Today is Wednesday, April 25, and the juniors are a day away from testing their vehicle at Stewart’s Hillview Ranch in Willow City at Rockets 2018. They will be launching on Thursday, but the time will be determined on site. Also, this year the larger class volume meant two teams and two rockets.
According to Mr. Matthes, Engineering Instructor, both teams finished both rockets on time this year. They were due by the end of class, last Thursday. Both teams made use of the after school hours requirement in order to finish, with a couple of students stretching that to midnight in order to complete the work.
As of Monday, both vehicles were described as being in good shape by Mr. Matthes, with the only issue still in play, attempting to lighten the weight in order to increase speed.
Aside from that, Mr. Matthes had this to say about the upcoming launch, ” I do not rubber stamp any rocket. Failure is an option in the program as it is in life. If the students have a rocket that passes inspection, goes to the pad and gets tested they are successful…but the rocket can still fail. The existence of uncertainty is partly why the students are so invested in their rocket. It is because it is their solution without guarantee of meeting the project’s objective. They’ve poured their hearts into this project for five months and will get to see their ‘babies’ launch, just as parents hope to see the fruits of their parenting, without guarantees of outcome, launch their children into life. This is an inherent part of research. Paramount though is the fact that true failure only occurs if the process stops and lessons are not learned in the process.”
He also commented that he had seen GREAT looking rockets fail so he’s reticent about getting the students’ hopes up too much. And on the flip side, I have seen some rockets that I thought for sure would fall apart on the way down to the pad, and they amazed us all.
Flight Readiness Reviews(FRRs) were due by the end of class on yesterday, Tuesday. One team completed by the bell, but the other will be capping off at the beginning of class on Wednesday.
Robert Sanchez and Esten Cooke with their vehicle.
Pictured here are Ander Castaneda, Dawson Harkins, Cody Blohm, Deja Turkett, Cooper McDonald, Josh Handley, Gloria Burns, and Ethan Scott.
Team members Robert Sanchez and Gloria Burns.
Pictures provided by Katie Burns.
Some juniors and seniors will have an opportunity to work at the launch pads during the event. This affords them the chance to get experience prepping the rockets for flight and getting closer to the action. This is a privilege typically reserved only for seniors.
Unfortunately I was unable to obtain a picture and Team name from Team 1.
Pictured below is Team 2 with their rocket.
Meusebach (Team 2): Clockwise from #1 at the bottom. Cooper McDonald, Cody Blohm, Ander Castaneda, Deja Turkett, Josh Handley, Gloria Burns, Robert Zowie, Eduardo Memije, Ethan Scott, Dawson Harkins, and Rudy Avila show off their rocket just after completion last Wednesday evening, April 18th.
If you plan to attend any of this year’s launches please register for your attendance ticket at https://www.greateventseats.com/SystemsGo or they may be gotten at the gate. These are free but required for admittance to each site. Reserving them ahead at the website is preferred to obtaining them at the gate because the latter slows entrance to the site and may result in you missing the viewing of your intended launch.
You may also view any of these launches on Livestream. That link is available on the SystemsGo or at the following link from them: Here is the link to the live stream again. https://livestream.com/systemsgo
The launch schedules for each venue are available at http://www.systemsgo.org/events/ . I will post it here for each launch day as well. I want it to be as accurate as possible so I will refrain from posting schedules until the evening before each launch day in case there are any late changes.
Here is a PDF map link and Google graphic map link to the site. These links are available on the SystemsGo web site as well.
Please watch the SystemsGo website, SystemsGo Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/SystemsGoEducation/posts/?ref=notif , SystemsGo Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/SystemsGoNews and this blog for upcoming information on these events.
This article is the fifth in a series, new for this school year ’17/’18 of updates that will follow the Fredericksburg STEM Academy/Rocket program. This school is a participant of the SystemsGo STEM program. This series of articles is intended to support, encourage, and challenge students in the program as they share their working status and accomplishments throughout the year in the program. These publications will be available for tags and re-posting.
www.systemsgo.org as always is the place for more information on this program. You may also email them at info@systemsgo.org . Take the time to get your school involved, the future of your students will be greatly benefited.
#RideTheSky #Rockets2018 #SystemsGo #FredricksburgEngineeringRocketProgram #Launcher01
On the Wings of Angels 