Heska's own Thomas Scott is the VP of the undergraduate student run Rocket Engineering Team at UT Knoxville. Last Saturday they were awarded First Place in the 30k SRAD Hybrid category for their June 24 launch at the Spaceport America Cup competition in New Mexico. 30k SRAD Hybrid is the most difficult category to compete in due to:
- The complexity of Hybrid engines which have both solid and liquid oxidizer components, thus requiring tanks, plumbing, injectors, remote filling control and disconnect, remote tank discharge for aborts, and liquid temperature regulation,
- The 30,000 ft altitude class (vs the easier 10,000 ft class), and
- That it must be entirely Student Researched And Designed (SRAD), including the engine.
The competition is the world's largest Intercollegiate Rocketry Engineering Contest (IREC) and is comparable in prestige to the Olympics.
Their flight carried a 4kg payload containing both cosmic ray detector and earthworm experiments, reaching an apogee (maximum height) of 28,878 ft. Within the hybrid 30k category at Spaceport, the UTK team set the record for the most accurate flight by a significant margin, which is the primary objective of the competition. The error in their predicted altitude vs actual altitude was within 4%, with second place being within 33%. The previous accuracy record for this category was within 52%. In doing so, their team also temporarily set the altitude record within the category. Their team size and net funding was notably small at the competition. The scale of the rocket and its engine were also unusually small, astonishing many other rocketeers within the competition with its altitude capabilities. This was largely due to the unusually high specific impulse accomplished by years of unique experimental plastic fuel and injector research. Finally, their filling system was unusually fast, which among other factors, lead to the lowest lead time for readiness to fly, greatly assisting the team in launching within a competition with many unexpected organizational complications.
They were the only American team to qualify in their category for the international competition and faced formidable competition from top schools with large budgets and teams, with their chief rival being Team Helvetia from ETH Zürich. Founded in 1854, Zürich is (in one ranking) the #4 engineering and technology college in the world and boasts among its alumni Alfred Werner, Felix Bloch, Philippe Kahn, Wernher von Braun, John von Neumann, and Albert Einstein himself. Zürich had an exceptionally large budget, a team of 49 students including graduate students, scores of industry sponsors, and extensive industry support and assistance in design and manufacturing because Switzerland is positioning itself as a top producer of environmentally green hybrid rockets. Their significantly heavier and larger rocket missed its apogee target by 33% and was badly damaged on landing. This led to significant point deductions compared to UTK's nearly perfect and record-breaking flight. A David and Goliath outcome.