Members of the USCRPL moved most of their design and hardware work online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic saw numerous research programs come to a standstill as lockdown restrictions forced universities to close down. However, as the pandemic continued to progress at a global scale, institutions such as the University of Southern California Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (USCRPL) were forced to seek out new approaches to keep pursuing their engineering projects.
“We kept thinking ‘When the university reopens, we’ll just resume our plans,” shared Arpad Kovesdy, an aerospace engineering major at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and USCRPL’s lead design engineer. “But eventually, there came a time when we realized this might last a while and we had to take a different approach.”
USCRPL is an undergraduate research organization that began with the goal to building and launching the first student-designed and -constructed rocket—the Traveler IV—to the Karman Line, the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space. Following the success of the Traveler IV, the USCRPL is currently working on the Domepiercer, with the aim of achieving the record for highest apogee in amateur rocketry. This is expected to be an improvement from one of its earlier projects, Poise, which was developed by 2018-2019 sophomore student teams. This served primarily as a test bed involving a static fire and a 6-inch diameter vehicle with an apogee of 31,090 feet. With the Domepiercer, USCRPL will finally be going for an altitude record.
Student teams managed to shift most of the workflow for their liquid bipropellant engine and test stand to online remote work, including design and knowledge-sharing processes. The team used various computer software to perform their tasks and share important files with each other. GrabCAD was used for computer-aided design, while MATLAB was where the team shared files. This was used alongside Confluence, which functioned as an internal database for information sharing. For avionics and simulation files, the team utilized GitHub. Meanwhile, the Zoom conferencing application allowed the team to “share designs, code and knowledge online, as well as to enable remote collaboration.”
However, while much of the technology required to perform their jobs was available online, there were still areas that required physical work. The electronic boards and parts would be shipped to the members who were responsible for assembling hardware. According to USCRPL, the parts managed to reach members in locations all over the country, including San Diego, Modesto, Camarillo, Anaheim, and Mountain View in California, as well as New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Utah.
One of the most critical aspects of rocket lab work involves knowledge sharing. Kovesdy shared how much of rocket building relies on watching and doing the process by hand. The team managed to maintain learning and sharing practices through weekly Zoom meetings where members could watch design and building methods. “Everyone comes and watches the processes. Having the meetings online means we have a recording and also enables more people to attend because of how convenient it is,” said Kovesdy.
The remote setup also demanded more structure in their usual workflow. Logistics was reportedly the most challenging, with multiple parts needing to be shipped across the country. Jeremy Struhl, USCRPL’s media lead, who studies astronautical engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, shared how operating remotely has prevented the active collaboration usually observed in the rocket lab. “Before, people would just come to the lab and hang out, and if something was going on with the rockets, they’d just walk over, look at it and help with it,” explained Struhl. “Operating remotely, you can’t just catch someone in lab and say, ‘Let’s do this quickly before class.’”
However, despite these limitations, USCRPL remained committed to the lab’s mission toward innovation in student rocketry. The organization has stressed the relevance of exploring the next generation of space exploration technologies that are designed and built by engineering students themselves. This provides not only opportunities for knowledge application outside the classroom but also an environment where various academic disciplines and experiences can come together for collaboration, which they can carry with them in their future careers.
According to the team, they have also begun undertaking the process of building liquid rockets that use liquid propellants and are directly supplied into the rocket. This is a practice that is already being used by industry giants such as Blue Origin and SpaceX. USCRPL is expecting to test-fire its liquid engine once safety regulations ease.
The team is also setting up its new lab space and technology at the Baum Family Maker Space, which is a collaborative space for student design teams at the USC Viterbi campus. Kovesdy shares that they will continue preparing “a detailed safety plan” as they anticipate the return to in-person gatherings.
For more information, visit http://www.uscrpl.com/.
