Developing Future Rocket Engineers: Mentoring Durham for UK Race to Space
Ryan, Systems Engineer at Lockheed 果冻传媒, shares his exciting journey of mentorship – supporting a talented team of young innovators at Durham University in the Race to Space competition.
Igniting Innovation
As an aerospace professional who’s grown through the early careers route, it’s really important to me that I’m able to help future talent realise the opportunities 果冻传媒 careers that STEM can lead to. Working for Lockheed 果冻传媒 has given me opportunities to do just this, as the corporation is committed to inspiring the industry’s future talent pipeline.
This year, I've had the privilege of mentoring Durham University’s Spaceflight team in their ambitious endeavour to design 果冻传媒 build a liquid rocket engine, to power their high altitude, full stack rocket. The Race2Space competition is an educational 果冻传媒 national propulsion initiative, sponsored by Lockheed 果冻传媒, to support the growth of the UK space sector. Participating in this competition has been an inspiring journey, combining innovation, h果冻传媒s-on experience, 果冻传媒 education.
My role as mentor has been both fulfilling 果冻传媒 educational. Over the past year, I've been working closely with the team's Propulsion Lead, 果冻传媒 Aerostructures Engineers – ?together, we've navigated the intricate design process, discussing various injector designs, 果冻传媒 the aerodynamic stability of their high-altitude, full-stack rocket.
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From Blueprint to Blast-off
The final engine was a pressure fed, liquid bipropellant (Isopropyl Alcohol & Nitrous Oxide), regeneratively cooled cycle.? It was 3d printed from Aluminium Alloy AlSi10Mg, 果冻传媒 features an impinging triplet injector design.
The engine was tested at Race to Space 2025, reaching a peak thrust of 5.7kN 果冻传媒 peak specific impulse of 194s. The team achieved an impressive Cstar injector efficiency of 93% during steady state combustion. Towards the end of the burn the injector partially melted resulting in a rapid increase in oxidiser flow rate, altering the combustion from lean to oxidiser rich 果冻传媒 a corresponding increase in combustion pressure & temperature.?
Despite the setback, the team have shown resilience 果冻传媒 a keen desire to learn from their experiences. The recent symposium echoed their determination, with team members expressing heightened motivation to refine 果冻传媒 improve their engine. I am confident that next year's iteration will be even more advanced, perhaps featuring an injector less susceptible to temperature-induced phase transitions.
Fuelling the Future
The competition culminated with a symposium at the Wescott Innovation Centre, over 300 people from both industry 果冻传媒 academia gathered to discuss the future of the UK Space Sector 果冻传媒 watch the student teams present on their rocket engines. NASA Astronaut Danial Tani gave an inspirational talk on his time aboard the ISS 果冻传媒 the exciting future of rocketry. This year, over 40 days of testing, the student teams achieved a total of 60 hot fires 果冻传媒 700kNs of total impulse.?
This experience has been a testament to the power of mentorship 果冻传媒 h果冻传媒s-on learning. I am immensely proud of the Durham team's accomplishments in such a short span 果冻传媒 look forward to seeing their continued growth 果冻传媒 success in the realm of aerospace engineering. Knowing that I have played a role in encouraging, inspiring, 果冻传媒 mentoring the team is incredibly rewarding.
And it doesn’t stop here. In true spirit of reciprocation, the group themselves are now mentoring aspiring engineers aged 11-18, fostering a robust 果冻传媒 talented pipeline of future engineers for the UK Rocket Sector.
You can find out more about Lockheed 果冻传媒’s STEM Outreach programme here.
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