Rockets 2018 Begins at Jal, New Mexico This Weekend!!!

Rockets 2018 begins this season’s launch series in Jal, New Mexico this Saturday, April 21, 2018 at a launch site on Phillips Hill Road.New Mexico High schools from Jal, Hobbs, Loving, Lovington, Hagerman and Lake Arthur, along with one Texas school, New Tech Odessa will have students participating in the program with 18 rockets scheduled to test. New Tech Odessa is joining the group in Jal this year, as it is much closer for them than any of the Texas sites they have gone to previously.

This is the second year for the SystemsGo New Mexico group, headed up by David Willden. After training in 2016 at the Fredericksburg launches in Willow City, the group began their launches at the new site in April of 2017 with 10 Tsiolkovsky Level (1 lb/ 1 mile) vehicles. This year, they will attempt 14 Tsiolkovsky Level and 4 Oberth Level (Transonic velocity while staying under 13000′) vehicles.

Friday, starting at 8:30 a.m. there is training for Range Safety Officers (RSO’s) for stage 2 and stage 3 volunteers. This is to train and build the volunteer base for the New Mexico events. Jal Elementary will also be set up for Stage 1 and Stage 2 as Early Check in begins at 1:00 p.m. on Friday and continues until 5:00 p.m.

Friday evening, Dave Willden is hosting a cook-out for volunteers, teachers, teams and admin at the Jal Country Club from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Burgers and hot dogs will be served.

Scott Netherland, Rebekah Hyatt, and Gene Garrett from SystemsGo Texas are leaving at noon Thursday, headed to Jal to participate in the event. Chelsea Burow, also SystemsGo Texas will be meeting them there on Friday evening.

This site will be open to public viewing of launches, as are all sites except White Sands Missile Range. A link to location information and a map link are available at http://www.systemsgo.org/events/ . The site will be open for admittance at 8:00 a.m. and launches will commence presumably at 8:30 a.m. Of course rockets are subject to winds, weather and workmanship, all of which can stall a launch. Come join in the action and cheer on these students. Admission is free, but the look on your students’ faces when their vehicle goes up and then is recovered, is far from priceless.

If you plan to attend Jal or any of this year’s launches please register for your attendance ticket at https://www.greateventseats.com/SystemsGo or they may be obtained at the gate. These are free but required for admittance to each site as they also include a waiver for access to the 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.

The schedule of launches for Jal is available at http://www.systemsgo.org/events/ . I will post it here for launch day. I want it to be as accurate as possible so I will refrain from posting it now in case there are any late changes.

A live feed for Saturday’s launches has not been confirmed yet, but I believe something may be in the works for that option. Information about the event, map links and schedule links are available at http://www.bringonthescience.com

Here is a reproduction of the map, but the one you will find online will be much clearer.

SystemsGo New Mexico does have a twitter feed they started last year in order to follow the launches. This link is still live, but right now there are no current tweets. That link is https://twitter.com/SystemsGoNM

Please watch the SystemsGo website, SystemsGo Facebook page, SystemsGo Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/SystemsGoNews and this blog for upcoming information on theses events.

More event details will be available here after the completion of Saturday’s event.

If you follow this program and like to view the launches, Rockets 2018 will continue with two more launches in April and May. Next the Stewart Ranch in Willow City, Texas will host the largest of the now three launch events on the weekend of April 26-28, 2018. This testing site covers the Fredericksburg and Hill Country area schools and all Texas schools not participating in the Houston launches. Currently there are 66 rockets scheduled for launch by 24 schools at that location.

The second will be held in Smith Point just south of Anahuac, Texas for schools in the Houston area, on the weekend of May 11-13, 2018. They currently have 56 vehicles scheduled for test by 15 schools at this site. If you have been to the Houston area launches in the past you may want to check out the SystemsGo website for information because this location is only in its second year for that area. Information and a map link are available.

The senior groups are tentatively scheduled to launch their Goddard level rockets at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico in late June. These are not available for public viewing or Livestream due to being tested on a military facility, but blog and SystemsGo updates will be posted online as available during that week.

More event details will be available here in upcoming days as events get closer. Daily reports featuring schedules, school names, results, pictures and some editorial content will be posted during the events.

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.

Hope to see you at the launches!

Fredericksburg’s Engineering Rocket Program-Second Term Update #2 (February 16-April 13)

It is April and we have some catching up to do on the FHS Engineering program. It has been two months since our last update and quite a bit has been happening on all levels. Along with class work, launches start this month in Jal, New Mexico on April 21 and Fredericksburg (Willow City) April 26-28 so time is becoming a factor for the Junior and senior groups. Each group is working hard to meet their timelines. Rockets 2018 is the pinnacle event for the upper level groups, as their rocket projects are basically the final grade for the year.

The seniors have approximately 73 days until Redbird 19 is TENTATIVELY scheduled for testing at White Sands Missile Range, which is usually in the last week of June. This date is still not a permanent date until the Army finalizes, closer to that time. Mr. Matthes will announce that date when it becomes readily available. Their completion date for preliminary systems tests is usually two weeks before school ends. This would be May 18 which cuts them down to 59 days.

More on these groups and their current status reports will be later in the article.

