MTA event, 2018-11-17

The Reaction Research Society (RRS) was glad to offer our Mojave Test Area (MTA) to UCLA for a series of tests of their liquid rocket. This was a private event, but Osvaldo and Elisa were there to witness a successful hot-fire series.

UCLA has been working on liquid rockets and this event was to test the improved version of their 650 lbf thrust LOX/ethanol engine. After validating minor modifications to the plumbing and an improved mechanism for their pneumatic valve actuators, UCLA expected good performance from this test with an expected burn time of 13.8 seconds and an expected total impulse of 9000 lbf-sec.

UCLA makes preparations on their liquid rocket, 11-17-2018 at the MTA

Other improvements include collecting better data. Data collection has been a challenge for many teams over the years. Tank, manifold and chamber pressure measurements were successful combined with thermocouples on the LOX lines for a better estimate of density and on the engine outer surface to anchor heat transfer assumptions. This temperature data has helped to better anchor their estimates of characteristic velocity (C*) and specific impulse (Isp). UCLA was not making direct flow rate measurements in this test, but has planned to do so in another forthcoming test.

UCLA’s liquid rocket in position

UCLA has also been giving their newer student team members opportunities on this project by passing knowledge gained from the more experienced members as turnover is a necessity with graduation.

UCLA liquid rocket hot fire way after sunset, 11-17-2018

Results from the hot-fire seemed to show that UCLA’s computational models were fairly close to actual performance. Total impulse was less than predicted at 8174 lbf-sec, average thrust at 467 lbf and peak thrust at 550 lbf, but a longer than predicted burn duration of 17.0 seconds.

These are good results but improvements can be made, particularly in getting direct propellant flow rate measurements. Both C* and Isp can be directly measured from propellant flow rate.

Further refinement of their assumptions based on this new hard data will help them in their next hot-fire planned for January 2019. The RRS is glad to assist UCLA and other universities with their liquid rocket projects at our Mojave Test Area (MTA). The RRS is ready to help UCLA take their next step in the new year.

We will surely discuss the results of this and the upcoming test of UCLA’s liquid rocket at the next RRS meeting, Friday, December 14th, 7:30pm, at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena.

Spaceport L.A. holds its Rocktoberfest event at Relativity Space

The Reaction Research Society (RRS) was very fortunate to attend an event sponsored by Spaceport L.A. This “Rocktoberfest” event held on November 15, 2018, was at the Relativity Space offices in Inglewood. This was a sold-out event with many people present from industry and the space-loving public.

A full house in attendance of the Spaceport L.A. panel session held at Relativity Space, 11-15-2018


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Spaceport L.A. is an organization aiming to unite, build and support a space professional community in the thriving heart of Los Angeles. Through discussions, meetings and events held by Spaceport L.A., their aim is to propel further innovations and potentially foster breakthroughs to enhance space exploration. Members include technical professionals from all disciplines and other passionate individuals with the same aim to support the space community. The RRS naturally fits with these goals and we hope to have Spaceport L.A. participate at the 2019 RRS symposium at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena in April (exact date to be confirmed soon).

Spaceport L.A. – main website

The event brought a good crowd with people from Virgin Orbit, SpaceX, Phase Four, Aerospace Corporation and other professional organizations. The pork schnitzel offered from the food truck outside and the beer served at the event made for a fine supper before the panel discussion that was to take place.
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Contrary to the hopes of many, Relativity did not offer a tour of their facilities at the event, but several members of Relativity were in attendance including former University of Southern California (USC) Rocket Propulsion Laboratory (RPL) member and Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of Relativity, Jordan Noone. I had a chance to talk with Jordan and his new Director of Propulsion at Relativity, Nate Scholten.

Dave Nordling, Secretary, RRS, standing with Nate Scholten, Director of Propulsion at Relativity Space; in the background is the massive 3D printed aluminum upper stage tank prototype on display

Relativity is an orbital launch company founded in 2015 by Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone that is taking a fundamentally new approach to building and flying rockets. With its customized and proprietary 3D printing technologies, they plan to iteratively build rockets at a cost and speed that better enables humanity’s visions in space.

Relativity Space
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Also, in attendance at the event was Mike Kwapisz, Vice President of Engineering at Phase Four (P4). Phase Four is an El Segundo based start-up company making a new RF-based electrode-less, electromagnetic-based propulsion system. The “Maxwell” engine is designed for high reliability, long operating life and is modular for smaller low-power satellites to larger spacecraft systems.

The panel discussion had many fine speakers representing a wide swath of newer aerospace industries. Tim Buzza, former SpaceX manager and now a director at Relativity Space, gave a very insightful talk about his early days at SpaceX with the Falcon 1 and the trying times they had in bringing a new launch vehicle to the market.

