AC Rocketry launches a second attempt at shooting for the stars
Algonquin College’s rocketry club is gearing up for its second attempt at the Launch Canada competition. After not being able to build a rocket in time for the last competition, team members are hopeful once again to be the first college team to launch a rocket in the tournament.
Owen Halldurocher, a student in the mechanical engineering technology program and one of the main contributors to the team, said time was the largest issue last August.
“We got to the last possible week to do anything and most of our members weren’t able to be present,” said Halldurocher. “And there was probably still about 100 hours of work to go into the rocket. It just wasn’t feasible at that point.”
A few things have changed for AC Rocketry. The club holds a weekly meeting in a different dusty room in the T-building and has onboarded around five new members, which makes up for members who have graduated and since moved on to other projects. But what hasn’t changed is their passion and will to succeed.
Following last August’s disappointment, the team is focused on gathering funds through sponsorships and welcoming dedicated team members to have another shot at the national title. If successful, they will be competing against universities across the country. The competition will take place in Timmins, Ont. in August 2025.
“We’re on a bit of a better footing than we were last semester,” said Halldurocher. “Basically, we aggressively slashed the scope of the project and brought the price of the rocket down by probably more than 50 per cent.”
Halldurocher said the changes to the scope of the project mean their target altitude went from around 6,705 metres to 6,300 metres, the rocket’s length went from nine to eight feet and they’ve settled on a less ambitious design of parts, including the rocket’s fins.
That will not necessarily affect the team’s chances of success, as long as they reach the parameters they have proposed to Launch Canada.
“As long as you present a rocket in the preliminary proposal that does more or less the same thing when you get to the launch date, you get a good score,” said Halldurocher. “As long as you perfectly hit that set number and everything goes off without a hitch, and none of your parts break or blow up or whatever, Then you’re good to go.”
The group still needs to gather around $3,000 to cover the cost of building the rocket and travel expenses. Halldurocher said the team is corresponding with Launch Canada and Algonquin College mechanical engineering technology professors Brian Gray and Bruno Rocha for feedback on their current plans for the rocket.
Benjamin Poirier is AC Rocketry’s newest member. The 19-year-old Montrealer is a an Algonquin College business student and said he is excited to learn and help the team however he can.
“Well, I’ve been part of the club for about two minutes now. And so far, it’s been great. Today’s my first meeting,” said Poirier. “I’m definitely excited about meeting people who know what they’re talking about and getting to learn directly from them instead of from a textbook. It would be a lot of fun.”
Poirier said he was excited to read through the club’s documents and find out it’s a very serious club with impressive engineering chops and not just a casual enthusiast collective.
This is precisely what convinced Alex Samson to join.
Samson, a new student in the mechanical engineering technology program, said the team has all it needs to achieve success, but he hopes to help his teammates with getting organized and welcoming more members.
“They have all the parts, they just need to bring them together,” said Samson. “We need people. If we don’t get more engineering-focused people soon, the club might end by graduation.”