Freshman participated in a field trip on March 1st, in which they visited Southwest Research Institute(SwRI), the Center for the Intrepid, and the UTSA VIZlab. At the Center for the Intrepid, the students were able to see biomedical equipment at work helping wounded Veterans in their recovery. Along with the engineering aspect of this, Mr. Matthes hoped that they took away a new respect for our military servicemen and women and the full extent of the sacrifices they make each day for our country’s safety.

Former FHS Engineering Alumni, Drake Horstman, was the students’ guide when they visited the UTSA VIZlab, toured the campus, engineering lab and community areas. During the visit, Drake, provided entertainment and wisdom coupled with numerous stories about his experiences in the FHS Engineering Program. Inside the lab, the students were able to see several visual interaction devices.

At Southwest Research Institute, students learned technical information about engines, modifications and fuel efficiency. The content here was a little over their knowledge base, and may have overwhelmed the students a little, according to Mr. Matthes. In spite of that, it was still a good visit for the students, and the coordinator at SwRI commented about their behavior stating, “they are better than a lot of the college students who come through.”

These visits are designed to expose the students to different aspects in the engineering fields. The impressions they take from here will help them make decisions down the road on whether engineering is for them, and if so, help them determine a particular area of interest.

The Freshmen also participated in their first Critical Design Review (CDR). They were tasked with presenting solutions to fix the damaged launch tower for the Red Bird rockets. This gives them practice on presentation skills and feedback on designs for their project.

Mr. Matthes stated that, “the students may have felt “roasted” with constructive criticism and feedback. But, that they should know, that it is part of improvement and growth of design and not personal.” He mentioned that this was also discussed briefly at the end of the trip to SwRI, by the hosting engineer.

The sophomores have advanced well in the curriculum and are presently several weeks ahead of their current deadlines. Their current focus is on dimensioning objects, denoting measurements and creating fabrication notes. Due to this, their proficiency has advanced well.

Mr. Matthes is quite impressed with the Juniors selection of a class name. Here is how he describes it,”The juniors named their class “Conatus” which translates from Latin, to impulse and means striving. From a historical philosophy origin it relates to the nature of something to continue its existence.”

The pressure is on with an April 19th rocket completion date looming ever closer. The rocket must be completed one week prior to their April 26^th launch, because after it is completed they must also complete a Flight Readiness Review which often uncovers errors and problems that must be resolved. This week provides adequate time for those things to happen.

According to Mr. Matthes neither team has anything that quite resembles a rocket as of yet, but each is working through a pile of parts that arrived. Most were not ordered until the end of March which was quite late, but each group began working with tangible parts the end of last week.

Team #2 decided to make use of Monday’s teacher in-service day, by putting in about four hours of work. Shown below from team #2 are clockwise starting from the bottom, Cooper McDonald, Gloria Burns, Ethan Scott, and Dawson Harkins as they take measurements off the back-end of the rocket and motor system.

Both teams do have a work in progress at this point. According to Mr. Matthes, “Pressure makes diamonds and rockets.”

Incidentally, another incentive for each comes from SystemsGo. A flawless flight and perfect recovery may afford that team the chance to re-fly their vehicle with a different fuel grain in order to collect data for SystemsGo.

The miniature Teststand is an ongoing project for the juniors as well. They are using LabVIEW programming as a means to start ignition and measure thrust, as well as using 3D modeling in order to develop a unique physical Teststand model. The class is split into working groups of 3. According to Mr. Matthes, “They are on track to have this done by the end of school and I am excited to see what they come up with.”

Seniors are progressing well with Redbird 19, wind tunnel and the large Teststand development.

Construction is beginning on Redbird 19 now that parts are returning from Heartland Enterprises. According to Mr. Matthes the parts, “look beautiful, and most parts are in.” Now that parts are available there is a bullet list of accomplishments to be achieved including, overlaying the nose cone in fiberglass, creating a mold and then pouring the fuel grain, making a custom hose for the injection valve, testing recovery chute deployment, integrating avionics into the vehicle, and Mr. Jenkins is in the process of manufacturing the payload.

Here Harrison Spisak, Bryce Erwin, and Sergio Walle are checking the fit of the injector, nozzle and retaining ring in their fuel grain liner.

Currently wind tunnel is well underway, as students are receiving and ordering parts. The program is nearing completion and the electronics used for the drag testing measurement has arrived. Hunter Smith, a SpaceX programmer at the McGregor facility has been assisting Rebecca Sechrist through a Skype session. He has been providing analysis and comprehension in areas he has already assisted, as well as a starting point from which to move ahead. According to Mr. Matthes, “The students are making headway but must begin to make a push in order to finish this outstanding design by summer.”

Deadlines are quickly evolving for Teststand, as the group’s progress here is steady but slow. They have installed a flow meter to directly measure Nitrous oxide. Load cells which measure thrust have been changed out and fuel grains have also been readied for testing.

The stand itself is nearing a test ready state. New to this year’s stand are changes in the injection system. The new system will allow more controls of the flow. A parent plate has been designed by students and fabricated by another local machine shop, Kager Industries, which will hold a smaller injection disc allowing students the ability to change out the disc which controls the rate of flow. The plate can be installed as soon as the 0.05″ holes have been drilled through. Next, the LabVIEW program will be fully tested on the stand. Afterwards, a cold flow test will be conducted in order to measure the oxidizer flow rate and determine if the size and pattern of holes in the new disc are correct. If the cold flow tests are successful, then hot fire tests can begin.

The Baby Bird Teststand is still on hold until further notice.

