Propulsion engineer at RISE: Nino on building rockets next to your studies

RISE, the Rocketry Innovations and Space Engineering student team, builds rockets intended to carry instruments and collect data. Eventually, we would like to build rockets that can go to space and then clean up space debris. But right now, we are still building our next-generation rocket. It’s going to be EUROC compliant, too, which is the European Rocketry Challenge held in Portugal every year. During the competition, we have to reach a target altitude as accurately as possible and deploy a payload to perform scientific experiments during flight.

Working on rocket propulsion means confronting complex physics and software from day one. My job, specifically, is to work on the injector element of the engine, and this means simulations day in and day out, on top of manufacturing the actual injector.

In the beginning, I made a lot of dumb mistakes. But I learned a lot from RISE. Specifically CFD – that’s computational fluid dynamics. I was using the software wrong at first, but then you start thinking about how it works and start over like five times, until eventually, you get it. Besides, be prepared to read literature as a propulsion engineer. Lots of literature. Before I even started my project, I was handed a whole folder of relevant papers and data to read beforehand. It’s a lot of research.

I personally think it’s very fun. You have to take into account what components go into your system, so you have to consult a lot with the others. But the main thing I like about working in a multidisciplinary team is that, for example, I can go to the electronics sub-team and ask, ‘Hello, what are you working on?’ And then they explain it to me.

Being able to do this as a student, when you mostly develop yourself within the realm of your own study programme, teaches me how to design and manufacture with multiple stakeholders at hand, and take multiple perspectives into account.

We’re bound by an NDA from the government, so I can’t tell all… Right, so we had a thrust vector control test bed and it… well, it blew up. And it basically got launched about 100 meters away from the firing position. The whole engine exploded and detached, and it was so quick, it must have been pulling a couple hundred Gs at least. Where this happened? I can’t tell you, haha.

To work with RISE, every team member must go through an embargo exemption, because technically, the technology RISE builds could be used as means of delivery for weaponry. So, I’m not allowed to share technical specifics with anyone. RISE is the only student team here at the University of Twente that does this embargo, though.

I’ve learned a lot of things, both technical and outside of my field of study. Think of CFD, for example. And a lot about rockets, how not to design something, how to make something explode very violently… Oh, and a lot of safety stuff. For example, we work with nitrous oxide, so we know the temperatures you need to keep this in, how much you can transport legally. And of course simulations: FEM, CFD, like I mentioned before.

But I’ve also grown a lot personally. How to compromise with others, for example. You have to work together with a lot of people, and you have to discuss a lot. Communication is of course a big thing, but I feel I was already doing that well enough to an extent. However, I never looked past my Mechanical Engineering-bubble, and I didn’t really know what non-technical studies were doing. I learned how to respect studies such as International Business Administration and Communication Science, because without them, we wouldn’t have had any funding.

I never doubted it was worth my time. I learned a lot, and keep learning new things every week. As for the combination with studying – part-time, yes. I am working on many projects right now because I’m still finishing my minor assignment, so it’s a bit busy. But if you’re a part-time student trying to combine RISE, then you’d have one or two projects you’re working on here, which would definitely be reasonable to combine.

Exactly. When I joined, I did not have any technical knowledge about rockets either, which was why I had to read a lot about them. We’re looking for people who are prepared to study the topic and are eager about aerospace and rocketry specifically. But you don’t have to be technical for that. Like any other student team, the non-technical people of the team are essential to the team’s success. We need funding, and our people from International Business Administration and Communication Science help us with that.

We have goals for sometime in the next six months. Definitely this year. We’re about 65-75% done with the rocket. And we want to go about 1.5 km into the air.

I would tell them that it’s very fun. You’re going to learn a lot, get to work on hands-on things, and get to assemble things. You run into a lot of problems, but you learn how to solve them or work around them, too. I would say to just apply. As long as you’re eager about aerospace and rocketry!