New rocket courses backed by lessons learned in space industry

When Joseph Gonzalez was working on Artemis II, his team was involved with addressing an anomaly. You’ll be able to see how the issue was resolved when Artemis II rolls out to the launch pad later this year. You may spot the strakes mounted on the Space Launch System core stage near Artemis II’s solid rocket boosters. They are vertical structures that help direct airflow and reduce aerodynamic loads.

It’s one example of how Gonzalez brings his real-world experience to teaching new aerospace engineering courses on rocket development, safety and leadership in The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“We saw exceedances on components,” Gonzalez said. “During ascent on Artemis 1, there were higher forces than predicted because of the airflow around the solid rocket boosters. It was a big initiative to get that fixed. We had already shipped the second vehicle to NASA, and the plan was to make modifications and install the final design solution while at the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center.”

Before joining the faculty last fall, Gonzalez spent a decade at Boeing, ultimately as the systems integration and specialty engineering manager for the Space Launch System. Now, he is teaching introduction to aerospace engineering and a new two-semester senior design course on space launch vehicles.

Additionally, he is teaching a new two-semester series on rocket development, safety and leadership. This series of courses is  required for all leads and sub leads on the five rocket teams run by registered student organizations: Spaceshot—Illinois Space Society’s competition rocket—as well as solid propulsion, hybrid propulsion, liquid propulsion and electric propulsion teams.

“As faculty advisor to the rocketry RSOs, it gives me time in class to teach them about everything that happens during the life cycle of a rocket, then additional detailed reviews outside of class when we go through all of the technical data.”

Gonzalez's Illinois students participate in key milestone reviews such as systems requirements reviews, system definition reviews, preliminary design reviews, critical design reviews, test readiness reviews and flight readiness reviews. Gonzalez bases the reviews on what he experienced at Boeing.

“In the past, this level of review was introduced to students in their senior design class,” he said. “We developed these courses because students need the information earlier in their education. They need to understand that experiential learning is key to their development during their journey here at Illinois.

“Being on the Artemis program gave me skills on how to approach a project, how to build a vehicle from start to finish—from the very inception and design, all the way to the final delivery to the customer, as well as the launch of the vehicle. We’re teaching students, not just how to build rockets, but developing team leaders that have a systems engineering mindset so they can solve problems, guide their team and execute their projects.”

Gonzalez said the fall semester will be very consistent each year, because there will always be new leaders joining the RSO teams.

“We’ll talk about risk management, how to do root cause corrective action and solve problems using Six Sigma processes—a strategy to improve quality control in manufacturing that goes from defining the problem to preventing the problem. The spring semester class will be tailored differently every year because it's going to be dependent upon the specific student projects, their needs and what topics they want to cover.”

Much like his students step up to challenges, Gonzalez said raising his hand to take on new projects was his gateway into the Artemis program.

“It was very exciting. I joined the first Artemis mission after the design was mostly complete but because it's a development program, meaning no single rocket is the exact same, there was a lot of design still happening, a lot of qualifications with suppliers and production. I was very much a part of the first mission and look forward to successful future missions as I have contributed to the second, third, fourth, and fifth launch vehicles and the upper stage vehicles.”

Over the years, he held roles in different areas of the program: fluids testing, mechanical testing, materials and processes, design support, production support, and finally systems engineering for his last four and a half years.

“I saw a lot of challenges with building a rocket or space vehicle. It’s something I bring to teaching—my experiences solving problems and the reviews that I was always a part of—that’s how I'm conducting the reviews with students today so they’re better prepared when they go into industry and participate in reviews as a part of their job.”

Gonzalez said in the reviews, students determine and communicate requirements, design solutions, concepts of operations, risk management, and open action items that are tracked as part of the reviews until they are closed.

“We’re doing the same thing in class. For example, on one team, we conducted the preliminary and critical design reviews of the rocket’s fin can. We talked about the angle, the bolts, the adhesives that you're using, the tolerancing, the dimension, the chamfer, the shape, everything.”

Because of the nature of rocketry, safety is an important component of the class. The University of Illinois Division of Research Safety is briefed on key elements of all the student teams, but Gonzalez said both Associate Director for Safety Ed Chainani and Senior Safety Engineer Jose Corral from The Grainger Office of Safety participate in weekly review meetings for these projects.

“All rocketry and rocket propulsion projects are complex and safety is paramount. The liquid powered rocket is probably the most complex project. The team from the Liquid Rocketry Initiative is building a liquid powered rocket, and needs to work on the airframe, engine, avionics, propulsion system and software to develop this integrated vehicle. To feed cryogenic liquids into the injector fast enough, they’re also developing a turbo pump. There are five key projects under that group that are all being done individually but rely on each other to plug into the final vehicle to be successful.”

Gonzalez said the LRI students were very ambitious to get to a hot fire static test this past fall semester to characterize their engine and system. That didn’t happen but he thinks they have a good shot at doing it in the spring.

“We’ve done water flow tests to characterize our models for the system. The next phase is to include cryogenic liquid nitrogen and to make sure that our systems are robust. If we get good results from that, we’ll prepare for a hot fire. When we do a hot fire test readiness review, we'll have safety involved, the Division of Research Safety, an industry peer reviewer and me. We’ll do it at a site determined off campus this spring.”

Another aspect Gonzalez stresses in his class is the importance of documenting everything along the way. Experienced engineers retire without knowledge management plans in place to document that knowledge. In the same way, a few of the student leaders in the class will graduate each year, taking their knowledge with them.

“Leadership is also a big part of this course. In the spring semester, we'll dive into scenarios that involve conflict management and how to provide feedback, because the goal is to create a culture of leaders working on these projects. These leaders would then teach others and build a pipeline of engineers to make these projects successful.

“At the end of the semester, we’ll survey all the students in the class who are not in leadership roles. They’ll rate and provide actionable feedback for their leaders on how they can be better leaders.”

Just as lessons learned on Artemis now shape future missions, Gonzalez’s experience continues its impact at Illinois. By bringing real-world flight hardware development and systems-level decision making to the classroom, he is not only teaching students how rockets and space vehicles are built, but how complex engineering programs are led, reviewed, and safely brought to life.

“My goal is to teach and develop the next generation of Illinois engineers who understand systems, take responsibility, and are prepared to step into industry ready to contribute to the future of space exploration.”