SystemsGo hosted a BBQ dinner event for the neighbors in Willow City. Seniors, Bryce Erwin and Sergio Walle, pictured below, spoke at the event. Their purpose was to educate attendees about the educational process of the program and how it relates to the upcoming launches, as well as to share their own experiences in the program.

Additionally, Harrison Spisak and Corbin Smajstrala spoke to the Morning Rotary last month on similar subjects.

Mr. Matthes would personally like to thank all four of these young men for committing to these events and participating in them. In both cases, participants and SystmesGo staff commended them on their exceptional performances.

This article is the fourth for the 2017/2018 school year in a series of periodic updates that will follow the Fredericksburg Engineering/Rocket program. This school is a participant of the SystemsGo STEM program. This series of articles is intended to support and encourage 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.

Second Term Update #1 (Dec. 22-Feb. 16)-Fredericksburg’s Engineering/Rocket Program

Technically, the fall term didn’t end until January 19, so we have a minor bit of finishing up to do on that semester, but at this point, January is past and February is better than half through as well. The spring program is already building, therefore, we will finish off and shoot straight into the new semester and the new year, as there are big goals and events for each class group.

This second semester puts the Engineering Program students’ learning to the test as they build rockets and prepare to launch them for Rockets 2018 and their end of class projects. There are still four class groups this semester as freshman through seniors continue course study and strive to complete their section of the program.

Both Freshman and Sophomore groups are new for this semester. Last semester’s groups will not return to the program until next fall. This will mean that the progress reports will seem a bit familiar as these new groups will be doing the same projects and learning tasks that last semester’s group did since they too are at the beginning point of the Freshman and Sophomore programs.

Freshmen comprise a group of 13, pictured below. In the front row: Davis Englert, Roan Hagel, Hayle Mayer, Michael Flores, Gerry Balderas, and Daisuke Kyan.

In the back row: Tyler Smedley, Karson Hager, Cade Terry, Sam O’Leary, Kris Ersch, Travis Klokker, and Carlotta Wilkinson.

This was for fun, and is freshman doing something wacky!

The new Freshmen group is once again testing structures which they are building from cardboard and tape. They watched an engineering video on I-Beams after their first testing session. This enlightened their understanding of bending moments which they applied to their structures. One of the groups changed their structure by rotating it 90 degrees in order to make it taller than it was wide, which resulted in the structure being the opposite of its original design as well as creating an almost 100% strength increase through the new orientation and heighth. Mr. Matthes states that this was a “Lesson learned and applied.”

Below, the Freshmen show off their structures.

Cade Terry, Travis Klokker, Sam O’Leary Hayle Mayer, Tyler Smedley, Daisuke Kyan Karson Hagel, Gerry Balderas, Roan Hager Michael Flores, Carlotta Wilkinson, Kris Ersch, Davis Englert

Currently they are working on their post mission analysis on civil engineering, which is allowing them to practice technical writing.

The freshmen have a field trip coming up on March 1. They will be visiting UTSA, Center for the Intrepid and Southwest Research Institute, all in San Antonio. A report and pictures will be presented in a future update.

The new sophomore group for this semester has 13 students, 11 pictured below.

Front row: Gabi Moreno, Manuel Enciso, Jarrett Beard, Tyler Malinak, and Jacob Hinterlach. Back row: Tony Martinez, Noah Stotz, Jowad Aysheh, Jack Fox, Troy Kneese, and Jabin Gipson. Not pictured are Jessen Stableford, and Landon Sparrow.

The sophomores are moving through their course studies on a little more fast-track than last semesters class. This has been initiated in order to further their studies in 3D modeling and printing this round so that they achieve a more significant introduction in that area. They are doing well according to Mr. Matthes and are already beginning AutoCAD. In the past weeks they have successfully completed geometry, multi-view drawings, and engineering lettering.

As of January 23, the first semester studies ended for the Juniors, and opened them up to work on their second semester project in which they are now immersed. This project is to design and develop a one pound payload in a Transonic vehicle to be launched on April 26, at Rockets 2018. This means that their rocket must must be capable of breaking the speed of sound while carrying a one pound payload and remaining under 13,000 feet. The junior group is a large group of 22 students this year so they are unique in that they have been split into two groups, each responsible for their own rocket.

Mr. Matthes had this comment about the two groups, “I am excited to see them working diligently and proudly taking the endeavor as genuine separate groups. The ownership of their rocket and being different from each other’s groups is already evident. They have established their problem statements and are feverishly researching with many, many, many unknowns. As the process goes on their significant dispersion of knowledge and integration with each other slowly but surely migrates to a fully integrated and cohesive design.”

Along with their rockets, the group has another project for the semester. This entails designing and developing a teststand for Estes Motors. These are the small motors used mostly to fly their Generation 1 through 3 rockets. The objective is to create a teststand that will operate using LabVIEW programming to control and monitor ignition, measure thrust, and display and record real-time data to a file.

Seniors are a busy group with four projects still in the works, including Redbird 19, Wind Tunnel, Teststand and Baby Bird Teststand.

On February 1, Redbird 19(RB19) underwent Critical Design Reviews (CDR) with SystemsGo personnel present, and NASA flight engineers participating by Skype. RB19 did well overall. The Redbird 17 tank is being recycled as part of the RB19 design and was successfully tested earlier, as shown below, but will be retested on Friday, Feb.16 after which they will be required to provide documentation to SystemsGo. The team is fully immersed in the development of RB19. They have contracted machine shops and begun providing them work. These include Kager Industries, Heartland Enterprises, and SRM. Other necessary parts are in the order process.

