EPFL Rocket Team

🚀💫Last Wednesday was a big day for the EPFL Rocket Team! We had the honor of hosting Anna Fontcuberta-Morral, the newly appointed president of EPFL—and the first woman to take on this prestigious role. During her visit, we gave her a tour of our Design and Manufacturing Laboratory (DLL) and Propulsion and Payload Hub (PPH), where she got to meet our team- see where the magic happens- and learn more about our projects. It was a very fruitful exchange, she asked insightful questions and showed interest in our work! We also had the pleasure of giving her some special souvenirs to mark the occasion and ended the day with an apéro. This visit left us excited about the possibilities for future interactions and collaborations under her leadership, which officially begins in 2025. Here’s to building even stronger connections within the EPFL community as we aim for the stars! Main Sponsors: APCO Technologies SA | EPFL | Constellium Gold Sponsors: Kistler Group | maxon | 3D PRECISION SA | Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Technology (SBOT) | Swagelok Switzerland | ARBOR Fluidtec AG

🎙️ BIG NEWS FROM THE EPFL ROCKET TEAM Last Wednesday, we had the pleasure of welcoming Sylvain Lavey from LFM, La radio for a special episode of his web series “Ici c’est vous…”! The interview was super dynamic—Sylvain asked some amazing questions, and we managed to record everything in one take. It was a great experience sharing our journey, challenges, and projects with him. Our episode will be out soon on all LFM platforms and podcast services. Stay tuned to find out when it drops—you won’t want to miss it! Main Sponsors: APCO Technologies SA | EPFL | Constellium Gold Sponsors: Kistler Group | maxon | 3D PRECISION SA | Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Technology (SBOT) | Swagelok Switzerland | ARBOR Fluidtec AG

🚀 ICARUS: GIMBAL TESTS UPDATE 🚀 The gimbal of the Icarus project is designed to guide the rocket engine with two degrees of freedom, ensuring stability for our hopper vehicle during flight. Here’s the latest on our progress: - Traction test: The gimbal held up to 3600 N, three times the required 1200 N needed to handle the thrust of our bi-liquid engine, Hyperion. - Compression test: It withstood up to 1000 N, comfortably meeting the 10G vertical acceleration requirement. - Cyclic tests: To simulate flight conditions, we ran the gimbal through cycles of 1500 N in traction and 400 N in compression—repeatedly pushing it to the limit. You can see the results in the graphs below. Up next: vibration tests to ensure the gimbal performs flawlessly in the harshest conditions. Stay tuned for more updates! Main Sponsors: APCO Technologies SA | EPFL | Constellium Gold Sponsors: Kistler Group | maxon | 3D PRECISION SA | Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Technology (SBOT) | Swagelok Switzerland | ARBOR Fluidtec AG

🚀 🔥 Firehorn Structural Development Update with APCO Technologies SA 🔥 🚀 This week marked a significant step forward in Firehorn’s structural design, made possible by the expertise and resources provided by APCO Technologies SA . We focused on improving some components of our rocket through state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques: • Carbon-Honeycomb Panel Fabrication: We constructed lightweight, high-strength panels with carbon plates and a Nomex honeycomb core, engineered for Firehorn’s fins. • Structural Rods Production: We used a CNC and a Dremel to cut carbon rods out of a previously manufactured plate. These rods are the main structural elements of the launcher and will undergo tensile, friction, and buckling tests to confirm their performance. • Nosecone Production Optimization: To be able to manufacture our largest nosecones ever at almost 1m length, we tested laminating over high-temp PETG 3D-printed molds. As always, we extend our gratitude to APCO Technologies SA and the dedicated team members who contributed to these advancements! Stay tuned for further progress 🔥 Main Sponsors: APCO Technologies SA | EPFL | Constellium Gold Sponsors: Kistler Group | maxon | 3D PRECISION SA | Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Technology (SBOT) | Swagelok Switzerland | ARBOR Fluidtec AG #EPFLRocketTeam #Firehorn #Rocketry #Innovation #Engineering

⛑️ Safety is a core priority for the EPFL Rocket Team, especially as our testing facility becomes increasingly operational. On Friday morning, team leaders, system engineers, and other eager members of ERT joined a fire safety and first aid training organized by the EPFL firefighters, safety volunteers, and our very own Jeremy Jariod , our chief safety officer, who is also part of the EPFL first-aid responders. We covered different types of fires and extinguishing techniques, practiced with real fires and extinguishers, and learned essential first aid basics—how to handle burns, manage general injuries, apply the recovery position, and perform CPR, as well as went over the safety strategies in place at our testing facility. This experience was invaluable, and we’re planning to organize more sessions for all interested team members to keep everyone safe and prepared! 🔥 🚀 Main Sponsors: APCO Technologies SA | EPFL | Constellium Gold Sponsors: Kistler Group | maxon | 3D PRECISION SA| Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Technology (SBOT)| Swagelok Switzerland | ARBOR Fluidtec AG

