Overview
The goal of the Liquid Propulsion subteam is to continually learn more about bi-propellant liquid rocket engines, by designing, manufacturing, and testing an engine. Currently, the team is getting ready to hot fire their Helios engine and is designing rocket team's first launchable liquid engine.
Polaris
Rocket Team's first ever launchable engine!! Polaris's main mission objective is to reach a 30k ft maximum as a second stage. It is planned to use Ethanol and Nitrous Oxide.
Polaris
Helios
In the Fall of 2018, the team began the Helios engine project. Helios is a pressure-fed bi-propellant liquid engine designed to produce 350lbf, and is fed with diluted Ethanol & LOX by an accompanying test stand. Helios's main goals are to understand basic engine design principles and learn how to efficiently and safely test high-pressure engines. As of now, Helios has been successfully assembled, and is nearly ready for its hot fire test.
Helios
Romulus
Romulus, a Kerosene-LOX regeneratively cooled engine designed to produce 450lbf, expands on lessons learned from the design of Helios. Romulus uses a pintle injector to balance thrust and temperature requirements. This project was discontinued because there was not enough time and members to finish it.
Romulus
Pyralis
A N2O-Ethanol Aerospike. This project was led by Matt Vernacchia, back when this was just the Solid Propulsion Subteam. This project actually reached hot fire and destroyed the Building 31 Blast Chamber at the end of the program.
Pyralis
Viper
A methane-oxygen engine, Viper ran from Fall 2016 to Fall 2018. The team spent a lot of money, but it petered out when a member left. Rumor has it the ghost of the yellow test stand still lives in Edgerton. Pioneered the use of CNC manufacturing on Rocket Team.
Viper
Learning Curriculum
The liquid prop team has developed an on-boarding curriculum to provide new and existing members with an introduction into various important concepts that are necessary to know on the team. These topics include basic engine design, incompressible flow fundamentals, combustion fundamentals, feed system design, as well as more advanced topics. Click the header above to explore the different learning resources.
Research
Through the design of engines, and recent research endeavors, the team has compiled various write-ups and findings relevant to our work. Past findings from previous projects can be found here, along with findings from the research initiative that the sub-team began in October 2020 (which then became Project Romulus!).
Team leads
| Name | Term |
|---|---|
| Trey Watts | Fall 2017 |
| Ethan Perrin | Spring 2017 |
| Nick Bain | Fall 2017 - Spring 2018 |
| Alex Miller | Fall 2018 - Spring 2019 |
| Matt Morningstar | Fall 2019 - Spring 2020 |
| Zander Hodge | Fall 2020 - Fall 2021 |
| John Posada | Spring 2022 |
| Nigel Barnett | Fall 2023 - Spring 2024 |
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Rocket Team Fact!
liquid prop is the best subteam👍