How to manage a rocketry student project in full quarantine

Abstract

The Fénix Project was created by a multidisciplinary team of forty students that aims to design and build a rocket totally Student Researched and Developed (SRAD), capable of reaching three thousand metres of altitude to participate in universitary rocket launch competitions in Europe. It was born from the will of students at the University of Beira Interior (UBI) and the University of Coimbra (UC) who in 2022 have the goal to participate in the European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC), organised by the Portuguese Space Agency, and to present a high powered solid rocket. In the desired category, students have to develop a motor from scratch and produce its solid fuel. Due to the current pandemic situation it was impossible, on the one hand, to hold face-to-face meetings regarding teamwork and, on the other hand, to organise fundraising events. In this way, the team was forced to develop teleworking solutions and look for other ways to get some monetary sponsorship. For this, tools such as Discord, Trello, Google Drive and Google Meets were used. The hardest thing to control on a team of so many people in a full quarantine is precisely the pace. For that, this project was based on an Agile methodology - Scrum approach - which encourages teams to learn through experience, reflecting on their own achievements and difficulties during work sprints of fifteen days, promoting continuous improvement and causing there to be a constant concern in complying with the initially defined timeline. To reward the effort allocated by students on the project, points were given to the several teams. Being compliant with the applicable standards of the European Cooperation for Space Standardisation (ECSS) also gave students a great sense of responsibility and endeavour, due to the proximity of the tasks that are performed in huge space agencies, such as the European Space Agency (ESA). With the right approach, COVID-19 effects can be mitigated without ever losing the main focus, which is facilitating the acquisition of soft-skills and hard-skills by students who want to participate and be a part of this fascinating sector.