John Mosley and Aleeya Gault examining LUNAR display rocket. UP photo by Jill Stokes
Lamar’s LUNAR team will compete in the national NASA USLI Student Launch competition April 30-May 4 in Huntsville, Ala.
Matthew Flores, senior mechanical engineering student and vehicle team leader, said the competition features several universities.
They all follow the same ruleset, but you have to meet all these deadlines, write all these papers, and meet all these requirements,” he said. “If at any point you fail to do so, you're out. You can still go to the competition and watch, but you don't get a launch. Our team has worked very, very hard, and we just turned in our final addendum this past Monday. We got approval from NASA.”
The Student Launch Initiative isn’t just about building a rocket, Chun-Wei Yao, associate professor of mechanical engineering and a team adviser, said. For Lamar University’s LUNAR team, it’s been about building skills, confidence, and connections.
“This is outside classroom activities,” Yao said. “They learn how to encourage other team members, how to engage with others and how to work as a group. No one can do this by themselves — it takes teamwork.”
The LUNAR team comprises several sub-groups responsible for the building, launch and recovery of the rockets.
“Everyone has to rely on each other for something,” Diana Rodriguez, a junior on the recovery team, said. “You can do some things on your own, but for the most part, you need someone there to help. We all have to help each other in one way, shape or form.”
Rodriguez said being part of the project has inspired her to pursue a career in aerospace.
“It just opened doors for me because I enjoy aerospace,” she said. “I always wanted to get involved in that. I just love space. I just love rockets. It’s very fun.”
Tyler Casey, a senior on the recovery team, said the experience was a crash course in collaboration.
“I really liked the people, and I learned project management,” he said. “We had to coordinate between multiple teams. It wasn’t anything I didn’t already know from class, but I learned how to work with others.”
Casey said he joined the team with no prior rocketry experience but learned a lot from the team leaders.
“I didn’t really know aerospace — I knew nothing coming in,” he said. “If you don’t know anything about rocketry, just give it a try. Apply and see how it goes. They’ll take people who don’t know, because you can always learn. There are always people to help you.”
Flores also said only two team members had any experience with rocketry when they started.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” he said. “I just studied and did my own research. It’s probably been the best part of my senior year.”
The team members learned every aspect of rocketry, from design to manufacturing to launching,” Flores said.
“It’s all safety procedures. It's different programs. It's different tool usage,” he said. “Do you know how to do CNC? Use basic hand tools? Can you epoxy? Can you talk to people? Can you be a leader? Can you talk out arguments and disagreements? It’s all there. It’s just how you look at it.”
The LUNAR team has leaned heavily on mechanical engineering majors, but Flores said they are opening up to a broader range of engineering students and other majors.
“Going forward, the plan is to include all majors,” he said. “We need public relations, marketing, and a business team. We need electrical engineers for avionics. Maybe even chemical engineers for fuel systems. Whatever you do at Lamar, there’s a place for you on the team.”
The diversity of roles prepares students for real-world work, senior Jase Gault said.
“A lot of what we do in plants is work well with others on massive projects,” he said. “So, if we have experience working with people on large-scale projects, it transfers more easily to real-life work. In terms of project management, we’re always going to be working on projects with multiple steps or goals. Building the rocket, completing small steps on time and figuring out how to navigate any bad timing, we’ll definitely use that experience later.”
For more information about LUNAR, visit, groupme.com/join_group/106348330/fQAPC9OC.
For more information about the competition, visit, nasa.gov/learning-resources/nasa-student-launch.
Kirby King Lamar University student presenting their competition rocket. UP photo by Jill Stokes