Capstone team Project Sisyphus designed and built an engine that uses regenerative cooling, circulating fuel through built-in channels to prevent the chamber from melting. The 3D-printed copper parts made through additive manufacturing also help with this.
The team members have been part of Waterloo Rocketry, a student design team that builds, designs, tests, and launches high-powered rockets. From their experience, they knew the engines use ablative liners that slowly erode as the engine burns and must be remade after each use, which consumes significant time, money, and resources.
To fix this problem, the team built a new engine from scratch, following design guidelines from space organizations such as NASA and SpaceX, as well as coursework. The innovative design gives Waterloo Rocketry an engine that is easier and more affordable to build, allowing them to test their rocket systems before competitions in Canada.
Student Design Teams, like Waterloo Rocketry, provide students with the opportunity to dive into their interests with their peers and outside of the classroom. Two mechanical engineering students, Joel Godard and Matthew Gordon, have used their experiences with the team to land co-ops with space labs on different continents, and both are off to work in the space industry: one graduate is joining SpaceX, and the other is joining Canada Rocket Company.
Read more in Student rocketry fires up with an advanced engine design in Waterloo News.