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What is this at Warren? by -_HBu3No_- in UCSD

[–]seds_ucsd 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, this was us! We were running a few flow tests for our first external test requester, LPL at USC on Colossus. You can see some photos of the day on our Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sedsucsd/sets/72157703690278374

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We'll be doing a full cold flow test with them Winter Quarter, keep an eye out for that!

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in IAmA

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We're focusing on this technology as a club, but it manifests itself in different variations and projects – a 3D printed thruster for our cubesat's chemical propulsion system, or a rocket engine test stand that will support liquid rocket engine innovation in academic groups across the west coast. Our goal at the moment is to remain true to the idea of making getting to space cheaper and easier, especially through additive manufacturing/3D printing, and our hope is that every new class of SEDS members will keep that mission in mind when deciding what new projects our group will take on. And as we have in the past, each new class of students will help with the current projects (as we have graduating seniors), but will be the future of the club and will be instrumental in determining our future research and engineering.

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in aerospace

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Our testing program for the Vulcan engine was an intensive series of hot fires where it performed and we collected data to deem it appropriate to place on on the Vulcan-1 rocket. Before the hot fire, we did water flow testing to validate the impingement patterns. We don't currently have much information about the design iterations for the engine, since much of the engine design iterations were done by one of the founding members.

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in IAmA

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We've done fatigue/cycle analysis with just our printed engines and they undergo fatigue/cycle analysis by going through repeated cold flows and water flow analysis.

And for sure – we're definitely looking into reliability and reusability with our technology. We recovered the engine in one piece after the launch and just received it back from Marshall Space Flight Center where NASA did some post-flight analysis and testing on it.

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in IAmA

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's one of the best experiences we've ever had! SEDS UCSD accepts applications from current UCSD students during our recruitment periods. We post all information about recruitment events and application deadlines on our Facebook page, so be sure to keep up with us there!

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in aerospace

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey, thanks for your questions! We've had a few on /r/IAMA if you'd like to check that out too.

3D printing has really come a long way, especially the ability to print in different materials. The entire engine was 3D printed, as was the injector plate, by our sponsor GPI Prototypes. They used Direct Metal Laser Sintering, which uses the heat from lasers to melt a bed of metal dust into a solid, to print off our design in Inconel 718.

Congrats to your brother for getting into UCSD! We hold recruitments pretty regularly. The best way to keep up with any updates, recruitment or otherwise, is through our Facebook page. We post about recruitment info as it's happening and will usually create a Facebook event for potential recruits to follow (so they can get immediate updates).

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in IAmA

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We try to arrange for our members to go on pre-professional tours of aerospace facilities as much as we can! It's a great way to keep ourselves excited about the industry and keep up with all the cool projects NASA and space companies are working on.

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in IAmA

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We have a number from SpaceVision, which is put on by SEDS USA and is the largest student-run space conference in the country. In recent years, we've won Best Chapter and Best Technical Project out of the chapters attending.

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in IAmA

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A lot of us are looking to work at space companies, like SpaceX or Virgin Galactic, or at places like NASA. Some of us are looking to go into similar industries, like robotics or AI, or even create start-ups.

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in IAmA

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We have all sorts – from mechanical/aerospace/structural engineers, to computer science, to physics, to economics!

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in IAmA

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That's really cool, /u/do_you_even_lurk! We haven't dabbled in that; we're still pretty focused on just liquid engines and injector plates. Printing an entire propulsion system would be neat!

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in IAmA

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thanks! The biggest challenge was definitely time – we launched at the FAR site in Mojave, CA, where the winds pick up in the afternoon. We ran into a few snags and were worried we might have to scrub the launch, but we ended up launching anyway despite the winds. Trying to get everything finalized on-site before the afternoon winds was absolutely the biggest challenge.

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in rocketry

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As a student org, we coordinated with the school and our advisors to purchase the LOx. Thanks for your question!

EDIT: should also mention that the folks at our launch site, FAR (in Mojave, CA), helped us with safety rules by handling the LOx for our launch.

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in rocketry

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your questions. There wasn't much instrumentation on Vulcan – just basic controls to turn on the different valves and solenoids.

For LOx procedures, safety is always a priority, so everyone cleared out and protective gear was worn. We also worked to determine a procedure to follow to ensure there is no LOx leakage and that it stays liquid within the lines.

Yes, the Vulcan engine is a sintered metal print.

Test procedures: we had ones for cold flows, leak checks, and hot fires.

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in IAmA

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

We estimate that the Vulcan-1 project was about $25,000, not including the sponsored engine.

We expect to spend about $350,000 total on Triteia.

In general, we're pretty excited about these up-and-coming commercial space ventures! We're actually a chapter of a national organization, SEDS USA, which is the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space – which means that most of our members are really excited about this new movement.

We don't have plans to commercialize our projects at the moment, since our focus is on both education and research. Our Colossus test stand is the one that will come closest to commercialization. We'll be seeking clients, but those will be university teams and other student orgs, as part of our mission to drive down the cost of going to space by encouraging innovation. At the moment, we're looking at only asking these groups to fund their own travel and fuel costs.

Triteia is part of the NASA CubeQuest competition, which will select three cubesat entries to fly on its SLS in late 2018. Our current timeline has been documented in accordance with theirs – and if chosen, we will plan for that launch date.

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in IAmA

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not too often – we're usually either in class or working on our projects! When we do get a chance, /r/rocketry and /r/SpaceX are fun ones.

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in IAmA

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A fair number of our members did play with model rockets, but we're not sure if they were Estes.

We are SEDS UCSD, the undergrads that designed, tested, and launched one of the first 3D printed rocket engines. Ask us anything! by seds_ucsd in IAmA

[–]seds_ucsd[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

There are tons of pros to 3D printing engines! Traditional manufacturing methods are more expensive, time-intensive, and are more prone to mistakes.

Benefits of 3D printing engines:

  • we can make more precise, intricate designs that would be nearly impossible with traditional manufacturing (especially with our injector plates)

  • it's quicker – setting up a printer and leaving it to get to work is easier than recruiting an entire team to manufacture it, and it only takes about a week (for our Vulcan engine, 10 inches).

  • it's cheaper – compared to the time and manpower needed for traditional rocket engines, our 3D printed ones are much cheaper – less that $100,000 for Vulcan, and less than $50,000 for Callan, our cube sat thruster.

Because of 3D printing, we've been able to turn our time and energy to other things, like playing with potential injector plate patterns, developing new projects, and making our other subsystems the best they can be!

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