Jacob Blocker Email & Phone Number

Redondo Beach, Ca, Us

Redondo Beach, Ca, Us

Hawthorne, California, United States

As the Vice President of Engineering, I led the high level design and manufacturing of the club's competition rocket, Intrepid. Intrepid was the largest and most powerful rocket ever designed and built by Cyclone Rocketry and was designed to fly to 30,000ft.

As the propulsion team lead for the 2021-2022 academic year, I led a group of students in the design, manufacture, and testing of large solid rocket motors. Given launch vehicle information and targeted apogee, I headed development of the most cost effective propulsion solution. I also helped in the development of novel rocket propellant formulations, created ballistic simulators to model motor combustion, and laid groundwork for future hybrid rocket motors. As the leader of the propulsion team, I also led the research and development of the most powerful solid rocket motor ever developed at Iowa State University.

Conduct research in the Energetic Materials Combustion Laboratory regarding the combustion of solid rocket propelled ejection seats for fighter aircraft. In this role, I am able to work with industry partners and refine custom developed ballistic algorithms to compute motor characteristics over time. Using empirical data, I also create custom models to predict the flame-spread throughout the motor during ignition transients to better predict the performance of future motor designs.

Ames, Iowa, United States

As an undergraduate researcher in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, I am helped write the curriculum for an aerospace engineering course regarding solid rocket propulsion. I was responsible for detailing how solid rocket motors operate, how they are tested, and how performance parameters can be derived from such tests.

Ames, Iowa

Responsible for operating CNC mills within the workshop used for research article manufacture. Given criteria from researchers in the adjacent lab, I create CAD models, use CAM software to generate toolpaths, and subsequently manufacture parts via CNC mills.

Kennedy Space Center

As a NASA Pathways intern, I assessed commercial launch vehicle provider's liquid and solid propulsion systems for the Launch Services Program. Given past test data and anomaly reports from launch vehicle contractors, I independently evaluated the risk to the mission at hand, generated reports of engine faults, their implications, and current mitigation efforts. I then presented these reports at mission briefings to the Chief Safety Officer in order to evaluate overall mission readiness. In this role I was able to work with many different launch vehicle providers and identify any non-conformances in flight hardware that may arise during manufacturing and testing.

Bachelor'S Degree, Aerospace, Aeronautical And Astronautical Engineering, Senior

Activities and Societies: Cyclone Rocketry

Education record

Activities and Societies: Robotics Team, President of National Science Honor Society, National Honor Society