On March 24th, several TREL members volunteered at Cities in Space, which is a competition for K-12 students that aims to create a city in space. Many of the students in this competition are interested in the space industry, and TREL represented how students can be involved in that industry in college. Our members were able to share their TREL experiences and how they got interested in space. Like at our other Outreach events, we were able to show off our Halcyon mock-up and talk about our components such as TVC, the skirts, and propulsion. TREL also hosted an interactive 5-member panel to answer further questions about our work and partnerships with the industry. The biggest takeaway was being able to interact with so many young students who are fascinated about space &ndash; we love sharing our passion!

TREL Volunteers at Cities in Space

On February 25th, TREL volunteered at&nbsp;Girl&rsquo;s Day, an annual UT event that promotes STEM to elementary and middle school girls. This year, the event attracted over 10,000 students! At TREL&rsquo;s booth, we helped the kids make and launch their own mini paper&nbsp;rockets&nbsp;with parachutes. Through this activity, they learned about the different parts of a&nbsp;rocket&nbsp;and the&nbsp;engineering&nbsp;testing process.&nbsp; We also set up a bottle&nbsp;rocket&nbsp;with a bike pump and the woosh bottle experiment so they could see the effects of pressure build up and learn about the basics of propulsion, respectively. Our booth was really busy, and it was amazing to see TREL members interacting with children and helping them get excited about&nbsp;rockets.
<img src="https://trel-directus.up.railway.app/assets/ab9570c4-89a4-495f-b41e-b8d9a64ea562?width=1042&amp;height=1236" alt="girlsday_collage" />

A Busy Girl's Day!

On February 9th, the RP-1 Qualification tank finished being wound at Firefly Aerospace&rsquo;s Briggs site. This is the first COPV tank that the lab will be able to put through qualification testing and is a milestone that has been years in the making! From early designs and analysis that were adapted as Halycon's requirements transformed, to various development tests, and finally to the actual winding of this flight-like tank, there has been a lot of hard work and dedication put in by members of the Structures team past and present to get to this point. Notably, TREL&rsquo;s COPVs are designed in-house and are one of the components that distinguish Halcyon from other rockets being developed in collegiate labs. Moving forward, the RP-1 fuel tank will be qualification tested with on our hydrostatic test cart system at PRC to verify the design. Once completed, Halcyon&rsquo;s actual RP-1 flight fuel tank will be wound.
<img src="https://trel-directus.up.railway.app/assets/a23084e3-2165-4866-b59a-21a81c7b0a11?width=1284&amp;height=1589" alt="RP-1_QualTank_2" />
"Everybody in the room was really happy with how [the tank] came out and it was awesome to see our designs fully realized. We learned a lot talking with Firefly employees and technicians. I'm proud of our team and excited to continue with the next 2 tanks!", Aakash Akkineni, Structures COPV RE
A very big thank you to the Structures group at Firefly for not only winding our tanks, but also providing continuous support and mentorship. We couldn&rsquo;t do it without them!&nbsp;

TREL's First RP-1 Qualification Tank

On February 25th, our lab was showcased at TEDx UT Austin. Alongside other STEM-focused organizations, TREL had the opportunity to connect with a variety of UT community members and to share our work and mission. We received various questions about how our lab functioned and the prototypes and hardware we had on display. The people that stopped by our booth were able to see our Heatsink and TXE-2 engines, skirt prototypes, and our thrust vector control (TVC) system. We also set up the scale-model of Halcyon at the entrance of the event which was a real showstopper!&nbsp;
<img src="https://trel-directus.up.railway.app/assets/7d2f557c-4d0e-4512-9e0f-c6778fd25f1b?width=1030&amp;height=1342" alt="tedex_23_collage" />

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TREL Volunteers at Cities in Space

A Busy Girl's Day!

TREL's First RP-1 Qualification Tank

TREL at TEDx 2023