A Commercial Space Race: Shifting Paradigms in the Final Frontier

My capstone design project was designing, building, and testing a hybrid rocket engine using state-of-the art additive manufacturing methods that allowed for rapid development and optimization of key parameters that pertain to thrust. This development of new rocketry exists in the context of the militaristic history of the space industry. Analyzing the link between space technology and the military today can inform the ethical framework that engineers in the space industry take with regard to seemingly non-militaristic technology. The space industry developed in the 20th century largely as a proxy for the development of military dominance in air and space during the Cold War. The rapid development of rocketry capable of taking humans to the moon coincided with that of ballistic missiles capable of delivering city-destroying warheads to nations across the world in minutes. These advancements worked in tandem due to the applicability of rocket technology for a range of uses, both military and scientific. However, once the Cold War ended, the impetus for space technology as a whole slowed significantly, showing an inextricable link between military needs in space and civilian access to space. Today, the space industry is seeing new innovation from private companies seeking to establish access to space for a wide range of fields. My STS topic focuses on these companies, and whether they are opening the door for independence from government-sanctioned motivations in the field, if that is possible at all.
One of these seemingly non-militaristic technologies is the subject of my capstone design, a hybrid rocket engine. Every rocket engine needs an oxidizer and fuel to sustain combustion, and nearly all engines in use are either liquid (liquid oxidizer and liquid fuel) or solid (solid oxidizer and solid fuel). A hybrid rocket engine uses a liquid oxidizer and a solid fuel to obtain easier throttling, which can help both safety and efficiency when compared to liquid and solid engines. However, hybrids are typically much less powerful than other engines, due to difficulties in mixing the fuel and oxidizer and maintaining optimal ratios of the two. My capstone design team sought to address these problems with new additive manufacturing technologies like high-temperature resin and filament 3-D printing that enabled complex designs promoting mixing and optimal oxidizer-to-fuel ratios. The design and manufacturing process resulted in a hybrid engine ready for testing, but due to time and safety constraints, the team was unable to obtain useful data. However, a major goal of our project was to establish rocketry at the University of Virginia, which opens the door for more research and development of space technology at our school.
In exploring those technologies, it is vitally important to understand the ethical implications of the engineering projects one contributes to. In my STS Thesis, I researched whether or not space innovation was a contributor to the military, in light of the history of spaceflight and new private companies that seemingly provide access to space for scientific and economic benefit alone. For my research, I implemented historical analysis and Actor Network Theory to frame spaceflight in terms of power, money, and access to technology. This analysis proved useful, as a key finding showed the importance of cost to access space. Possibly the biggest contributor to the current space boom is technology that has drastically reduced the cost of launching rockets into space. This wider access has allowed more companies and gives more non-military industries the opportunity to thrive in space, which answers the question of whether commercial companies in space broaden access to the space industry. However, the versatility of technology like rockets and satellites can always be applied to military purposes. It is likely that any major industrial development in space will be accompanied by similar military development and presence.
The future in space is ripe for new industry, and the presence of private, for-profit companies in the field is emblematic of that fact. It is a certainty that more innovation in space will improve life on Earth, as has been seen through countless scientific and technological breakthroughs thus far in the field. However, the inextricable link between military and non-military technology in space necessitates a heightened ethical awareness on the part of engineers and scientists working on these technologies. For my capstone design project, research I did and parts I designed for a hybrid rocket engine may contribute to future military rocketry that delivers deadly payloads to adversaries. In my future endeavors in the space industry, I hope to be ethically conscious of this truth, and seek ways to promote greater access to space for humanity’s good.

School of Engineering and Applied Science

Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering
Technical Advisor: Chloe Dedic
Technical Advisor: Daniel Quinn

STS Advisor: Sean Murray

Technical Team Members: Gavin Miller, Harshit Dhayal, Ved Thakare, Mannix Green, Aiden Winfield,
Dominic Profaci, Thomas DeCanio, Joshua Bird, Harrison Bobbitt, Taka Suzuki, Darsh Devkar, Jack Spinnanger, Isaac Tisinger, Silas Agnew, Zach Hinz, Alex Gorodchanin, Adis Gorenca, James Dalzell