{"id":14484,"date":"2025-07-28T15:48:31","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T22:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/?p=14484"},"modified":"2025-09-29T09:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T16:22:12","slug":"harvey-mudds-marc-team-successful-at-far-rocketry-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/2025\/07\/28\/harvey-mudds-marc-team-successful-at-far-rocketry-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvey Mudd\u2019s MARC Team Successful at FAR Rocketry Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Mudd Amateur Rocketry Club (MARC) launched its most successful rocket to date, marking a milestone in the Harvey Mudd College student group\u2019s multi-year journey toward competitive rocketry excellence. The rocket, Gladius III, soared to over 17,000 feet and returned fully intact, earning MARC third place on the competition leaderboard at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) site in California\u2019s Mojave Desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeeing our rocket ignite, feeling the initial roar and flash of fire, that\u2019s something everyone just needs to experience,\u201d says Drake Gonzales \u201927, who helped with avionics and rocket assembly. \u201cFAR was a great opportunity to bond with the team and fall even more in love with rocketry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The launch, held Sunday, June 8, was the culmination of months of design, fabrication and last-minute problem-solving by students across class years and disciplines. Spencer Michaelson \u201928 described the experience as both technically challenging and emotionally intense: He had the \u201cnerve-wracking honor of crawling beneath the fully vertical, fueled rocket to insert the ignitor, the final step before launch,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michaelson worked on structural design, motor assembly and water jetting components for Gladius III. He says, \u201cAbout a minute after liftoff, when we saw the main chute deploy successfully, the entire team erupted into cheers and hugs, so loud that the staff had to ask us to quiet down for the next launch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pierce Gruber \u201925, structures lead, says Gladius III represented a \u201ccomplete redesign\u201d after structural failures in previous years. \u201cWe rebuilt everything from the fins to the epoxy bonding methods. There were moments I thought, \u2018There\u2019s no way this thing will fly.\u2019 But we came in the next day and figured it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rocket featured innovations like custom centering rings, epoxy optimization, a new avionics bay and an improvised GPS solution. \u201cTo help us zero in on its exact position, we had mounted several tracking devices inside the rocket, including a $165 GPS tracker and a burner phone with the Life360 location-sharing app installed,\u201d says Nikolas Hall \u201925, MARC\u2019s outgoing president. \u201cIronically, the tracker didn\u2019t work, and it was the cell phone that ultimately led us to the rocket.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacob Fain \u201926, associate structures lead, says the team \u201cpulled together to finish building Gladius III just hours before launching. We solved a number of critical problems, which was a thrilling challenge that ultimately grew my confidence as an engineer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rocket
Gladius III is 11-feet (3.35 meters) tall and weighed about 70 pounds (32 kg) at liftoff. It has two parachutes: a smaller drogue chute that deployed at apogee (the peak of the rocket\u2019s flight, about 17,180 feet above the ground) and a larger main chute that deployed 500 feet above the ground. Photo by Rai Wandeler \u201928.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Other team members contributed across subsystems, from avionics and parachutes to structural design and documentation. Felix Peng \u201928 helped assemble the rocket and its nose cone, Wilson Zambrano \u201926 helped assemble the motor on-site, Rai Wandeler \u201928 set up and ran the rocket\u2019s avionics system, Ben Simpson \u201928 designed its scientific payload and incoming MARC president Naomi Horiguchi \u201926 led recovery system efforts and coordinated rocket assembly. Several members, including avionics lead Xiyuan (Amy) Liu \u201826, were unable to attend the launch but worked on the rocket throughout the preceding year. Additional support for the team came from Machine Shop Manager Drew Price, Professor of Engineering Leah Mendelson, R. Michael Shanahan Professor of Chemistry and Associate Dean of Faculty Katherine Van Heuvelen and Administrative Coordinator Andrea Caldera. The rocket was funded by the HMC Shanahan Fund for student-directed projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen during those first few seconds Gladius III shot up in a perfect, straight line of smoke, all the work over the past four years was instantly worth it,\u201d says Gruber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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