Corbin Smajstrla, Sergio Walle, Bryce Erwin, Pierce Vasquez, Evan Knapp, and Harrison Spisak prepare to test the RB17/19 tank.

Wind Tunnel also underwent CDRs with NASA and SystemsGo on February 1. Unfortunately it was found to have some issues to resolve. According to Mr. Matthes, the group is, “adapting well to the unexpected queries which arose and are close to having them resolved at this point. ”

Teststand has several upcoming events in March. In mid March, they will be conducting cold flow tests in order to verify the students injection system. This tests the flow rate of oxidizer through the system. Projected live ignition tests have been set for the end of March, and students have been given some solid dates in order to keep them on task to accomplish these.

Baby Bird Teststand is currently on hold. Students have a heavy work load to complete with the other projects. PVC and polypropylene tests will need to be completed on the large Teststand before work can resume on the Baby Bird Teststand.

This article is the Third for the 2017/2018 school year in a series of monthly updates that will follow the Fredericksburg Engineering/Rocket program. This school is a participant of the SystemsGo STEM program. This series of articles is intended to support and encourage 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.

Fredericksburg Engineering Program Hosts the N.E.W.Y.O.U. Event for 4th through 8th Grade Students

The Fredericksburg Engineering Program will be hosting the N.E.W.Y.O.U (National Engineers Week Youth Outreach United) Event in participation with FISD Community Education. National Engineers Week will begin February 18th. The N.E.W.Y.O.U Event will be held the Saturday before on February 17th.

The event will be held at the Fredericksburg Middle School. This is the first time the FHS Engineering Program will host this event. The high school group has been working hard organizing this event in order to insure it will be a fun and educational time for all participants.

Join the FHS student mentors as they introduce you and your friends to engineering in fun group setting. You will learn while watching videos, playing games, completing challenges and winning prizes, including a door prize for each session.

Forth and fifth graders will attend the morning session, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The cost for this session is $29 and includes snacks, drinks and a shirt.

Sixth through eighth graders will attend the afternoon/evening session from 1:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The cost for this session is $49 and includes, snacks, drinks, dinner and a shirt.

***Please note that in order to receive your shirt, you must be registered by Feb. 13.

Look for more information in the newspaper and students of those grades should have brought home flyers in the past week. Look below for a copy of that flyer in case you missed it.

The Fredericksburg Engineering/Rocket Program hopes to see you there.

FLYER:

4th-5th and 6th-8th Graders!!!

Come hang out with high school engineering students while having fun playing games, completing challenges in groups with high school mentors, watching cool videos and learning about engineering. Prizes abound with an awesome door prize for each session. See details below! Downloadable registration form may be found at the bottom or call Community Education at (830)997-7182.

FHS NEW YOU FLYER Final.docx

Awards Day for the Red Bird #18 2017Alumni

Today, Friday, December 22, 2017 at 10:30 in Mr. Matthes’ classroom, FHS Engineering Class of 2017 was presented with their banner for a successful flight of the Red Bird #18 at White Sands Missile Range last summer.

They received the Goddard Level Newton Award from SystemsGo. The award was presented to them by Scott Netherland, Executive Director of SystemsGo.

Photographed (right to left): Colby Marthaller, Sterling Weatherford, Matthew Dulaney, Ian Kendrick, Hannah Boubel, Cody Pruett, Joseph Sanchez, Ricky Robles, Scott Netherland, and Payton Carroll.

The banner will be displayed at the FHS campus at a later date.

Congratulations to these students on their achievement as well as future endeavours.

2017/2018 Fall Session Hi Lights Wrap Up for Fredericksburg’s Engineering/Rocket Program-(Nov. 10-Dec. 22)

Next Friday, December 22, the Fredericksburg High School Engineering/Rocket Program will dismiss for Christmas break. When they do, five weeks will have passed since the last update on their program. This is a busy group, and there is plenty to report on their learning and progress as we wrap up the fall semester.

The Freshman have been learning about production/manufacturing engineering and have recently completed their project which was an orange juice manufacturing factory design. The class split into working groups of four because of the complexity of the problem. Their product goal for the plant was to take raw material and produce packaged juice in palletized product bundles ready for sale. According to Mr. Matthes, “It was a successful endeavor with lots of different results when it came to the challenging research it required.”

On Friday, December 15, they presented their latest project over engineering fluidity. Each student was expected to work independently to create new launch lugs for the senior level rocket. Their new lug designs need to be more aerodynamic than the current lugs. Each student was able to show what they were capable of on their own, instead of having the co-dependency of fellow students. This solo venture challenged them to create a multiview drawing of their own new design, as well as featuring their understanding of units of measurement and how they all work together, something that will be of great significance for their final project in the future, which is to research the math and then design a hybrid rocket motor. A highly significant amount of math and even more units will require their careful attention in that upcoming project . What they are learning as they work through this propulsion/aerospace problem will become relevant to them again when they begin their junior studies in 19 months. Therefore it is an important study in which to end the course.

Just to remind everyone, the Sophomore students are still working in a self paced manner in this year’s class. Therefore a good growth mark for them in their class progress is 3D printing, which they have recently begun. They have also shown marked achievement in their Autocad, Dimensioning and Isometric drawing skills. In part this is due to their receptiveness to all the constructive feedback.