Dr. Greg Autry, also on the panel, is a founding director of the Southern California Commercial Spaceflight Initiative at the USC Marshall School of Business. He offered many great insights about how the commercial space market has grown from once a purely speculative concept to an expanding and thriving industry in the United States and abroad.

Spaceport L.A. panel discussion, Marco Villa (Tyvak), Tim Buzza (Relativity Space), James Behmer (Phase Four) and Gene Autry (USC) with Curtis Iwata moderating.

James Behmer of Phase Four was also on the panel and shared a bit of their history in bringing a new modular propulsion technology into the growing small satellite market.

Lastly, Marco Villa, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, was on the panel sharing his insights from his previous days at SpaceX as the Director of Mission Operations. Dr. Villa https://www.woltherchiro.com/prednisone-over-the-counter/ also talked about how Irvine based, Tyvak is developing nano-satellites for the growing market. He also mentioned an interesting statistic that today there are over 100 companies world-wide that are endeavoring to offer access to space. In an age of consolidation, it is good to hear how the market is expanding in some respects.

Space[prt L.A.’s banner hangs below Relativity Space’s 3D printed aluminum upper stage tank on display

The panel discussion was fascinating and I hope Spaceport L.A. will sponsor another event soon. I am very thankful to Curtis Iwata and all of the volunteers at Spaceport L.A. for coordinating a great evening that fostered many great discussions with more to come in the future. I have left a link to the Spaceport L.A. website above and a few links below to the companies represented on the panel. Also, I am grateful to Relativity Space for opening their doors for this networking event through Spaceport L.A. It was a fascinating night.
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Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc. – a Terran Orbital company

Relativity Space

Phase Four – advanced spacecraft propulsion

USC Marshall School of Business – Dr. Greg Autry

Please look for the next RRS event or just stop into one of our monthly meetings at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena. Our next meeting will be Friday, December 14, 2018, at 7:30pm.

RRS visit to Additive Rocket Corporation

The Reaction Research Society (RRS) was glad to receive an invitation to an open house held by the Additive Rocket Corporation (ARC) in San Diego on November 13, 2018, which invited guests from academia and industry to have an exclusive look at the company’s business. The event was co-sponsored by the University of California San Diego (UCSD’s) Atkinson Hall Prototyping Laboratory. It was well worth the long drive through south-bound traffic from Los Angeles to arrive at UCSD by early evening.

Additive Rocket Corporation in San Diego, CA

Additive Rocket Corporation

The welcoming speech was given by Dr. Jeff Sundabrae showcasing the Atkinson Hall Prototyping Laboratory at UCSD and proud partnerships that they have cultivated.

Andy Kieatiwong, CEO of Additive Rocket Corporation, and Dave Nordling, Secretary, RRS

Andy Kieatiwong, CEO of ARC, gave the headline speech about his new company, founded in partnership with his friend and colleague, Kyle Adriany.

Kyle Adriany, CTO of Additive Rocket Corporation (ARC)

ARC uses a proprietary iterative design process that takes advantage of the freedom in design offered by additive manufacturing. ARC has developed their own software algorithms that can rapidly analyze and compare a wide range of design alternatives very quickly which ultimately leads to a few highly efficient designs that should enable a low cost, high performance rocket to be made.

ARC is a small start-up in San Diego. Several of their engineers and experts were in attendance at the event as ARC showed the audience their mission to produce high impulse, ultra-low cost additively manufactured engines. Many of the guests were fellow researchers at the Prototype Laboratory and UCSD. The most exciting part was getting a tour of the university laboratories and the shared space that ARC has with their EOS M290 large scale metallic 3D printer made by Electro Optical Systems (EOS). It is an amazing piece of technology to observe in action.

Electro Optical Systems (EOS), M290 industrial 3D metal printer

An uncooled thrust chamber prototype of a 125-lbf rocket motor, made by ARC’s 3D printing machine in Inconel 718

ARC has already built their first prototypes and is planning a series of hot fire testing of their “Nemesis” engine, hopefully at the RRS Mojave Test Area (MTA), in the very near future. With successful rounds of testing to anchor their design algorithms, ARC should be able to offer a powerful and elegant rocket at very competitive prices to a growing marketplace.

Additive Rocket Corporation’s “Nemesis” engine

I was glad to attend the event and greatly appreciate the hospitality of ARC and UCSD. Many found it very exciting to witness firsthand a remarkable material process that is slowly and surely changing the manufacturing marketplace.

The RRS is hopeful that ARC will attend and speak at our forthcoming 2019 RRS symposium in April. Stay tuned to our website for further updates from ARC and the 2019 RRS symposium at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena.