AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum

I’ve traveled more by air the last 3 weeks than I have ever before, going first to New Mexico for the Spaceport America Cup, Florida for the CRS-15 launch, and now most recently, Ohio for the AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum in Cincinnati. 

This trip was with the other twelve interns of the Propulsion Academy to experience two of the three primary days of this conference. We left Sunday morning and got situated at the Westin in downtown Cincinnati. 

Photo Courtesy of AIAA

First thing Monday morning was a talk by keynote speaker, Janet Kavandi, a former astronaut of three Shuttle missions. She spoke about SLS and NASA’s future. It ended with some Q&A, and the host asked her what students could be doing if they have interests in joining NASA. She went on to say that they’ve never had a shortage of interested young engineers, so I heard that as we students are expendable. I didn’t exactly appreciate that. 

The rest of the morning included presentations by many industry representatives, professors, and students from every aspect of propulsion including airbreathing, small unmanned systems, launch vehicle propulsion, solid rocket motors, hybrid rockets, liquid engine components, monopropellants, in-space propulsion, and future propulsion systems. It was pretty great. Two I found of particular interest were a study of the RS-25 given by a grad student at UAH (I introduced myself afterwards to learn about his graduate work and internship experiences at Blue Origin) and an academic project done by several students from South African who designed a SmallSat launcher for the nation of South Africa given conservative performance and design parameters. This was a student project that covered purely on-paper design, yet there were still those “experts” in the audience who asked if they’d hot-fired their engine or built a test bed yet. I feel that the Q&A following a presentation is usually just a pissing contest for people to “preface” their question by talking for 30 seconds about their credentials, or how much they know. I’m hereby vowing to never do that myself. 

That afternoon was the highlight of the entire conference for me. I attended a panel discussion by members of the small launch vehicle industry. It featured Ron Litchford of NASA, John Fuller of Virgin Orbit, Tim Ellis of Relativity Space, and Will Coogan of Firefly Aerospace. Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s CEO, was also scheduled to speak but was unable to make it. They each gave presentations about their respective companies and then answered questions from the audience. These were three of the most engaging hours I can remember, and I wrote some 3 pages of notes about their presentations and their answers to questions about additive manufacturing, working with the government, and how small companies are targeting success in an industry largely populated by enormous companies that are older than NASA. It was fascinating both in their engineering and manufacturing processes to how they secure funding and investing. Tim Ellis was particularly engaging and offered a unique perspective since the others were in engineering. He spoke a bit more about his vision and direction for the company as they attempt to 3D print entire rockets autonomously. 

Following the Q&A, I spoke with Will Coogan personally and learned about their operations outside of Austin, TX while most rocket companies are in LA. I also spoke one-on-one with Tim Ellis and asked him about his role as CEO having had an extensive engineering background early in his career. We both watch Silicon Valley, and he said these startup space companies really do have a similar feel to Richard Hendrix and Pied Piper from the show. I told him briefly about the rocketry team, and how I really hope to be in the small launcher business. It was such a solid afternoon, and I felt positively exhausted from the excitement and mental stimulation from the day. 

That evening I emailed both Will and Tim thanking them for their time in speaking with us. Tim even wrote me back within about ten minutes and wished me good luck with the rocketry team. I was elated. 

Tuesday wasn’t of the same caliber, but that was fine because Monday was so exceptional. I attended Dr. Rouser’s presentation on turboelectric for small UAS. It was very well received with a large audience, and he was engaged in conversation for a while afterwards. We were the only ones from Oklahoma universities that we were aware of, and he did a great job of discussing OSU’s advanced capabilities in aerospace and propulsion. Following the morning’s presentations, I felt a bit burned out, so I took some introvert time alone throughout the afternoon and evening by watching Iron Man and playing Kerbal Space Program. 

We left early Wednesday morning to return to Huntsville. I was grateful for the opportunity to attend this conference, and it reaffirmed that I studied the right thing in school and am pursuing careers in the right field. I’m looking forward to how the involvement and presentations by small launchers will grow and evolve at such conferences in the future. I hope to be participating.