Luke Duderstadt working on Autocad.

“They have advanced tremendously in their attention to detail, ability to see things with greater special awareness, and pride in workmanship. The transformation has been fun to witness,” states Mr. Matthes.

LabVIEW programming is an important focus for the juniors. At this point, Mr. Matthes says it is too early to tell their final success in this area, but so far, they are progressing well.

Fluids and aerodynamic drag have been the focus of their studies related to rockets these past five weeks. After learning these new skills, they were able to test them on the design and development of their Generation 3 rockets. In order to do this, they had to create a rocket that was stable with exactly a ‘margin’ of 1 while reaching 1800 feet in RockSim simulation and design software. Students were able to launch their actual Gen 3 rockets on Friday, Dec. 15 after they had in class rocket presentations and evaluations that morning. Additionally they were further challenged with a short deadline in which to create these rockets. They met this head on and were ready for presentations.

“It was collectively the best group of Gen 3 flights I have seen in years,” reports Mr. Matthes.

Bradley Plaza and Carl Wilger prepare to launch their Generation 3 rocket.

Jabin Gipson and Rudy Avila model their Generation 3 rocket on launch day.

They will detail the many lessons they learned, including results from mistakes in design, construction, evaluation process, and the significance of attention to detail in their post mission analysis (PMA). As they begin their second semester project, all these lessons will be critical learning tools in the success of this larger rocket.

Mr. Matthes reported, ” I was thoroughly impressed with all of them. It was the kind of work ethic that will make their senior year a success if they can manage to keep up the motivation and focus.”

Critical design reviews (CDR) are the main focus for seniors on all four of their projects, which include the Red Bird #19 Rocket, a wind tunnel, the NASA large motor test stand, and the Small HyperTek interface test stand, known as Baby Bird. Currently the group is running short on time their schedules and task lists are not reflecting all that they should. There is a possibility that they are either not aware of all that they have missed, or they are really close to being ready. Mr. Matthes is unsure at this point which one it is.

Pictured here is the seniors’ flow straightener prototype for their wind tunnel. It was 3D printed on a Makerbot.

They are scheduled to hold a preliminary design review with alumni at 10:00 on Wednesday, January 10^th, here in the classroom. A full CDR will be due at the end of January.

“One potential reality is that if it becomes evident there is not enough time for everything, some project(s) may require postponing. We are hoping for the best,” states Mr. Matthes.

On Friday, December 22, 2017 at 10:30 in Mr. Matthes’ classroom, last year’s alumni will be presented with their banner for flying the Red Bird #18 at White Sands Missile Range. Seniors will have a question and answer session with alumni to share experiences and receive advice.

At 7:00 p.m. also on Friday the 22nd, all alumni of the Fredericksburg Aeroscience/Engineering program are invited to come to Hondo’s and join Mr. Williams and Mr. Matthes for visiting over dinner and drinks. It will be casual, come and go as you like bringing significant others and friends as desired.

Mr. Matthes reminds all program students, “In January, the spring program begins and deadlines and target dates for their projects become highly important in order to meet projected launch dates.”

NEW YOU (National Engineers Week Youth Outreach United) continues its progress in planning the 4^th-8^th grade engineering outreach event to be held on February 17^th. Look for more in the newspaper and students of those grades bring home flyers in January.

2017/2018 Fredericksburg’s Engineering/Rocket Program-October/Early November Hi Lights

September and October have come and gone and we are now half way through November and the Fredericksburg High School Engineering Program is deep into their studies busy learning and working at all levels. Eight weeks have passed since our first Engineering Program update and the first semester is halfway through.

Since our last update, the Freshmen have created an electrical design for the NASA built and designed Orion space capsule. Keith Kunz from Teledyne was their audience for this presentation. Teledyne works with offshore oil exploration developing and designing hard and software for their use. As an audience for these presentations, individuals like Mr. Kunz, provide constructive criticism such as design strengths and weaknesses, areas that did not match the design logic, things that were overlooked, and skills of presentation.

Currently the Freshman are working on a bio-engineering project, which will be designed to help student, Cody Bearden, who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which keeps him confined to a wheelchair. It will be a hoverchair. Yesterday they presented their project to a new audience, consisting of Tim Nolan, an AirEvac pilot and previous Marin Corps helicopter pilot, Todd Keener a mechanical engineer, and Scott Netherland, Executive Director of SystemsGo . Details on this presentation will be forthcoming in our next update.

Sophomore students are still working at their own pace in this year’s class. Due to this, the further along the year rolls, the larger the gap is between the slowest and fastest student. Because of this some are already starting to learn Isometrics, which are 2D representations of 3D objects. The class as a whole is also studying Dimensioning.

“They are all making good progress, but having them self pace has led to some really taking off with AutoCAD,” states Mr. Matthes.

The Engineering program flew in Brian Evans from Space Propulsion Group out of Butte, Montana to conduct a two-day seminar for the Juniors and Seniors.

Pictured here are Juniors, Gloria Burns, Cooper McDonald and Eston Cooke with Mr. Evans:

According to Mr. Matthes, “Students really enjoyed having insight from Mr. Evans.”

For the past two months, the Juniors have been learning new skills on Excel which allowed them to better understand the math of starting a new model. They have been creating spreadsheets for a hypothetical bakery where they used calculation, look ups and other functions in order to track materials, hours, and productivity. Class time has been split between this project and the physics of flight.

