Mechanical Engineering Rocket Team Launches to First Place

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2015 NASA Student Launch Team

In 2011, mechanical engineering students began collaborating with faculty adviser, Adam Huang, to establish the first NASA Rocket Space Launch senior design program at the University of Arkansas. 

The NASA Student Launch project is a research-based, competitive and experiential exploration project that provides relevant and cost-effective research development to support the Space Launch System. After submitting a preliminary design to NASA, selected teams participate in a series of design reviews and payload assessments, which culminate in an actual rocket launch at one of NASA's Space Launch facilities.

Senior John-Mark Vaughan, one of the 2015 team members, expressed the value of these hand-on design projects for the students. "The NASA Student Launch competition was one of the greatest learning opportunities of my undergraduate career. Rocket senior design  project allowed our team to apply everything from labs and lectures to create something that makes us feel proud. I am really thankful for our team, our advisor Dr. Huang, mentor Jeff Pummill, and the mechanical engineering department for such an awesome experience."

Led by team captain Dominic Rose, a team of 13 students traveled to Huntsville, Alabama's NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to represent the University of Arkansas mechanical engineering department. After weather delays and budget challenges, the team successfully completed their launch and secured first place in the altitude competition, reaching a height of 3014 feet, 14 feet over the 3000-foot goal set by NASA.

The project design relied heavily on 3-D printed materials, conceived by the students and manufactured in mechanical engineering's virtual machine shop. "These experiences are integral to us educating the engineers of tomorrow," said James Leylek, department head.  "In order to produce graduates who are ready to engineer immediately upon graduation, we must give them the design tools and hands-on opportunities required to make them successful."

After their hard work and award-winning launch, the team was interviewed by NASA TV and called the Hogs to show their Arkansas pride.  "The competition provided a fantastic experience. This project was treated like an actual NASA approved project and required maintaining a budget, meeting requirements, design reasoning, and communicating with NASA officials and provided the team with a real world experience," said Rose. "In the end, competing amongst universities from all over the country and having an exceptional performance ignited our Razorback pride!"