Elara Aerospace is more than just a student club. It’s an incorporated non-profit with sky-high aerospace goals, aiming to build the world's first student-built, reusable Methalox rocket that reaches 150 km (93 miles) into orbit.
“At university, you learn a lot of theory, but there's almost no program where you learn hands-on building,” says Tobias Jäger, head of strategy at Elara Aerospace and mechanical engineering graduate student at Technical University of Munich. “With Elara Aerospace, you not only learn to do things in real life but also gain the confidence to realize your own project.”
The team is using Autodesk Fusion, which is free for universities, students and educators. Their prototyping process is fast and iterative, from the first sketches to 3D printing prototypes, assembly and testing, refining the design, and then moving to metal manufacturing.
Generative design and simulation accelerate development even further. With everything in the cloud, the team can work directly from their test site out in a field using only laptops. The accessibility and collaboration possible with Fusion are helping them get one step closer to orbit.
“What we are trying to do with sending a rocket to space on this scale is quite unheard of in an educational setting,” Jäger says. “Especially in the beginning, people said, ‘Hey guys, what you're doing, it's impossible. Just don't do it.’ We can literally make anything because we have the tools and the right mindset to try things.”
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