Student rocketry is becoming an increasingly important source of engineers for companies looking for innovation.
Two of the most important student rocketry events are happening right around this time: the Spaceport America Cup just concluded, and the new Launch Canada Rocket Innovation Challenge is happening in early August as part of the Stardust Festival in Cochrane Ontario.
These and other events are are helping to developing new engineers with “can do” attitudes, but government support has been mixed.
SpaceQ talked with Adam Trumpour, Founder and President of Launch Canada, to get an update about how the Spaceport Cup shook out, and how the new Challenge is shaping up.
A rainy Spaceport America
The Spaceport America Cup bills itself as “the world’s largest intercollegiate rocket engineering conference and competition,” with 150 different teams coming together to compete in the New Mexico desert. There’s been some challenges this year, though; some expected and some surprising.
Trumpour said that “both the organizers and the students were all a little rusty.” Students have been getting back to work, but the years they spent either working from home or social distancing have meant that they’ve had to re-learn how to work together to build rockets. Many teams had never even been to a Spaceport America Cup. Administrators, too, have needed to adjust to having student events again.
(And it’s not as if COVID has stopped being an issue—Trumpour himself was isolating with mild symptoms after his return from the Spaceport Cup.)
Nevertheless, Adam said that “generally, they all did quite very well all around,”,with “another strong showing from the Canadians, which was great.”
Several other less predictable issues arose that needed to be overcome by both students and organizers. The weather, Trumpour said, was “a major curveball this year” thanks to surprisingly torrential desert rain. Launches were stymied by rain throughout the Cup; on the first launch day the rain got so bad that, Trumpour said, “the road at the spaceport that leads out to the vertical launch area where this was supposed to be happening was all washed out and impassable.” Teams’ launch times had to be rearranged. Organizers were “playing catch up for the rest of the week” and some teams just couldn’t launch at all.
This was exacerbated by some insurance issues. While Trumpour couldn’t get into specifics, he said that there were issues getting insurance for liquid-fueled and hybrid-fueled rockets, due to the insurer being more used to providing support for American hobbyists’ solid-fueled rocket engines. After negotiations, this meant that the liquid and hybrid rockets needed to be launched at a technically-separate launch event, and arrange for separate insurance. Due to the rain, however, these separated launches became even harder to coordinate. Unfortunately only three of the hybrid engine teams were able to successfully launch, including one Canadian team from Polytechnique in Montreal that came close to their 10,000 ft target altitude.
The other major issue was not related to the students but did affect them: a computer issue. Trumpour said that “the computer they were using to compile all the scores ended up crashing catastrophically…and they lost all the flight data.” Organizers were unable to announce the winners at the closing ceremony, and have said that they will need to announce the winners in an upcoming virtual event after they manually re-enter the flight data.
Trumpour said that, for his part, Launch Canada will be very, very careful to back everything up. He’s still very proud of the Canadian teams, especially considering the not-inconsiderable expense and effort involved in bringing a rocket from Canada to New Mexico. He’s also confident that the Spaceport America Cup organizers will learn from these mistakes and be better-prepared next year.
Launch Canada Challenge
Launch Canada has been instrumental in helping Canadian student rocketry for years, and they’ve now taken the next step in hosting their own event called the “Launch Canada Challenge.” This Challenge is their first attempt at running a competition like this, and it’ll be part of the Stardust Alliance’s Stardust Festival in Cochrane, Ontario between August 1-6.
Trumpour is really excited about this alliance. He pointed to how the festival features events will be “a big week-long spotlight on science, technology, engineering and math with a major focus on the northern and an indigenous communities.” The Challenge will be bringing in student teams from across Canada, and Trumpour looks forward to being able to “bring all the launch Canada students into Northern Ontario to make more of these connections, and inspire everybody by launching some big impressive rockets.” He’s excited about how this collaboration will help inspire interest in STEM among marginalized youth.
