Spaceflight Company Puts Out Call for 3D Rocket Engine Designs

DIYRockets is looking for rocket designers --- from anywhere.

The California-based private spaceflight company is seeking printable, 3D designs for rocket engines to be used for small payload deliveries into low-Earth orbit.

The company thinks someone on the Internet will have what it's looking for.

DIYRockets, in collaboration with Sunglass, a cloud-based collaborative design environment, has launched an online competition called the 3D Rocket Engine Design Challenge, a contest, according to the company's Website,  intended to "promote innovation and cost effectiveness in small payload delivery through the development of open source collaboratively designed 3D printed rocket engines."

In other words, the competition is a way to get creative people from throughout the world to work together on designing rocket engines for a fraction of the cost it would take to design them the old fashioned, face-to-face way.

The first prize winner for the best engine design will get $5,000.

"This is the first step in what we hope will be a series of competitions to design technology parts and systems (propulsion systems, launch vehicles) to achieve our goal of sending payloads to space," a statement on the DIYRockets site reads. "Our long-term our vision is to launch hundreds of competitions for different space technologies, products, and parts, building everything from satellites to robots to space medical sensors."

The 3D Rocket Engine Design Challenge will be judged by inventor Dean Kamen, NASA space researcher and author Angelo Vermeulen and a panel of industry experts.

"As NASA's push towards private and public innovation finally comes to fruition and technology is now more affordable than ever, we see this as a greenfield opportunity to truly redefine space design and technology," said Darlene Damm, DIYRockets' co-founder and co-president.

Design teams will be able to use Sunglass's cloud-based platform to create booster engine designs using a variety of 3D design software options.

Sunglass co-founder Nitin Rao said the platform developer was hoping to "see a preview of the incredible impact that 3D printing and cloud collaboration will have in advancing aerospace technology."

Contestants must submit the first drafts of their designs by 11:59 p.m., April 13. The winner will be announced July 1.

Anyone wanting to register for the 3D Rocket Engine Design Challenge or learn more about DIYRockets can visit the company's Website at https://www.openspaceuniversity.org/#!rocketchallenge/c22xk.