open the breastbone.
In March of 2006, UCLA, along with the UCB, UCSB and Stanford have teamed up to launch what will be one of the world’s largest joint research programs focusing on the pioneering technology of “spintronics” with its primary headquarters located at UCLA Engineering.
In May of 2006, UCLA Engineering researchers announce a critical new breakthrough in semiconductor spin-wave research by creating three novel nanoscale computational architectures using a technology they pioneered called “spin-wave buses” as the mechanism for interconnection.
In September of 2006, a new self-supporting master’s degree program at the UCLA School of Engineering is established to allow top-notch engineers to earn an advanced degree while pursuing their careers.
In February of 2007, a new CustoMed medical monitoring device, developed by a UCLA engineering professor in conjunction with UCLA neuroscientist, promises patients experiencing neuromotor impairment as a result of traumatic injury or chronic disease the ease and affordability of substantially shortened therapy and recovery times and the ability to complete their therapy at home while still under the watchful supervision of their doctor avoiding unnecessary and costly trips to the doctor or therapist.
In April of 2007, professor M.C. Frank Chang achieves a new world record in high-frequency submillimeter waves at a 324-gigahertz frequency that was accomplished by using a voltage-controlled oscillator in a 90-nanometer complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit.
In May of 2007, professor Yang Yang and graduate researcher Jinsong Huang have achieved the highest lumens per watt ever recorded for a red phosphorescent LED using a new combination of plastic, or polymer, infused liquid - and at half the current cost.
In December of 2007, professor Bahram Jalali and grad student Daniel Solli succeeds in creating and capturing oceanic rogue waves traveling in the open ocean by discovering similar optical rogue waves propagating through optical fiber.
In January of 2008, professor James C. Liao and postdoctoral researcher Shota Atsumi develop a new method for producing next-generation biofuels by genetically modifying Escherichia coli bacteria to be an efficient biofuel synthesizer.
In February of 2008, professor Yang Yang and researchers Jinsong Huang and Gang Li announce the invention of a new method for the fabrication of organic polymer solar cells by using an electronic-glue-based lamination process, combined with interface modification, to create a one-step method for semi-transparent polymer solar cell fabrication.
In September of 2008, engineers led by professor Bahram Jalali and postdoctoral researcher Keisuke Goda design a barcode reader that is nearly a thousand times faster than any device currently in use.
In December of 2008, a prototype cell phone has been constructed that is capable of monitoring the condition of HIV and malaria patients, as well as testing water quality in undeveloped areas or disaster sites.
In December of 2008, associate professor Yi Tang and graduate students Wenjun Zhang and Yanran Li successfully use the bacterium Escherichia coli to synthesize a class of natural products known as bacterial aromatic polyketides, which include important antibiotic and anticancer drugs.
October 29, 2009 is the 40th anniversary of the birth of the internet at UCLA. On Oct. 29, 1969, a UCLA Engineering team led by distinguished professor of computer science Leonard Kleinrock sent the very first message over the ARPANET, the computer network that later became known as the Internet.
In February of 2010, engineering assistant professor Yu Huang and her research team reveals the creation of a new graphene nanostructure called graphene nanomesh, or GNM.
In March of 2010, associate Professor Jenny Jay and postdoctoral researcher Christine Lee have sped up the process of analyzing bacterial concentrations to under one hour, compared to a day, through the development of a new in-field, rapid-detection method that uses magnetic beads conjugated to specific antibodies that identify and bind fecal bacteria that are used as standards for determining the safety of recreational waters, such as E.
In April of 2010, professor Yoram Cohen and researcher Nancy H.
In August of 2010, engineering professor M.C.
In October of 2010, professor Gerard Wong finds that during the initial stages of biofilm formation, bacteria can actually stand upright and “walk” as part of their adaptation to a surface. This was observed in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a biofilm-forming pathogen partly responsible for the lethal infections in cystic fibrosis.
In October of 2010, the lens-free telemedicine microscope developed by a UCLA engineer is adapted by researchers to instantly count the number of sperm in a sample by comparing 20 holographic images taken over 10 seconds, allowing it to identify which are moving and which are immotile compared to the old method of manually counting sperm and tracking those that are moving by viewing semen samples with an optical microscope that could only be done in a lab setting.
In March of 2011, the International Space Station received its first UCLA-led research project when the Space Shuttle Discovery delivered a new scientific payload to the orbiting station. The project, led by Vijay K.
In March of 2011, UCLA engineers led by Professor James C. Liao, Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Chair in Chemical Engineering, have demonstrated for the first time the feasibility of using proteins - one of the most abundant biomolecules on earth - as a significant raw material for biorefining and biofuel production.
In August of 2011, UCLA engineers led by Qibing Pei, professor of materials science and engineering, demonstrate for the first time an intrinsically stretchable polymer light-emitting device.
In October of 2011, an international team of investigators, including UCLA Engineering computer science professor Eleazar Eskin, reports that it has sequenced the complete genomes of 17 strains of mice, including the most frequently used laboratory strains.
In June of 2012, research conducted by UCLA’s Computer Science and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology departments and Israel’s Tel Aviv University have developed a dynamic approach to the study of genetic diversity: SPA.
In August of 2012, UCLA researchers led by Carol and Lawrence E. Tannas Jr. Chair in Engineering professor Yang Yang develops a new polymer solar cell that is 70% transparent to the human eye.
In September of 2012, the Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems Center opens in Boelter Hall, thanks to a major 10-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Research Center (ERC) program.
In November of 2012, using clusters of tiny magnetic particles about 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, UCLA professors led by professors Dino Di Carlo and Jack Judy manipulate how thousands of cells divide, morph, and develop finger-like extensions.
In January of 2013, a new multidisciplinary research center aims to revolutionize future semiconductor technologies by developing new nanoscale materials and structures that take advantage of properties unavailable at larger scales.
In April of 2013, with the support of the National Science Foundation, UCLA Engineering completed four new “collaboratories” - collaborative laboratories for research in sustainable fuels, pollution solutions and nanomaterials for harnessing energy and improving healthcare, as well as a virtual lab in which sensors track energy and water usage in the new facilities.
In August of 2013, a team of researchers led by UCLA professor Amit Sahai collaborate with IBM and University of Texas at Austin colleagues to design a system to encrypt software so that it only allows a program to be used as intended while preventing any deciphering of the code behind it.
In September of 2013, Aydogan Ozcan, UCLA professor of electrical engineering and bioengineering, and his team create a portable smartphone attachment that can be used to perform sophisticated field testing to detect viruses and bacteria.
In November of 2014, UCLA Engineering alumnus B. John Garrick and his wife, Amelia Garrick, have committed $9 million to launch the B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences at UCLA Engineering.
In November of 2014, professor Chang-Jin “CJ” Kim and Tingyi “Leo” Liu from UCLA Engineering create the first surface texture that can repel all liquids, no matter what comprises the material.
“The goal was to see if we could design an efficient fluid pump without any moving parts to work in zero-gravity, which has never been done before,” said Alexander Gonzalez, fourth-year physics major and undergrad science lead on the project.
In fall 2018, the Hybrid Propulsion Experiment (HyPE) begins to develop a custom-built hybrid motor with about 6 active members in the club.
At the 5th annual IREC in Spring 2010, the custom hybrid system is still in development and we launch a commercial system to 10,731 feet.
In fall of 2017, the first succesful liquid engine static fire occurs as part of our newly founded liquid team, Ares. In the same year, our new-member education program RISE is founded, the hybrid rocket program is transitioned into a young member project, and our outreach program begins.

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