The competition itself is split into three parts: a basic challenge, an advanced challenge, and a separate technology development category. The basic challenge is intended to be accessible for up-and-coming teams that are still working with off-the-shelf parts, and particularly solid rocket motors, looking to get up to around 10,000 feet.
The advanced category is for teams that are planning to build their own hybrid or liquid propulsion systems. Trumpour said that “we also have teams that are doing two-stage launches, which would fall into the advanced category.” He said that there’s no target altitude for the advanced launches; instead, competitors are asked to provide target altitudes, and are evaluated on how successful they are in producing a vehicle that can meet those requirements.
The technology development category is for teams that want to focus less on a launch, and more on developing and showing off a particular technological development related to rocketry. Trumpour said that there are several teams focused on this category, including one that’s working on “a really neat canard system they’re hoping to fly,” others that are focused on engine tests, and a team that’s working on a specific kind of flight recorder.”
Finding a site near Cochrane was a bit of a challenge. Several sites that seemed promising in the winter turned out to have site access issues that made them unsuitable. While they did have fallback options if need be, they did end up finding a suitable clearing, and are working with Cochrane and with Stardust to prepare things. While there’s still work to do, Trumpour is confident that they’ll be done in time. If things go well, they’re already looking at ways to possibly expand the site and turn Cochrane into a hub for experimental rocketry.
Canadian Government assistance: sometimes great, often lacking
All that takes support, though, and on that front it’s been a mixed bag.
Trumpour was effusive about the support he’s received from Transport Canada. He said that there wasn’t really any kind of regulatory framework for experimental launch in Canada, and that he’s been working with Transport Canada to create the needed frameworks to make it happen. He said that “we wouldn’t have been able to do this if Transport hadn’t gotten on board the way that they did,” and that he appreciates how “they saw the benefit of this and they’ve worked really well with me to support this.” The Ministry of Natural Resources also helped make the site available, and Trumpour deeply appreciates their help.
Other branches of government have not been quite so helpful. Cochrane has been supportive, of course, especially considering their alliance with Stardust. But he sounded a note of frustration with other agencies and ministries, especially on the issue of funding. Launch Canada and their student rocketry teams don’t fit quite neatly into any of the existing silos of government support; even the CSA’s funding programs are aimed at either technology-developing companies or university researchers, not student rocketry clubs. NRC-IRAP, ISED, and the various provincial education ministries haven’t been terribly helpful; and while Launch Canada is very appreciative of its existing sponsors, they’re uncomfortably aware of the issues with fundraising from Canadian investors for technology and innovation.
It’s a problem. Trumpour points to these student rocketry clubs as one of the most important sources of young experienced engineers in Canada. Trumpour’s day job is with Pratt and Whitney Canada, and he said that “a good number of these students have gone on to get either internships or jobs at Pratt and Whitney.” The same is true across the Canadian space and aerospace sectors: companies like MDA and Bombardier are finding their next generation of high-quality engineers at these rocketry clubs, and the Canadian launch startup scene is shot through with founders and talent that come from student rocketry clubs, so much so that Trumpour said that those companies are mostly an outgrowth of the student clubs.
Even universities without an aerospace program are starting these rocketry clubs; some of them will be at the Launch Canada Challenge. Trumpour said that “if you’re looking for a pool of talent within Canada with any sort of hands-on experience building rockets, that’s generally where you’re going to look.” Yet without external funding, many more schools are unable to attend. Canada is a big country, and transporting rockets across it is expensive. Trumpour said he would “love” to be able to provide funding for travel grants, but can’t do it yet.
That’s one of the reasons he’s so excited about the Challenge; he believes that once this is an established event, both private-sector and governmental support may become more of a possibility in the years ahead. It might be seen as fitting into an existing policy agenda, or policymakers might recognize that they should carve out some support for student rocketry. Considering how Canada often struggles to retain top talent, it should be a high priority going forward.