Three weeks earlier, the class flew their Generation 1 rockets. The parameters for this first flight, were just have a rocket on the pad to fly and served as a platform for them to learn and start asking questions on how to correct their flights.

These flights were of varying degrees of stability with some being completely unstable, some having a corkscrew affect and others displaying very straight flights. The instruction on stability follows this flight test and leads into the Generation 2 tests.

Last week Generation 2 rockets were finally launched. They had been patiently waiting due to several scheduling conflicts with school college fair days and bad weather, windy days.

For this test they actually had to prove the stability of their rockets. This is accomplished by literally cutting the rockets in half. Students are forced to be intentional about stabilizing their vehicles. The pictures below are from the Generation 2 flights.

Here, Eduardo Memije and Gloria Burns load their G1 Rocket for launching.

In this photo, Deja Turkett and Bradley Plaza take their turn for launch.

Here the whole Junior class group displays their rockets on launch day.

Currently they are splitting their class time between LabVIEW Programming which they have just begun and the continued study of the physics of flight. Next they will be studying fluids, aerodynamics and drag, and impulse, as well as factors affecting drag, this is all part of prepping for Generation 3 rockets.

According to Mr. Matthes, “Their next objective is to reach 1800 feet using RockSim to design the rockets. They are assessed on the closeness of construction to design: it is a tough mark to make without extreme precision.”

On Tuesday, Nov. 7, the Seniors traveled to Houston. After arrival, the group spent four hours at Space Center Houston. According to Mr. Matthes, the students, “had a blast!”

In this mock up, Evan Knapp mounts the Space Shuttle on top of the 747 that transports the shuttle back to Kennedy Space Center.

Corbin Smajstrla is seen here pumping iron on different planets where the gravity is not the same.

Chris Calzada (left) and Rebecca Sechrist (below) pose for pictures in space.

Evan Knapp maneuvers his EVA device back to the ISS as Chris Calzada and Harrison Spisak look on.

Next the group visited Rocket Park so that the students could get a visual grasp on the enormity of the Saturn V Rocket that took men to the moon and back.

Relaxing at the end of the day beneath the Apollo capsule on the Saturn V.

The entire travelling crew. Top row: Instructor Andrew Matthes, Harrison Spisak, Chris Calzada, Corbin Smajstrla, and Evan Knapp. Bottom row: Rebecca Sechrist, Pierce Vasquez, Joey Leal, and Sergio Walle.

Later, Joyce Abbey, the voice of the SystemsGo launches, and Dave Ladrack, a longtime program friend and supporter, joined the students for dinner.

On Wednesday, Nov. 8, they arrived at Johnson Space Center along with nine other schools and met, Chris Madsen, pictured below, a Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) engineer in the flight dynamics department.

Mr. Madsen coordinated and oversaw the program for the students, and gave an overview of College Co-op opportunities. He encouraged the students to be involved and to acquire work experience while still in college. All nine schools gave presentations of their flight models explaining the projected flights of their rockets to engineers and representatives from other schools who have also taken on a similar tasks.

After lunch the documentation students need in order to be cleared for flight at White Sand next summer, was discussed. Mr. Madsen used examples and an overview of his job in comparison so that students could see that what he does is similarly an extremely more complex version of what the students are building.

Later that afternoon, FHS had a meeting to present preliminary design reviews of both the wind tunnel project and Redbird #19 to five engineers. This was three hours of presentation and a question and answer session.

“It was a tremendous opportunity for the students and the feedback was excellent,” reported Mr. Matthes. “The trip was a success.”

Design progress has been made on Redbird #19 but many details still have to be worked out before it can be considered an integrated system.

Mr. Matthes feels that, “The input from this trip will be significantly helpful for drawing both flaws and considerations to light as they proceed forward. “

The group has been working hard to pull together everything for the Redbird #19 presentation, this has made it necessary to put Teststand on hold for the past week.

Something new the Engineering Program is working on, is the N.E.W. Y.O.U. Event, short for National Engineers Week Youth Outreach United. This will be the first time the FHS Engineering Program will be hosting this event. The purpose of this event, is to expose students from 4th through 8th graders to engineering. They will participate in activities and interact with high school engineering students while learning in a fun and relaxed environment.

FHS Engineering Program has already been readying for the event with two separate planning meetings involving about 20 students in order to organize and divide tasks. Everything is moving along well and they anticipate a great event.

National Engineers Week will begin February 18th. The N.E.W.Y.O.U Event will be held the day before on Saturday, February 17th. Forth through sixth graders will attend the morning session, and seventh and eighth graders will attend the afternoon/evening session.

This article is the second for the 2017/2018 school year in a series of monthly updates that will follow the Fredericksburg Engineering/Rocket program. This school is a participant of the SystemsGo STEM program. This series of articles is intended to support and encourage 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.

2017/2018 Fredericksburg’s Engineering/Rocket Program-September Hi Lights

The new school year is three weeks into session and with it, the Fredericksburg High School Engineering Program has begun working toward new goals.

This year (Fall semester) there are actually classes representing each grade level. This is different from last year in that there were two classes of Freshman in the fall and two classes of Sophomores in the spring. There will be a class of 12 Freshman in the fall and another class of 12 in the spring, and a class of 16 Sophomores in the fall and another class of 12 in the spring.

