Rocketry Club helps launch innovation on campus
FRESNO, Calif. — The hobby of building small-scale rockets is a niche one that many find difficulty getting into.
At Fresno State, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) club fosters community and teaches others this skill.
Located in Room 103 at Engineering West, the AIAA club hosts weekly workshops every Friday to help newcomers and experienced engineers alike.
They build small scale rockets that launch hundreds of feet in the air. The rockets range from 1 foot tall to 9 feet tall.
Hovhannes Torikyan, the president of the club, said that they put hours of work into building rockets.
“Oh man there’s been close to 24-hour days,” Torkyan said. “Especially if its tight before a launch. But with good planning it doesn’t really happen often.”
The club consists of mostly engineering majors, but Torikyan pointed out that they’ve seen some business and art majors.
AIAA Vice President Cyan Roberts praises the club for the real world experience gained.
“It really brings like what we do in classrooms, in engineering, like in books and stuff, into real life and real world and like, hands-on stuff,” Roberts said. “So I think it makes the degree worth it.”
A section of their club participates in NASA competitions in rocketry. This year’s competition requires a 9 feet rocket to launch, deploy a parachute, land safely on the ground, deploy a rover to collect a dirt sample and then test that dirt for things like moisture and minerals.
Levon Melkonyan, a mechanical engineering and physics double major, is in his second year with the club and aims to build his own engines that shoot the rockets into the air in the near future.
“We’re launching a new propulsion sub team where we will be making our own engines,” Melkonyan said. “Currently we fly pre-made motors from manufacturers for competitions for safety reasons. We’re going to go out to the desert after a lot of safety protocols to develop our own engines and doing actual rocket science here at Fresno State.”