Aerostructures Projects

AE1: Airframe and Composites

The Airframe Composites team is responsible for building critical structural parts of the rocket and innovating new, and hopefully better, composite manufacturing techniques. We work with materials like carbon fiber and glass fiber composites, both of which are essential for making the rocket strong, lightweight, and reliable.

A composite is a combination of two materials—a fiber (like carbon or glass) and a binder (usually epoxy resin). When combined, they create a material that is far stronger and more resilient than either component alone—vital to ensuring the rocket performs safely under extreme conditions.

Our team collaborates closely with other aerodynamic subteams, especially Jigs and Tooling and the new COPV (Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels) project, sharing designs and manufacturing strategies.

What We Do:

Manufacture composite parts for the rocket using carbon and glass fiber
Develop and improve layup, curing, and demoulding processes
Run hands-on experiments and testing to optimize materials and techniques
Incorporate research and development (R&D) throughout the year to boost efficiency and quality

This year, we’re focusing heavily on integrating testing with R&D, something we want to improve from last year. You’ll get to participate in real testing setups, analyze results, and apply what we learn directly into manufacturing. Some team members may even specialize in testing if that's what they want to do.

Our Goal:

To create the cleanest, most efficient layup and demoulding techniques—ensuring that every part we produce is rocket-ready. Through continuous improvement, hands-on experience, and learning from each iteration, we aim to reduce manufacturing time, ensure consistent, flight-ready results, and most importantly to build the best rocket possible!

AE2: Internal Structures

The goal of this project is to design, test and manufacture the internal structures of the rocket, such as plates and cages. These structures support the loads the rocket experiences and act as an interface for various components from avionics, propulsion and payload. We work to ensure these structures can withstand the mechanical stresses experienced during flight while also minimizing weight to optimize the rocket’s performance and ensuring ease of manufacturing and assembly.

This project integrates mechanical design principles with simulations and real world testing to ensure all components are properly tested. This means we not only run FEA’s and simulations but also do hands on testing. In addition, we work closely with many different subteams and projects to ensure that the rocket integrates seamlessly. In this project we will use computer aided design, finite element analyses and technical drawings to communicate our ideas and continue to refine and change our parts.

AE3: Jigs and Tooling

The Jigs and Tooling project involves a variety of smaller projects, which can be tackled individually or in collaboration with a teammate. While some projects are specific to the Aerostructures sub-team, others offer the chance to collaborate with members from different sub-teams, offering exposure to various aspects of the rocket design and assembly!

The Jigs project involves designing a specialized tool or template that guides and supports other tools or workpieces to ensure accurate and consistent results during manufacturing or assembly processes. Often we need to actively communicate with members from different projects and even subteams to ensure our jigs satisfy their needs.

The Tooling projects provide massive amounts of opportunities for hands-on work. Tooling projects involve building the designed jigs using the desired materials, and is also responsible for post-processing the rocket. During these processes you get to learn to operate a variety of power tools to handle materials like woods, aluminum, and other complex composite materials such as Carbon Fiber and Glass Fiber.

Jigs and Tooling projects are a great way to learn or improve CAD skills, engineering drawings, and handling power tools, all of which are very useful in both industry and for personal projects down the line!

AE4/PR2: Tank/Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV)

(This is a joint project between the aerostructures and propulsion subteams)

The star of the hybrid engine is the (massive) oxidizer tank, which holds N2O before and during the burn. Although it has traditionally been made out of aluminum, the weight of the tank is becoming increasingly problematic as we aim to achieve higher and higher peak altitudes (apogees). This has sparked an interest in the development of a composite tank, or COPV—a lightweight, thin metal liner wrapped with carbon fiber using a filament winding process.

Members will have the opportunity to:

Become familiar with computer-aided design software (CAD) by designing the shape of the tank heads and plumbing ports
Perform finite element analysis (FEAs) on the tank model to determine the distribution of stresses in the part and validate its structural integrity (it’s not that scary, we promise!)
Learn about composite theory (math yay) and apply it to the design of the composite laminate
Research metal forming processes, such as deep drawing in order to reduce the mass of the metal liner
Get hands-on experience in testing the mechanical properties of resin and composite strips through rheology and tensile testing
Be a part of the process for safety testing and propulsion testing at the MRT test site (It is so much fun!)
Design a potential structural metal tank as a backup option

AE5: Engine Heat Shields

Engine Heat Shields is a new project charged with designing and manufacturing the heat-resistant components of our rocket’s engine. More specifically, these are a composite liner, which prevents burn-through of the thrust chamber casing, and composite spacers, which hold the fuel in place axially and allow for the mixing of combusted fuel before it enters the nozzle.

In the past we have relied on graphite spacers and Commercial Off-The-Shelf liners, but through this project, we aim to develop these components ourselves. We will continue to improve upon a spacer recipe that has been developed in previous years, and work on creating our own liners, exploring a variety of manufacturing techniques. Officially under Aerostructures and working closely with Propulsion for dimensions, parameters, and timelines, EHS is a highly collaborative project, heavy in research, design, iteration and practical testing.

AE6: Payload Structure

Project AE6 as a whole is an opportunity for recruits who want to learn and work on mechanical design, analysis, and testing under novel and challenging topics. You will take part in building the structural components that house the payload experiment inside the rocket, which also requires conducting research on how the payload would best be integrated. Design and analysis will be carried out in Siemens NX as the Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software. The design of the payload will also need to be structurally validated by using FEA (Finite Element Analysis) to run simulations on the structure and experiment within the payload. You will also gain experience in 3D printing structural components of the payload. This will be an interdisciplinary project, involving many possible topics both related and separate from mechanics/dynamics.