Scientific collaboration takes Wildcat Rocketry to NASA competition

ELLENSBURG – Every year, a dedicated team of Central Washington University students assembles a rocket, and launches it 5,000 feet into the air as part of NASA’s Student Launch(link is external) competition in Huntsville, Alabama.

Designing and assembling a rocket to the competition’s specifications takes Wildcat Rocketry nearly a full year’s work, across multiple scientific disciplines and majors. This year’s team lead, CWU physics graduate Jessica Zarkos, has discovered this interdisciplinary approach is vital to the rocket’s successful takeoff.

“It’s so exciting, getting to work with other people from different disciplines,” she said of the student club, advised by Associate Professor of Physics Darci Snowden. “If you’re only working with people from your own major, you get too stuck in the same ideas. Having fresh perspectives keeps things fun, but is also completely necessary to the build process we have.”

This year’s competition was held April 13-15, but the design for the rocket started on paper back in July 2022. The launch was preceded by a NASA Rocket Fair, where the 60 participating teams got to see each other’s work, exchange ideas, and share observations.

Next year’s Wildcat Rocketry team lead, physics major Alexander Hardiman, noted that this mutual sharing of lessons learned keeps the whole community engaged and moving forward.

“As a team, we spent over 3,000 person-hours on this,” he said. “Everyone had a specialization which they executed very, very well, and everyone was deeply invested in making it as good as it could be. So when you see someone who’s found a much more refined way of solving the same problems you faced, it’s alluring in a way. It reignites that passion to continue improving and exploring new avenues to success.”

As part of this year’s competition requirements, the rocket needed to be able to photograph its landing zone after touchdown, as well as communicate with NASA through an Automated Packet Reporting System, a data delivery method utilizing Ham radio. To accomplish these feats, the CWU team needed a dedicated software engineer for the onboard computer, which it found in computer science major Jacob Rogers.

“When you’re working with computer science, it’s not often you get to see the real-world impact of your code, so the fact that I programmed something that’s getting launched a mile into the air is exhilarating,” Rogers said. “If I were to go and program something that got sent to space, I could say that my work has left the atmosphere, and that would be amazing.”

In addition to designing, building, and programming their rocket, Wildcat Rocketry also conducts STEM outreach at local schools. Because of the broad variety of tasks involved in this work, the team sees involvement from all sorts of majors.

“Becoming interested in rocketry isn’t just, you know, the engines, the explosions, and the hull going upwards,” Hardiman said. “It’s software, it’s computer science, it’s soldering, it’s science—and engineering and physics and communication and outreach. We’ve had people from all over many different majors—English majors, public relations, all sorts. If you want to join, we’re always happy to teach, and there is so much to learn.”

Wildcat Rocketry is now recruiting new members for next year’s NASA Student Launch. Interested CWU students can reach out via the team’s Instagram page, @wildcatrocketry.

The members describe the club as an out-of-this-world experience that can’t be replicated in a classroom. The hands-on nature of the activities is equal parts educational and invigorating. Plus, it’s a good social outlet.

“I’ve met some of my best friends through Wildcat Rocketry,” Rogers said. “It’s also just a great experience. I mean, I get to go launch rockets using explosives. Who wouldn’t have fun with that? Before, I hadn’t really given much thought to aerospace or rocketry as a potential career as a computer scientist. Joining Wildcat Rocketry definitely put that on my radar, because working with rockets has been so much fun. I get to utilize my degree in ways I didn’t think possible before.”

Wildcat Rocketry is supported by the Washington Space Grant, private donors, and CWU’s College of the Sciences and College of Education and Professional Studies.