The Freshman classes began by learning about the design and development loop. This is important because it gives them an understanding on how industry approaches problems in order to develop new innovation. Leadership and teamwork have been a strong topic of class discussion as well as exercises to put these traits into practice. This week in class they are testing cardboard structures they have built as part of the structural project part of their class.

Pictured: Kyle Kuhlman, Andrew Kendrick, and Gavin West.

Pictured: Luke Tucker, Benji Robles, and Kolby Fryburger.

Pictured: Paige Guzy, Emily Ma, Evertt Borton.

Pictured: Nehemiah Cabral, Sadie Eidson, and Eli Rode.

Here the whole class shows off their cardboard structures for testing.

Sadie Eidson with an unofficial test of her structure post ‘real’ testing while Gavin West looks on awaiting collapse without satisfaction.

Pictured here is this semester’s Freshman class: Back Row: Kolby Fryburger, Luke Tucker, Everett Borton, Gavin West, Nehemiah Cabral, Benji Robles. Front Row: Eli Rode, Andrew Kendrick, Kyle Kuhlman, Sadie Eidson, Paige Guzy, Emily Ma.

Mr. Matthes reports, “They are doing very well.”

Sophomores are practicing drawing multi-views by hand. Students are able to work at their own pace this year, as long as they meet scheduled deadlines on assignments. This allows for those that learn at a faster pace to advance in the curriculum a little sooner. It should also allow them to have more time to become proficient on 3D modeling which will be a skill they will need as they move up in future classes. Soon they will begin the basics of drawing on AutoCAD. Due to the individual pacing, one student was able to begin AutoCAD yesterday.

Pictured here is this semester’s Sophomore class: Back Row: Noah Downey; Tommy Johnson, Gavin Eckert, Lane Wallendorf, Ryan Scroggie, Landon West, Clay Crouse. Front Row: Dalton Waters, Blake Boubel, Ryan Davis, Luke Duderstadt, Ryan Majors, Chad Braden, Gerry Balderas. Not Pictured here are Josephine Shaw and Alek Vasquez.

Junior and Senior classes will encompass both semesters as one class group each. There are 22 Juniors in the program and 10 Seniors.

Due to the accelerated class schedule implemented at FHS last year, most one year courses are now accomplished in one semester. Because of this, the Junior year course study is actually two classes in one spread out over both semesters. Class time is currently split between two courses of study. In the first half of class they are beginning the basics of hybrid rocket propulsion and the book learning of the math to model it. In the second half of the class, they have researched advanced technology and dimensional analysis.

According to Mr. Matthes, “Many of them reflected afterward that they have a better understanding of math, how to work with units, what the units mean, and how the math has meaning and can be worked like a puzzle. They are very excited and extremely sharp. They work effectively as a group and seem to have great chemistry together.”

Pictured here is this year’s Junior class: Back Row: Jabin Gipson, Cooper McDonald, Ander Castaneda, Gabe Voorhees, Jose Escalante, Clay Ellebracht, Dawson Harkins. Middle Row: Jana Brockmann, Robert Sanchez, Esten Cooke, Gloria Burns, Carl Wilger, Nicholas Rodriguez, Lucio Castro, Cody Blohm. Front Row: Eduardo Memije, Robert Zowie, Brad Plaza, Ethan Scott, Deja Turkett, Rudy Avila, Josh Handley.

The Seniors are a busy and ambitious group this year. They have taken on four large endeavors including: The Red Bird #19 Rocket, a wind tunnel, the NASA large motor test stand, and the Small HyperTek interface test stand, known as Baby Bird.

The Red Bird #19 will actually be a modified version of the Red Bird #17 from two years ago which did not leave the rail due to the injection failing. They will be rebuilding the propulsion and injection systems in order to correct the past problems with the rocket that kept it from launching in 2016. –Small editorial comment here: As we have seen with other schools in past years at WSMR, this does not mean an easy fix. Quite often trying to correctly discern and correct another team’s issues on an unsuccessful vehicle can be harder than starting from scratch. It will be interesting to follow them and see what they find and how these new modifications affect this year’s flight test at WSMR. FHS Engineering Project Leadership for Red Bird #19 is Chief Engineer, Harrison Spisak, and Project Manager, Bryce Erwin.

The Wind Tunnel is new for this year. This device is for testing drag on an object. To do this, the system uses a fan to create artificial wind which is forced over the object to create a drag. FHS Engineering Project Leadership for the wind tunnel is Chief Engineer, Pierce Vasquez, and Project Manager,Rebecca Sechrist.

Testing on Baby Bird, the Hypertek test stand continues this year. The purpose of this test stand, as highlighted in the last year’s updates, is to test a fuel grain system designed and developed by the students to interface with the hypertek injector and tank. Original plans were that three successful tests on this test stand would result in the opportunity for the seniors in the Fredericksburg Engineering Program to fly a new Hybrid student developed rocket at Willow City. This year’s team is continuing testing and development for this goal. FHS Engineering Project Leadership for this test stand is Chief Engineer, Evan Knapp, and Project Manager, Sergio Walle.

Testing also continues on the NASA Test stand for large motors. Even though there is no new grant from NASA this year, there are plenty of materials acquired from last year’s grant to continue testing. FHS Engineering Project Leadership for this test stand is Chief Engineer, Joey Leal, and Project Manager, Corbin Smajstrla.

