Prospector 1 Successfully Launched on Sunday, June 3, 2001
The College of Engineering at California State University, Long Beach achieved another significant milestone this past weekend in its path finding efforts to provide practical hands-on hardware experience to tomorrow’s engineers. Undertaken as part of a cooperative student mentoring and technology research initiative between CSULB and Garvey Spacecraft Corporation (GSC), a team of students successfully conducted the first flight and complete recovery of the college’s sophisticated Prospector 1 research launch vehicle. This test flight came just two weeks after the same team ran a series of static fire tests that evaluated several candidate engines for the P-1.
Devin loading LOX in the vehicle - Photo by Seth Quitoriano
The launch was originally scheduled for Saturday, 2 June 2001 and the vehicle was ready by 10:30 a.m. However, high winds ultimately forced a one-day delay until early Sunday when calmer weather prevailed. “It was a tough call,” said Tim Price, the student lead for the project. “If we had launched on Saturday there was no way we would have gotten the rocket back in one piece. I feel bad for those that left and missed out, but having just the core team out there definitely removed a lot of distractions and allowed for a smoother launch Sunday morning. We’re all anxious to fly again as soon as possible.”
Prospector 1 accelerating on the launch rail - Photo by Tony Richards
This first flight test took place at the Mojave Test Area, which is owned and operated by the non-profit Reaction Research Society (the RRS is one of the oldest rocket clubs in existence, with a history tracing back over five decades). The Prospector 1 used a propellant combination of liquid Oxygen and watered-down ethanol – the same mixture employed on the V-2 rocket of World War II. A key design feature was its 1000 lb-thrust engine, which was developed as a senior design project by Mechanical Engineering students Katayoun Borojerdi, Aole Espy and Juvenal Gordo with support from Aerospace Engineering students Seth Quitoriano and Tim Price. “Working on this engine has been the most intense thing I’ve ever done,” reflected Espy after the launch. “Especially in the final countdown, because everything depended on our engine working just right. When it finally got off the rail, I knew that we had done our job.” A serious weight lifter who can bench press 390 pounds, Espy’s only regret is that he has had to cut back on his trips to the gym during the past several months.
Prospector 1 in flight - Photo by Tony Richards
CSULB and its corporate partners believe that this cooperative project can serve as a model for future initiatives that seek to provide students real hands-on hardware experience while also advancing technology in a number of related fields. Dr. Hamid Hefazi, Chair of the Aerospace Engineering Department, attributed the project’s recent achievements to the involvement of multiple departments and their numerous corporate sponsors. “ Developing the Prospector 1 has benefited the college in two ways. The first is the obvious hardware exposure for the students, which was the original motivation for our teaming with Garvey Spacecraft Corporation. GSC is a small local company that is doing great things with respect to developing and flying real prototype reusable launch vehicles, as opposed to just paper studies. Exposure to such hardware, and the rapid prototyping culture that goes with it, is becoming increasingly important in the education process. As we all know, students these days have had much more experience with PC’s and video games than working with their hands.”
The student team with Prospector 1 after recovery - Photo by Seth Quitoriano
“The really exciting part was that this project got underway only in January of this year. In just one semester, students went through the full product cycle, from conceptual design to flight of a very complex vehicle. That’s extremely rare these days. The great thing is that now they are asking me what’s next.”
“The second important benefit is that as a university, CSU, Long Beach has demonstrated that we can draw upon the resources of not only the Aerospace Engineering Department, but also those of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and our numerous corporate partners to provide students a complete exposure to systems engineering. This capability was recently recognized by the California Space Authority, which has awarded us a grant to undertake even more ambitious research during the 2001-02 academic year as the lead university for the California Launch Vehicle Education Initiative (CALVEIN).”
Drs. Hefazi and Eric Besnard, the faculty lead for the Prospector 1 project, now have a new problem to deal with – what to do with the vehicle. “The Prospector 1 was designed to be reusable. Because the recovery was flawless and the engine appears to have suffered no degradation, we could actually take it back out to the desert and fly next week. Some of the students are already pushing to use it to test new components that they want to build next semester. After this last weekend, they appreciate that flight-testing is a risky business. For us faculty members, having an actual vehicle that flew would help introduce incoming students to the project. So we may want to postpone flying the vehicle again soon. Frankly, this is a great problem to have and we will be working with Garvey Spacecraft to make that decision once things settle down.”
The program is already beginning to generate tangible benefits for both the students and the local aerospace industry. After the launch, Espy, who graduated on Thursday and ended up missing a graduation party because of the launch delay, received a request from an engineer at a major aerospace company for his resume. Espy hopes that the potential position will “… let me keep working on rockets.”
The vehicle also carried a payload – a small electronics telemetry experiment provided by Fisher Lights, (they also contributed the use of their 57-ft mobile launch rail). “We hope to start flying such experiments on a regular basis starting this fall as part of the CALVEIN effort,” said Dr. Besnard.
In addition to Garvey Spacecraft Corporation, Fisher Lights and the RRS, other sponsors of the Prospector 1 project include Adaptive Designs of Costa Mesa, JPE Astronautics, Advanced Composite Products & Technologies and Flometrics. For additional information about either the flight test and/or the cooperative program between CSULB and Garvey Spacecraft Corporation, please contact the following project representatives:
Dr. Eric Besnard
Aerospace Engineering Dept.
California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90840
Tel: (562) 985-5442
Fax: (562) 985-1669
Email : besnarde@csulb.edu
Mr. John Garvey
Garvey Spacecraft Corporation
15641 Product Lane, Unit A5
Huntington Beach, CA 92649
Tel: (714) 903-6086 or (714) 658-6930
Email: jmgarvey@garvspace.com
The Prospector 1 team - Photo by Seth Quitoriano
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