Last week, our Space Race project held an avionics and PCB (Printed Circuit Board) design workshop aimed at teaching first-year students the basics, and the AV part was presented by special guest Cyprien Lacassagne, a team leader in our competition project! It was a fantastic opportunity for them to dive into hands-on electronics work, learn foundational design techniques, and get a feel for what makes our projects come to life. Seeing as it was on Halloween, we also had some fun carving pumpkins—mixing engineering with spooky creativity! 🎃 --- Main Sponsors: APCO Technologies SA | EPFL | Constellium Gold Sponsors: Kistler Group |maxon |3D PRECISION SA | Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Technology (SBOT)| Swagelok Switzerland | ARBOR Fluidtec AG

Competition Update: CFD Analysis for Firehorn’s Flight Optimization 🚀 Last semester, the Flight Dynamics subsystem of the Firehorn project worked hard on CFD analysis of the Firehorn Launch Vehicle. The purpose of these simulations was to determine the distribution of the thermomechanical loads encountered during flight to improve the design of critical components, such as the fins and the nosecone. To achieve this, steady-state simulations at Max-Q flight conditions (Ma 1.5, ~3000m altitude) were performed at 0° and 5° angles of attack. The simulations were carried out using ANSYS Fluent and then sent to the EPFL SCITAS clusters to accelerate computations. The results were verified using standard compressible fluid mechanics theory, including normal shock and isentropic flow relations. After validation, crucial data was transferred to the Structures subsystem to refine the design of the nosecone and fins, which have begun being manufactured last week. A huge thank you to CADFEM (D-A-CH) for their support with the Fluent set up and to the EPFL Scientific IT & Application Support (SCITAS) team for helping us use their HPC clusters. 🙏 Stay tuned for updates on the manufacturing of the carbon fiber nosecone and fins! 🛠️✨ --- Main Sponsors: APCO Technologies SA | EPFL | Constellium Gold Sponsors: Kistler Group | maxon | 3D PRECISION SA | Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Technology (SBOT) | Swagelok Switzerland | ARBOR Fluidtec AG

🚀Icarus project Update!🚀 We recently completed our first Test Readiness Review (TRR) for the Icarus project, a crucial checkpoint to ensure we’re ready for testing. This review covered Structure and Propulsion, making sure everything is prepared, from our setups to safety measures, here are the first introductory slides for context! The TRR helped us outline our goals and procedures to keep things on track, and steadily move towards our end goal. Stay tuned!🚀 Main Sponsors: APCO Technologies SA| EPFL | Constellium Gold Sponsors: Kistler Group| maxon | 3D PRECISION SA | Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Technology (SBOT)| Swagelok Switzerland | ARBOR Fluidtec AG

ERT team building activity : Hike at Rochers de Naye ⛰️🚀 Last week, we decided to take a break from challenging the student rocketry scene, and challenged ourselves to hike 1,6 km to the summit of the Rochers de Naye. The weather was great, and our perseverance was rewarded with breathtaking views. It was a day filled with conversations and fun , and some of our members even took the opportunity to paraglide! These experiences bring our whole team together, and make sure that our spirit is higher than ever for all the work to come. Main Sponsors: APCO Technologies SA | EPFL |Constellium Gold Sponsors: Kistler Group | maxon | 3D PRECISION SA |Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Technology (SBOT) |Swagelok Switzerland | ARBOR Fluidtec AG

Last week, Space Race V, our competition designed to teach newcomers the fundamentals of rocketry in a fun and engaging way, held its second workshop 🚀! After the kick-off, this time we taught participants how to use OpenRocket: a powerful and useful software for rocket design and simulation. With it, they can create digital models of their rockets, custom them with the correct components, and simulate their flights. By inputting their choice of motor, they can also get valuable data and graphs about the rocket’s flight behavior. We were also honored to have Michaël Fuser, a system engineer working on our Firehorn competition rocket, to speak about how the simulations done on OpenRocket can be linked to more complex ones used in competition settings. We are proud to see our new members getting more dedicated with each passing week, and cannot wait to keep nurturing their passion and curiosity!🚀 Main Sponsors: APCO Technologies SA | EPFL |Constellium Gold Sponsors: Kistler Group | maxon | 3D PRECISION SA Schoeller-Bleckmann Oilfield Technology (SBOT) Swagelok Switzerland | ARBOR Fluidtec AG |