Rocket Team Makes Nationals in DC
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The world needs people to create, to think outside of the box, to help the world, to change the world. We are those people. Our team consists of 9 high school students competing for the big leagues. To get our names out into the world and to get the big shots, NASA, Space X, Lockheed Martin, and so many more to look at us. They will see us as the future aerospace engineers in the United States.
We are competing in a competition called Team America Rocketry Challenge where a team of young aspiring scientists and engineers get together and build rockets. These aren't just any average model rockets, these rockets are built to extremely precise specifications regarding the rocket's overall weight, the size of the rocket, the altitude it reaches and the time it takes to go up and come back down. Our team has engineered and tested over 30 rockets (that is a lot) just this season, all different in their own way to make it mere seconds closer to the specifications.
We have been competing in this competition for 3 years, finally making it to the big leagues this season. To get these specifications on spot, we began meeting once a week starting in October of 2017 and began launching every other weekend in the beginning of November 2017. This process is not easy and includes STEM studies in every way. We began with every member designing a rocket on this program called Rock Sim (a CAD-based rocket design program). This program gave us all of the information that we needed, such as weight, size, and the predicted height and flight time of the rocket. We then used all of these measurements and began making our rockets. We used many different techniques in building them and then began launching.
We narrowed the rockets down one by one, cutting out the ones farthest from the mark. We finally cut down one rocket and launched it over 40 times narrowing it down to fall seconds faster and get a mere foot closer to the target. This process used critical thinking and required every person in the group.
We ended up with an overall score of 25, the cutoff for qualifying launches was 35 points. The moment we got the news, there were squeals of joys, high fives, hugs, and maybe even a few tears. This is such a big part of all our lives and it would mean the world to us if you all helped fund the future, our future, your future.
- Sage Davis, Sophomore, Captain of Team CloudBusters.
We are competing in a competition called Team America Rocketry Challenge where a team of young aspiring scientists and engineers get together and build rockets. These aren't just any average model rockets, these rockets are built to extremely precise specifications regarding the rocket's overall weight, the size of the rocket, the altitude it reaches and the time it takes to go up and come back down. Our team has engineered and tested over 30 rockets (that is a lot) just this season, all different in their own way to make it mere seconds closer to the specifications.
We have been competing in this competition for 3 years, finally making it to the big leagues this season. To get these specifications on spot, we began meeting once a week starting in October of 2017 and began launching every other weekend in the beginning of November 2017. This process is not easy and includes STEM studies in every way. We began with every member designing a rocket on this program called Rock Sim (a CAD-based rocket design program). This program gave us all of the information that we needed, such as weight, size, and the predicted height and flight time of the rocket. We then used all of these measurements and began making our rockets. We used many different techniques in building them and then began launching.
We narrowed the rockets down one by one, cutting out the ones farthest from the mark. We finally cut down one rocket and launched it over 40 times narrowing it down to fall seconds faster and get a mere foot closer to the target. This process used critical thinking and required every person in the group.
We ended up with an overall score of 25, the cutoff for qualifying launches was 35 points. The moment we got the news, there were squeals of joys, high fives, hugs, and maybe even a few tears. This is such a big part of all our lives and it would mean the world to us if you all helped fund the future, our future, your future.
- Sage Davis, Sophomore, Captain of Team CloudBusters.
Organizer
Scot Davis
Organizer
Durango, CO