The motor
With Michael Bravo, SEDS RD President, I developed a custom liquid nitrous oxide hybrid rocket motor for IREC 2026. The motor uses a 3D printed fuel grain with complex geometry and reached 600.51 lbf peak thrust.
Testing and diagnostics
To test the motor, we developed a static fire test stand with a load cell and a fueling setup, and conducted 8 hot fires. I diagnosed and fixed defective valves, leaking piping, cryogenic temperature management, and suboptimal ignition.