Building nano-satellites has become popular lately. Remember the PongSats and CubeSats? More and more companies and institutions are getting involved in small and nano-scale satellites, packed with electronics and communication and research capabilities. However, the most expensive part remains the earth to space transportation cost.
DIYRockets, a global space company helping humanity establish a civilization in space by building an open space frontier, is organizing a challenge to promote innovation and cost effectiveness in small payload delivery through the devel-opment of open source collaboratively designed 3D printed rocket engines. The challenge is open to anyone that can come up with a capable design of 3D printed rocket engine that could become a part of a propulsion system and vehicle that would then carry the tiny satellites up into space.
This challenge is the first step in DIYROCKET using 3D printing for space exploration. They are aiming to develop a series of competitions in order to design technology parts and systems to achieve their goal of sending payloads to space. The long term vision include hundreds of competitions for different space technologies, products and parts; literally, building everything from satellites to robots to space medical sensors.
The objective for the first challenge is to create collaborative design and business cases for secure and low cost 3D printed rocket engines that would have the capability to carry a 5 – 10 kg object into the Low Earth Orbit.
Please see the full details of the Challenge below:
Summary of Rules and Guidelines
Your design must be open source.
Please see the design and technical requirements of 3D printing by visiting the Shapeways Material Overview and Design Guide for 3D printing stainless steel.
Your design must be safe and legal according to your local jurisdiction.
See the competition Rules and Team Agreement for full details.1st Prize for Best Overall Rocket Engine Criteria:
TECHNICAL CRITERIA: Is your design likely to meet the basic technical require-ments necessary for delivering a small payload into low earth orbit? Will your rocket achieve the necessary thrust, burn time and not melt? Is your design efficient and using minimal propellant? Is your design safe?
COLLABORATIVE DESIGN CRITERIA: Did you engage in collaborative design ef-forts during the competition? Did you publicly post your design as early as pos-sible, sharing and receiving meaningful feedback with other entrants and the public and incorporating that feedback into your decision process if you think it could improve the design?
BUSINESS CASE: Is your design cost-efficient for the emerging small payload industry? Is it more competitive than current products that exist? Does your design offer any new innovations or features?
Student Prize for Best Overall Rocket Engine Criteria:
Judging criteria for this prizes is the same as 1st Prize for Best Overall Rocket Engine Criteria but is awarded for a design submitted by a team of students from an educational institution.
Collaborative Design Prize Criteria:
Did you engage in collaborative design efforts during the competition? Did you publicly post your design as early as possible, sharing and receiving meaningful feedback with other entrants and the public and incorporating that feedback into your decision process if you thought it could improve the design?
Competition Schedule
Registration open until April 6, 2013, 11:59 PM PST
First 3D Draft of Design due April13, 2013, 11:59 PM PST.
Concept Note due April 13, 2013, 11:59 PM PST
Business Case due June 1, 2013, 11:59 PM PST
Final Design due June 1, 2013, 11:59 PM PST
Winners announced by July 1, 2013
Source: DIYROCKETS
