WARR Launches Cryogenic Rocket with Machined Parts

Damian Kolodziej

fromMakerVerse

23 Aug, 2023

The assembly team preparing the rocket.

See how the student group from Technical University of Munich reached an altitude of nearly 13 kilometers with their rocket launched in the US. Some key components were made by MakerVerse, the on-demand manufacturing platform for industrial-quality parts.

cnc milling

- space

- spacecraft

Pushing the boundaries of space technology requires innovative thinking and the right tools for the job.

The Scientific Workgroup for Rocketry and Spaceflight (WARR) at the Technical University of Munich launched their cryogenic rocket 12.7 kilometers above the earth. See how the group transformed “Project Cryosphere” from an idea to a reality with critical parts made by MakerVerse.

Project Cyrosphere successfully takes off. Photo credit: Matthew Swenson.

The challenge: Blasting Off to 11 Kilometers

Since its foundation in 1962, WARR has been no stranger to ambitious space-related projects. Within that group is WARR Rocketry, whose student members come from all backgrounds ranging from mechanical engineering to business.

The team’s previous altitude record was 4 kilometers. With Project Cyrosphere, they wanted to go far beyond. WARR knew they needed an impeccable design and perfect parts to achieve that goal.

One of the significant challenges is the extreme conditions that the rocket would undertake. The 135-kilogram rocket would travel 3.5 times the speed of sound, undergoing intense strain until reaching the apogee. Every part must be precisely manufactured to handle severe heat and cold.

Furthermore, the student group faced tight deadlines to complete the rocket in time for the scheduled launch in California (US).

The solutions: MakerVerse for the Universe

The interior and exterior of the aluminum critical connectors made by MakerVerse. They're attached to carbon fiber.

WARR’s rocket is made largely of carbon fiber, as this material combines strength with reduced weight. For the crucial connector interfaces, which connect the carbon fiber with the cryogenic tank and the upper segments of the rocket, WARR turned to MakerVerse.

With MakerVerse’s on-demand manufacturing platform, WARR gained access to the full range of manufacturing technologies and materials. In this case, CNC machining created these aluminum connectors to exact specifications. Considering the delicacy and difficult conditions, MakerVerse’s attention to detail was critical.

The assembled structure.

Throughout the process, MakerVerse provided very clear pricing and communications, which helped ensure all lead time expectations were met.

The results: Reaching for the Stars

With the successful launch of its cryogenic rocket WARR, gained invaluable date on supersonic flight and the performance of the hardware. This data will be put to use for other projects.

The team already has other ambitious projects planned for the near future, including innovative new rocket designs. For these projects, WARR plans to work with MakerVerse again using a combination of additive manufacturing, CNC machining, and other technologies as needed.

“MakerVerse was a great partner for our manufacturing projects,” said Francesco Longhetti, Head of WARR Rocketry. “They helped save us a lot of time.”

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Humankind's Future Inextricably Tied to Aerospace

In order to achieve the same level of impact in the 21st century as engineers achieved in the 20th — think clean running water, electric power grids, air and space travel, etc. — the industry will need to make key alterations to its mission statement.

Mike Cavaliere

16 Mar, 2021

space

- spacecraft

In order to achieve the same level of impact in the 21st century as engineers achieved in the 20th — think clean running water, electric power grids, air and space travel, etc. — the industry will need to make key alterations to its mission statement. Namely, it will need to prioritize sustainability and diversity.

That’s according to Dr. Daniel E. Hastings, head of the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who served as the keynote speaker at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Engineers Week festivities last month. When he and his colleagues at MIT sat down recently to update their program’s mission statement, they realized that those two things were not even mentioned in their previous draft.

That’s when he knew they had a problem.

“We must be committed to a culture of diversity and inclusion,” he said, in a talk offered as a free and interactive public webinar. “It’s not just a recruitment issue — it’s a retention issue. It’s a culture issue.”

Twenty years ago, he added, the big question aerospace professionals faced was, how do we fly “higher, faster, further”? But today, those advancements are balanced by the need to reduce carbon emissions. It’s not just about building more powerful machinery anymore — it’s about making those machines work in harmony with the environment.

As technology continues to advance and new innovations emerge, the cultural landscape constantly changes under engineers’ feet, Hastings said. But it is the job of engineers — and of institutions of higher education — to adapt.

“I think aerospace departments have to have a broader view of the impact of aerospace,” he said. “We have to be responsible stewards.”

Dr. Daniel E. Hastings, head of the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), served as the keynote speaker at the center of Embry-Riddle’s Engineers Week festiv

Image: An illustration of SHIELD, a Mars lander concept that would allow lower-cost missions to reach the Red Planet’s surface by safely crash landing, using a collapsible base to absorb the impact. Credit: California Academy of Sciences

Why NASA Is Trying to Crash Land on Mars

Like a car’s crumple zone, the experimental SHIELD lander is designed to absorb a hard impact.

Andrew Good

fromNASA

21 Oct, 2022

space

- spacecraft

This article was discussed in our Next Byte podcast.

The full article will continue below.

NASA has successfully touched down on Mars nine times, relying on cutting-edge parachutes, massive airbags, and jetpacks to set spacecraft safely on the surface. Now engineers are testing whether or not the easiest way to get to the Martian surface is to crash.

Rather than slow a spacecraft’s high-speed descent, an experimental lander design called SHIELD (Simplified High Impact Energy Landing Device) would use an accordion-like, collapsible base that acts like the crumple zone of a car and absorbs the energy of a hard impact.

The new design could drastically reduce the cost of landing on Mars by simplifying the harrowing entry, descent, and landing process and expanding options for possible landing sites.

SHIELD is a Mars lander concept that could allow lower-cost missions to visit the Martian surface by using an impact-absorbing, collapsible base to safely crash land. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“We think we could go to more treacherous areas, where we wouldn’t want to risk trying to place a billion-dollar rover with our current landing systems,” said SHIELD’s project manager, Lou Giersch of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Maybe we could even land several of these at different difficult-to-access locations to build a network.”

This prototype base for SHIELD – a collapsible Mars lander that would enable a spacecraft to intentionally crash land on the Red Planet, absorbing the impact – was tested in a drop tower at JPL on Aug. 12 to replicate the impact it would encounter landing on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech