Local high school students from Rapid City and Sturgis spent their summer at SD Mines researching and developing 3-D-printed rocket propellant; fusion bonds to make lighter, more fuel-efficient parts for the automotive and aerospace industries; and titanium biomedical implants that combat the body’s rejection of foreign objects.
Sponsored by the Army Education Outreach Program, SD Mines hosted the Research and Engineering Apprenticeship (REAP) program, which provides opportunities for high school students to conduct research for five to eight weeks alongside faculty and graduate students.
Stevens High School senior Rebecca Watts 3-D printed rocket propellant, looking at the burn characteristics, with the goal of eventually 3-D printing a rocket engine. Watts’ research was co-sponsored by the SD Space Grant Consortium.
Ultimately, the team Watts worked with wants to 3-D print any objects using energetic materials, which range from explosives and rocket fuels to gasoline and pyrotechnics. The team included
Watts, Nicholas Ritchie, an industrial engineering sophomore, Sharla Glover, a mechanical engineering senior, Derek Neubert, a chemical engineering graduate student, and Lori Groven, Ph.D., a chemical and biological engineering assistant professor.
“I really had no idea how incredible 3-D printing can be, how helpful it can be. I can 3-D print things that are almost impossible to weld or put togethe...