May 5—Some might be surprised to learn that a handful of local community college students have been building a genuine rocket motor on campus in their free time. But that is exactly what's been happening this semester in one of Bruce Schulte's physics classes at Yuba College in Marysville.
The project was started nearly two years ago by an engineering student named Noah Ebio. Ebio had been tinkering around with the project but said he hadn't been making much headway. That quickly changed in February when he was joined by five other classmates: Jasen Pritchard, Carn Heer, Shaan Sandhu, Drew McCall, and Elias Guzman.
Each of these students has a background in engineering with a slightly different focus. Pritchard, for example, specializes in electrical work and was able to finalize the motor's wiring. With a team of scientific creatives onboard, the rocket build was soon firing on all cylinders.
The group has been meeting every Sunday morning and the first prototype was tested just a few weeks ago. After several ignition attempts, the motor blasted a roaring stream of blue flames nearly two feet long, igniting the students' excitement to astronomic levels.
"The amount of celebration we had was as if we had actually blasted someone into space," Ebio said laughing.
With the prototype complete, the team has since sent over designs for a finalized project to be completed in the college's machine shop. The coordination between these two departments is something Schulte feels is extremely important.
"We want to integrate various areas of Yuba College into this activity," Schulte said. "For the students' futures, not only gaining hands-on experience with something like this but gaining experience with interfacing with our industrial arts area, it's just huge. And it further lines STEM areas under Michael Bagley, the dean, into possible collaborations with Cal State Chico and so on."
Schulte joined Yuba College in the fall of 2020. This semester marks his second full year and his first on campus. So far, this in-person return proved to be one of Schulte's most promising classes and he has been setting records on enrollment. To top things off, this is also the first time a rocket motor has been built by students on campus to Schulte's knowledge.
In his 19 years of teaching, Schulte said he has never come across a class that has both the motivation and the opportunity to pursue a build such as this. Even at larger four-year universities, students don't normally get this type of experience.
"I say it's nice being able to apply the knowledge that you're getting in class, becauseI now a lot of universities claim to do that but we're getting that at like a 10th of the cost here," Heer said, who is taking classes concurrently at Sacramento State. "In my four years of going to an institution that's accredited, I've never gotten this much attention in a class nor had this opportunity before. ... I don't think that it's something we'd get in a normal physics class."
The building of this liquid-fueled rocket motor will be used to help qualify students for a potential NASA internship as they compete in NASA's Community College Aerospace Scholars program. So far, all six have been accepted into the program which has a three-stage selection process or "missions." The first mission involves completion of a five-week online course, the second involves a STEM engineering design challenge.
"The usual thing would be to come up with a robot that would explore planets, and a lot of students are into robotics," Schulte explained. "But these students had the idea for a liquid rocket motor, and I said, 'Oh yeah, this is great,' so that's what we're doing."
"And when you hear 'NASA internship' you don't turn that down," chimed in Pritchard and Sandhu.
"Plus, who doesn't like rockets?" added Ebio
Schulte is extremely proud of his students for taking on this challenge and expects the first two missions to be completed by the semester's end. NASA's internship selections are anticipated to be announced this fall, and Schulte said that if any students are selected, it will be a first for both him as a teacher and potentially for Yuba College.
"It's really exciting," Schulte said. "If they don't gain that after this summer, they will probably be in line for an internship the following summer."
These internships could take place in any number of NASA programs across the country. For now it's a waiting game to see if and where they end up, but Schulte is adamant that their chances are good.
The students all credit Schulte and Bagley for informing them on these opportunities and helping them gain the qualifications. In addition to the NASA program, Schulte has three students who have applied for internships with Yuba Water Agency and said their prospects also look promising. Two of these applicants are Sandhu and McCall. The other is Grace Campbell, who is an aspiring landscape architect.
Schulte referred to Campbell as a "superstar" and said the odds of a landscape architecture student taking calculus-based physics in college was near zero, but Campbell said she loves the class and feels it will give her a more well-rounded advantage.
Finally, Jose Orosco, another of Schulte's students, has applied to UC Santa Barbara for a prestigious REU "research experience for undergraduates" with plans to work in astronomy. Schulte said thousands of students across the county apply for this and the fact that Orosco hasn't heard back yet is actually a good sign because it means he's still in the running.
The rocket group will be testing out the final project as early as Sunday and look forward to measuring the amount of thrust the engine generates.
"There've been road bumps here and there but we've had a lot of help through Mr. Schulte and all of his experience," Sandhu said. "And then everyone else bringing in their own areas of expertise and just evolving this project to what it is now, it's been great collaborating with everybody here."
The students hope their unique experience will inspire more people to take advantage of Schulte's classes and encourage the college to offer more engineering opportunities, particularly in agriculture. Schulte and his students explain that modern farming practices use much of the same technology as NASA and other engineering fields. Several of the students have a background in agriculture and see the connection and potential the field has with the engineering skills they've learned.
"One thing I've learned from doing this project was that it's similar to working on a farm where you kinda take what you have and make something out of it," Heer said. "And maybe it will lead into a program here at Yuba College for agricultural or some sort of practical engineering program. I haven't really seen that done anywhere, but I feel like if anywhere this would be the place."
For more information on Yuba College or to enroll, visit yc.yccd.edu.
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