Nether

Project “The Nether” – Liquid Rocket Engine Development | Illinois Institute of Technology

“The Nether” is a liquid bipropellant rocket engine designed to produce approximately 720 lbf of thrust using nitrous oxide and methanol as propellants. The engine operates at 270 PSI chamber pressure with an oxidizer-to-fuel ratio of 2.577, achieving a specific impulse of 185 seconds during an ~11-second burn.

This project encompasses the full engineering lifecycle, including combustion chamber and injector design, feed system development, structural integration, and propulsion performance analysis. By leveraging nitrous oxide’s self-pressurizing properties, the system maintains a simplified and reliable feed architecture while reducing system complexity.

Through this development effort, students gain practical experience in propulsion system design, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and aerospace structures, while utilizing industry-relevant tools such as SolidWorks, MATLAB, OpenRocket, and numerical simulation methods. The project aims to surpass the current Illinois Tech altitude record and exceed 30,000 feet, advancing the capabilities of the Illinois Tech Rocketry liquid propulsion program and demonstrating the potential of student-led aerospace engineering.