NUSTARS Rocket, Rocket Engine, and Lunar Rover

About NUSTARS

Welcome! NUSTARS, Northwestern University’s Space Technology and Rocketry Society, is home to three engineering teams: lunabotics, rocketry, and propulsion. Each team gives Northwestern students hands-on experience designing, building, and testing real aerospace systems. This year, all three teams are pushing further than ever before: toward a more autonomous lunar rover, a rocket built to fly higher and faster than any we've flown before, and Northwestern's first-ever liquid rocket engine.

It will be the space technology team’s second year competing in NASA's Lunabotics competition. Last year we won the Nova Award for Stellar Systems Engineering by a first year school, placing 14th of 47 teams in systems engineering, with our lunar excavation rover that we showcased on North Beach for students, faculty, and alumni! This year, our team is taking a giant leap in autonomy by adopting LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), sweeping the terrain with a laser to build a 3D "point cloud" map that lets our rover navigate, excavate lunar regolith simulant, and construct berms with zero human intervention. We’re also launching a new R&D division to study how FDM parts interact with lunar regolith as we improve the strength and traction of our wheels. Overall, our goal is to develop a rover that better reflects the technology NASA needs for real lunar missions!

Last year, our Rocketry team competed against 140+ teams at the International Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) for the first time in NUSTARS history. The project, named ATLAS, featured a deployable payload with a reefed-parachute recovery sequence: the payload used a reaction wheel to stabilize the roll axis, allowing the team to use photogrammetry to create a map of the touchdown area. The launch vehicle had robust structures that allowed it to fly to 10,000 feet, along with innovative systems such as live onboard video for the live video challenge and an aluminum fin-clamp system selected for a podium session. This year, we're aiming even higher, likely breaking the sound barrier. This requires stronger airframes, bulkheads, and a bigger motor, plus in-house carbon fiber manufacturing and topology-optimized bulkheads to keep weight down. Our payload is our most ambitious yet, with concepts like a self-steering lander, rovers, and midair terrain mapping, alongside a new aerocontrols subsystem for precise apogee and trajectory control. Over the next nine months, members of NUSTARS Rocketry will design, build, and fly this high-power rocket and payload, building on what the team has learned about electronics, structural design, and composites manufacturing, and gaining invaluable hands-on engineering experience.

The propulsion team focuses on the development of liquid rocket engines, designing subsystems and utilizing techniques found throughout the propulsion industry to give its members hands-on experience in the field. The team is developing Northwestern's first-ever liquid rocket engine, giving members hands-on experience across design, manufacturing, and testing. Having already tested our augmented spark igniter, we're now building the engine's nozzle, injector, and supporting test infrastructure. This includes custom propellant tanks, a trailer-mounted test rig, and control/data acquisition systems, which will be designed and fabricated ahead of cold-flow and hot-fire testing. This year's groundwork sets up future work with liquid oxygen and regenerative cooling, a major step in our club’s technological capabilities.

Across all three teams, this year's projects are some of the most ambitious in NUSTARS history: an autonomous lunar rover, a supersonic rocket, and Northwestern's first liquid engine. To make these ambitions a reality and continue to scale our organization, we need our help. Our goal is to secure at least $15,000 of funding which will go towards the most crucial roadblocks in our rover, rocket, and liquid rocket engine development. Your support will help make these designs a reality!

Lunabotics 2026: Going autonomous with LiDAR
This year, our rover is taking a giant leap in autonomy by adopting LiDAR (light detection and ranging), the same laser-mapping technology used in self-driving cars like Waymos, to build a point cloud of its surroundings. That map will power a fully autonomous navigation system, letting the rover traverse lunar terrain, excavate regolith simulants, and construct berms without any human intervention during competition. A LiDAR system requires components such as the laser emitter, an optical scanning mechanism, the photoreceiver, and timing and signal processing; this hardware could add upwards of $1,500 to the rover’s total cost.

Rocketry 2026: Reaching new heights with active control
In the past, the team attempted to control our apogee using an airbrake system that increases the drag forces on the rocket. This year, the team aims to build on these developments by designing a subsystem that can actively control pitch and yaw, or “tilt,” of our launch vehicle to allow for precise apogee and trajectory control. This will be an ambitious project, involving custom electronic PCBs, sensors, motors, mechanical components, and vehicle structural reinforcement that the team needs funding for.

One of our key projects from last year, a modular fin can system from the IREC 2025 podium session. While typical rockets have permanently epoxied fins, this system was designed to be disassembled for individual fin replacement.

Propulsion 2026: Tanks for Northwestern's first liquid engine
Having already tested our Augmented Spark Igniter, the Propulsion Team is now developing the pressurized tanks that will hold our rocket’s fuel and oxidizer! These tanks will require tight tolerance custom stainless steel and aluminum components to ensure they can be pressurized high enough to drive the engine without leakage. These tanks will integrate into our test bed trailer and allow for testing of future propellants in our engines, such as liquid oxygen. To iterate and test our tank design, NUSTARS will need to purchase large stock materials and manufacturing tooling.

Suggested Gift Levels:
$25 - Help us buy nuts and bolts to keep everything together!
$50 - Help us buy a structural bulkhead to keep our fuel pressurized!
$100 - Help us buy electronics to make our rover smarter!
$150 - Help us buy a carbon fiber fin to keep our rocket flying straight!
$250 - Help us buy the very first NUSTARS rocket engine nozzle!

The benefits and services provided by Northwestern University’s student groups are available to all students without regard to any category protected by the law. The University believes different perspectives, experiences and backgrounds are critical to a dynamic and vibrant University community, and as such all students are welcome and encouraged to join each group. Any student interested in exploring establishing a new affinity group should contact SOA.