About Rice Eclipse

We are Rice University’s student rocketry team. Our mission is to enrich the undergraduate and graduate education of our members with project-based learning to develop cutting edge aerospace technologies. We develop launch vehicles for intercollegiate rocketry competitions, rocket engines, avionics hardware & software - and more!

Rice Eclipse is a diverse and constantly growing club, expanding from 5 to over 50 members since its founding in 2014. Majors represented include materials science, computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, economics, and many more!

Our ranks include undergraduate and graduate students. Our members learn practical skills like design and fabrication from their peers long before they encounter these topics in their courses. We are brought together by a passion for learning and innovation, and every member is dedicated to helping their teammates reach their full potential as future engineers and scientists, no matter their skill or academic level.

If you are a Rice student interested in joining our endeavor, please reach out to us! New member interest and intro meetings are held at the beginning of each semester. The dates, times, and locations of intro meetings will be posted on this website. No applications, just show up and explore what our various teams are working on!

Get Involved

Projects

Learn more about archimedes

Archimedes

Archimedes is the realization of Rice Eclipse’s long-term goal of competing in the 30,000 foot SRAD division of the Spaceport America Cup that took flight in 2024! Archimedes is completely designed and fabricated in-house by our Aerodynamics Team and powered by Titan II, our in-house developed hybrid rocket engine. This year, Archimedes reached an apogee of 26,000 ft and won First Place in the 30k SRAD division, making history for Rice Eclipse!

Learn more about Icarus and Dædalus

Icarus and Dædalus

Icarus and Dædalus is Eclipse’s 2023 Spaceport America Cup competition rocket, competing in the 30,000 ft Commercial off the Shelf division. This is the first dual stage high-powered rocket built by our Aerodynamics team, which new staging telemetry encorporated. It features in-house manufactured fins, body tubes, and couplers, as well as machined internal structures. In addition, each stage features a dual-separation recovery system. The payload involves deploying an autonomous drone at an altitude of 3,000 feet, which will then take photos of the ground below and use computer vision algorithms to stitch these images together, generating a georeferenced map of the terrain. It also houses an SRAD flight telemetry system which transmits flight data in real time to an SRAD ground station.

Learn More about Proxima

Proxima

Proxima is Eclipse’s ground test hybrid engine; it is a 10:1 scale model of Titan II by impulse, produces 92 lbf of thrust, and exhaust velocities exceeding Mach 2! The engine was first conceived for three main reasons: to gather more accurate data for large engine development, achieve high testing cadence with full and rapid reusability, and iterate on a variety of new components with high modularity.

Learn more about Titan II

Titan II

The Titan engine series (Titan & Titan II) is Rice Eclipse’s program to develop a flight-optimized hybrid rocket engine. Titan and Titan II use an HTPB mixture as solid fuel and liquid nitrous oxide as oxidizer. Titan II is Rice Eclipse's student-designed, flight-optimized hybrid rocket engine. The HTPB / nitrous oxide engine was used to propel the Archimedes launch vehicle to 26,000 ft at the 2024 Spaceport America Cup, winning Rice Eclipse the 30k SRAD Hybrid division!

Learn more about Avionics

Rice Eclipse Software for Engine Testing & ARCA

RESFET is Rice Eclipse’s proprietary software package for hybrid rocket engine tests. ARCA is Eclipse’s ground system control software for engine tests. It outputs commands, such as igniting the engine, controlling the valves, and regulating the heating tape on the engine oxidizer tank.