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UCLA Tin Can project, CoDR

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The RRS was glad to participate in the Conceptual Design Review (CoDR) of UCLA’s Tin Can project on Wednesday night, March 1st. This project will have UCLA build a liquid bi-propellant rocket to be flown in competition with other schools at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) site just south of the RRS Mojave Test Area (MTA).

FAR website, Launch Contest

Richard Garcia, RRS director of research

Dave Nordling, RRS secretary

The goal is to reach a specific target altitude using a liquid bi-propellant propulsion system (45,000 ft target, 30,000 ft minimum) with a minimum payload weight (1 kg) provided by FAR that includes an altitude tracking device. The winner will get $50K and the contest is jointly sponsored by the Mars Society. The UCLA team has already been organized with requirements documents provided and subsystem leads designated. Propellant selection was made (RP-1 and nitrous oxide) and the basic design parameters were set for this pressure-fed rocket.

The RRS has offered to support UCLA in the design and testing of key subsystems including propulsion at the RRS MTA. The RRS is thankful for the invitation to share our experience in this ambitious project and we look forward to working with UCLA in the coming months as the project advances to the preliminary design phase and beyond.

UCLA rocket project for IREC

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The RRS was glad to participate in the Critical Design Review held at UCLA Boelter Hall. UCLA is preparing for the upcoming Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) to be held at Spaceport America in New Mexico on June 20-24, 2017.

CDR for UCLA’s IREC project

UCLA will be flying a 10-foot long, 6-inch diameter rocket to an altitude of 10,000 (+/- 2,000) feet carrying a payload at least 8.8 lbm in weight meeting ESRA standards for the competition. The rocket uses an M-class commercial hybrid motor with three solid motors in parallel. After covering all major systems (structures, propulsion and electronics) over the course of the day, we took a tour of UCLA’s rocket laboratory in the basement of Boelter Hall.

UCLA rocket lab tour

We thank Dr. Mitchell Spearrin for his invitation and hope to work with UCLA on testing their IREC rocket design in the near future at the MTA before the competition in June.

Dr. Mitchell Spearrin, UCLA MAE Dept.

Charles Hoult, 1933-2016

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The Reaction Research Society (RRS) would like to remember Charles Hoult who passed away late last year in November.

Charles Hoult, 1933-2016

Educated at MIT and UCLA, he began his career in the Air Force working with sounding rockets starting in the late 1950’s until the late 70’s. He worked for Aerospace Corporation and TRW (Northrop Grumman) until his retirement in 2007. In addition to his professional work, he started academic work as an adjunct professor at California State University Long Beach (CSULB) in 2006. He was active for decades in the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA) and attended many amateur rocket launches in several countries.

Experimental Sounding Rocket Association

One of his lasting contributions is his website with several open-source tools for amateur rocket design.
Rocket Science and Technology – Charles Hoult

His ashes are to be launched and dispersed into the atmosphere by a CSULB rocket over the ocean at an upcoming Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) event in June 2017.

The Los Angeles Times had an excellent obituary. The link is below:
Legacy.com / LA Times – Charles Hoult (1933-2016)

The Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) department of CSULB also posted a memorium for Charles Hoult:
CSULB remembers Charles Hoult

Any of our members who have specific memories or even photos of Charles Hoult that they would like to share are encouraged to comment here.