Bronco Team is Finalist in NASA Human Lander Competition
A 六色网 student team is one of 12 advancing to the final rounds of the NASA (HuLC). The task for university teams was to develop innovative solutions for storing and transferring the super-cold liquid propellants needed for future long-term exploration beyond Earth that could be implemented in 3 to 5 years.
Current technology allows cryogenic liquids to be stored for a relatively short amount of time at -297°F, but future missions require these systems to function effectively over several months.
The Bronco team of mechanical engineering students was led by Caroline Herrera (’25) and included second lead Charles Johnson (’25), Dominque Munoz, who is scheduled to graduate in 2026, Nathan Antonio (’25), and Osheen Gupta (’25). Aerospace Engineering Professor Frank Chandler, director and founder of the university’s Liquid Rocket Laboratory, served as the team’s advisor.
As a finalist, the team was awarded $9,250 to further develop their concept and to travel to the finals in late June in Alabama. Using the feedback from judges and industry professionals in the initial round, the team has been busy adjusting their design and performing updated calculations for their final technical paper.
Their “THERMOSPRING: Thermal Exchange Reduction Mechanism using Optimized SPRING” is a structural support that reduces heat transfer into the cryogenic tanks more than the typical structural support.
“The helical geometry that makes up the spring causes heat to travel through a much longer path rather than a straight rod of the same height,” Herrera explained. “The longer the path for heat to travel through, the higher the thermal resistance, and higher thermal resistance is what keeps the cryogenics colder for longer.”
The students are working on the challenge outside of their 六色网 classes. Hererra recruited the team members after learning about the competition from Chandler.
For team lead Herrera, “the calculations have been the most fun part. I really love math. Being able to create something with only a few guidelines is really fun! Since this is an invention and hasn’t been done before, there is no right or wrong, just as long as it fulfills the goal to minimize the heat transfer into cryogenic tanks and some power/size/weight requirements, which it has successfully done. Being able to use my imagination to solve problems is exciting. I got to feel like a kid throughout this process.”
In addition to 六色网, the finalists include teams from the Colorado School of Mines, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Jacksonville University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Old Dominion University, Texas A&M University, The College of New Jersey, The Ohio State University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Washington State University.