Founded in March 2022, Aggie Propulsion Lab (APL) is a student-run liquid-fuel rocketry team. Despite being relatively young, we are one of the most ambitious teams on campus. We are working toward building UC Davis’s first liquid rocket engine, with the eventual goal of enabling Davis to design, build, test, and launch liquid-propellant rockets for years to come.
We firmly believe that project-based learning is the most effective way to acquire a complete and intuitive understanding of engineering processes. Liquid propulsion rocketry is especially effective way to educate ourselves. It is an interdisciplinary challenge that requires expertise in fluid mechanics, combustion chemistry, engineering design, metal manufacturing, and much more. Our project brings out the best of our efforts and pushes the bounds of our knowledge every day.
Our team is composed of space enthusiasts who grew up with stories of the Apollo missions and witnessed the renewed efforts for human spaceflight in the recent decade. These stories of human passion and innovation inspire us to pursue mach diamonds, supersonic flight, and push ourselves as close to the stars as we feasibly can.
Your generosity is what enables us to make our aspirations feasible. If you would like to support our rocketry journey, please consider donating.
We are a 501(c)(3) organization. In addition to financial contributions, APL is always looking for companies willing to provide materials, components, and services to get us closer to spaceflight. If you wish to help us out please get in touch or donate below.
Target Thrust
Chamber Pressure
Target Isp
Burntime
Propellants
injector
We are currently designing Engine μ, Davis's first liquid rocket engine. It will serve as a springboard for testing and development of our future, launch ready rocket engine. We aim to complete a hotfire as soon as possible so we can begin iterating and optimizing our design. Modularity is a priority in our design and every part is made to be easily assembled, disassembled, and replaced. We aim to be able to fire twice within the span of a single weekend.
Engine μ makes use of a Kerosene / LOX propellant combination and is pressure fed using regulators and high pressure nitrogen. This will allow us to maintain steady state combustion without the added complexity of pump-fed or bang-bang systems. Additionally, we are using an ablative jacket with a graphite insert nozzle to withstand the 3400K temperatures of our chamber. Ablative cooling was selected in order to accelerate our timeline to hot fire and provide a cheap way to do multiple full-length fires.
Developing an injector which successfully atomizes, mixes, and distributes propellants into the chamber.
Calculating chamber conditions, designing chamber & nozzle geometry, and manufacturing the engine.
Thermally analyzing the chamber wall, designing the cooling jacket, testing the ablative lining, & selecting materials.
Developing fluid systems & test stand needed to match specified mass flow and pressures.
Developing electrical systems needed for data acquisition, data visualization, & remote actuation.
Club organization, fundraising, grant writing, & marketing.
Active members
Hours spent
clubwide daily caffeine intake
Center for Student Involvement UC davis
Box #519 One Shields Avenue
Davis, California 95616-8706
apl@ucdavis.edu