S&T's high-flying Advanced Aero Vehicle Group has long been known for flying large radio-controlled airplanes that carry a payload weight roughly equal to that of a large dog, and the team is already looking to kick off the design competition season early next March in California. The aircraft makers nearly alway do very well in SAE Aero events but once the plane flies it pretty much goes into retirement, leaving a bunch of budding aerospace engineers with a lot of time on their hands. About two years ago the team came up with the idea of getting into high-altitude rocketry, so they built and launched a magnificent 10-ft high rocket that hit nearly 20,00 feet and Mach 1.4, pretty darned good for a first launch (we'd bet that NASA and the Soviets would've loved to have a great inaugural flight back in the early days of the space race).
Anyway, the Miners found out that NASA sponsors the University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL., an event that challenges students to design, build, and launch a reusable rocket that carries a scientific payload one statute mile above the launch pad, and it seemed like a perfect match.
Their '08 projectile, "Nikomedes" meaning "to think of victory", at nearly 7' long is not as big as the team's first model, but does have the challenge of carrying an instrumentation package that records much of the launch data for post-flight evaluation. This is not a show-up-and-fly event; student teams must submit proposals to NASA in the fall, and once chosen, design, build and test throughout the school year. The USLI requires a NASA review of the teams’ preliminary and critical designs, as well as flight readiness and safety reviews before the rocket and payload are approved for launch.
This colorful scratch-built bird carries three flight computers that record barometric pressure, altitude, acceleration, and GPS coordinates. Building the rocket is challenging, but test flights are pricey. The rocket "motors" are in reality packed with solid chemical propellant and can't be reused. Each motor costs anywhere from $300-400, and you can't just pick them up at the local hardware store (did we mention that teams have to raise much of their own operating funds that, uh, go up in smoke?).
Back to the competition, eleven university teams (many of them veteran groups) registered for this year's Huntsville competition and the Miners came out nearly on top, edged out only by Utah State and the University of North Dakota/Grand Forks. The Nikomedes group received two special recognitions, winning the competition’s “Outreach Award,” presented to the team that “best inspired the study of rocketry and other science, technology, engineering, and math topics in their community,” and the “Best Looking Rocket Award”.
S&T's first attempt at NASA rocketry work also includes judging on design reviews, website, safety, and flight success. NASA insiders told us that S&T did "incredibly well", better than many veteran teams and that they wouldn't have had any complaints at all if S&T had won, so we are thrilled that the Miners took third place. Certainly a lot better than the (un-named) school whose rocket sort of, uh, blew up. Event officials see growing interest in this event, and expect the launch-off to grow to fifteen or more teams next year.
This project engages students in scientific research and real-world engineering processes with NASA engineers, and exposes them to employment opportunities within the U.S space industry. The 34-member AAVG, divided among heavy lift aircraft, micro-class airplane and rocket projects is one of many student design teams at MS&T in which engineering students design and construct entries for various national competitions. The educational aspect of this particular enter is best summed up by Dr. Fathi Finaish, Professor and Associate Chair of Aerospace Engineering and one of the team advisors, who says "Our efforts are aimed at engaging and nurturing young students, and ultimately producing capable engineers who can be part the future workforce. We will continue to focus on engaging and preparing these students through these efforts in order to prepare them for the Nation’s vision of developing and flying the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) by 2014, and returning to the Moon by 2020".
Guess the Miners truly ARE great rocket scientists!
Bryan is a 3rd-year computer engineering student and a member of the team that actually designed and built the house last year. His team duties assignments include co-webmaster and working on the home automation system.
behind the establishment of S&T's new raquet ball club. The group just received notification that it is an official student organization, so it requires team officers, a constitution, advisor, etc. Who better to be the team's first president? Bryan, of course, who also splits his non-classroom schedule with membership in Delta Sigma Phi.
t's Saturday and we've just completed the last of our projects in Santiago. On Wednesday we added ferrocement to the entire 5,000 gal tank and laid most of the piping. It was a long day, but after that most of the work was accomplished. The next few days we spent finishing piping and sealing the tank and completing our rainwater collection systems.
This afternoon we had a meeting with community leaders to discuss the results our trip, the findings of our assessment team, and future plans. They expressed appreciation for what we've been able to do and that we completed it in the time here. It was sad to say goodbye to the friends we made and take the last drive back to Pimienta over the mountain. Tomorrow we´ll see San Pedro Sula and get ready to leave. We're definitely looking forward to coming back to Santiago next year.
As for our other groups, the water filtration team met yesterday with the families who received water filters. The families also received small water storage tubs to put their filtered water in. Today, the team went to the homes and helped set up the filters and answer any further questions. We have seen a lot of excitement over the filters and hope to be able to get many more to the community soon. The team also went to the Kindergarten and high school yesterday to talk to the children about the filters. The young kids were more interested in the “gringos” than they were with the filters, but nonetheless, it was a great visit. And one of the girls at the high school requested a filter be donated to their school. So it was nice to see interest in what we are doing.