Mr. Matthes commented about this year’s seniors, “The group, already has plans set to come in this weekend to begin their endeavors. They seem both excited about the projects and motivated to accomplish them.”

Last school year the program implemented a Senior out of class work schedule. Students signed a contract requiring them to commit to a set amount of overtime/after class work time in order to meet all deadlines and complete their rocket/projects for the year. The group is currently establishing a working schedule in order to implement these hours.

Pictured here is this year’s Senior class: Back Row: Harrison Spisak, Jacob Wienecke, Evan Knapp, Bryce Erwin, Sergio Walle. Front Row: Corbin Smajstrla, Rebecca Sechrist, Pierce Vasquez, Joey Leal. Not pictured in the seniors picture was Chris Calzada.

You may have seen the following information on a flyer your Engineering student brought home inviting you to the FHS open house that was held on Monday, September 11. If you no longer have it or were not able to attend, Mr. Matthes has asked that you take note of the following date and time for:

FHS Engineering Night

SAVE THE DATE:

When: Monday, SEPTEMBER 25^TH, 6:00PM

Why: Learn about the nationally recognized FHS Engineering/Rocket Program

Who: Anyone – tell other parents and your friends, even if they aren’t in the program until next semester or aren’t a part of it yet. It is available to interested and current students as well as parents and interested community members.

Where: Auditorium, plan on sitting up front for an “A”. Address is 1107 S. Highway 16

What: Information/Order forms on Polos, t-shirts, decals and lanyards.

Including: Program objectives, overview of classes, media, and special guest alumni via Skype.

Follow Us, the FHS Engineering Program

You and your student are also invited to use the forms of media communication listed below to receive information and updates on all things Engineering.

The first is REMIND, (a text format) where you will find event notifications, updates, organizational coordination, and brief positive news provided on the program.

Text to 81010 the message @fhseng2021 for freshman Principles of Applied Engineering class

Text to 81010 the message @fhseng2020 for sophomores Engineering Design and Presentation 1

Text to 81010 the message @fhseng2019 junior Engineering Design and Presentation 2

Text to 81010 the message @fhseng2018 seniors Engineering Design & Problem Solving, Scientific Research and Design

Mr. Matthes sincerely hopes that students and parents will more actively follow and invest in the Engineering Program here at FHS. One method to help with this is providing updates related to engineering and our Engineering Program through social media. These will contain postings related to student activities as well as industry activity. Familiarity with current events and current research in industry is a major source of inspiration and exposure to potential future endeavors.

fhseng

https://www.instagram.com/fhseng/?hl=en

FHS S.T.E.M. Academy

@engineeringfhs

https://www.facebook.com/engineeringfhs/

The entire Engineering Program was invited to a movie night at the engineering classroom, Wednesday evening, September 13 at 7:00 p.m. They viewed the movie the Matrix. Mr. Matthes believed that a correlation between the students and the movie characters could be drawn and that could be beneficial to them. “It is my hope they recognize the metaphor for their own lives and begin to believe in themselves as I believe them, as Morpheus believes in Neo.” About 20 were able to attend.

This article is the first for the 2017/2018 school year in a series of monthly updates that will follow the Fredericksburg Engineering/Rocket program. This school is a participant of the SystemsGo STEM program. This series of articles is intended to support and encourage 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.

Thursday, Launch Day 2 at WSMR

Today’s rocket launches at WSMR were nothing if not eventful. Four tests were conducted today, and though all managed to leave the rail in a manner of speaking, none were quite the launch any of them were working towards.

The Anahuac rocket was the first test this morning and actually did leave the rail at 8:00 a.m. Shortly into the flight, it developed a burn through the side casing of the motor which caused it to spiral and nose over into its descent. No recovery deployed and it entered the range like a big dart after which the engine casing blew off. Despite this, it was still the most successful launch of the week in terms of altitude. There are conflicting reports as to the actual altitude therefore I will not release that information until final confirmation at a later date.

Booker T. had two rockets this year. One was their normal senior class rocket, and the second was a colaberation by three of their graduates from last year, Dillan McDonald, Oswaldo Vasquez , and Leslie Cosme .

These three took over their failed rocket from last year, and rebuilt it attempting to fix all the issues that prevented it from leaving the rail in 2016. They took it upon themselves to do their own fund-raising and sponsorships in order to pay for their project. These three very determined individuals would not settle for leaving their rocket behind. This vehicle, known as Golden Eagle 5, was the first of the Booker T rockets on the rail today. It tested at 9:15 this morning.

Unfortunately, it was still not the flight they had hoped to achieve. The vehicle ignited, but the engine case sheered off at the bolts and hung on the rail. The rest of the rocket continued to lift off the rail under the power of Nitrous and flew only a small distance before tumbling through the air and coming in ballistic not far down the range. So in a matter of speaking they got off the rail this year, but not truly a whole rocket launch. In spite of this they are still to be congratulated for accomplishing this rocket on their own.

Golden Eagle 6 was Booker T’s second rocket for the day. It had good lift off of the rail, but also developed a side burn out near the top of the engine casing and also nosed dived into the ground. Preliminary reports from optics at WSMR have the vehicle achieving 138 meters (400′) and 14 seconds of flight.

Alamo Heights repaired their rocket from the failed launch yesterday and were able to retest at 2:23 this afternoon. This turned out to be the most unusual and entertaining launch of the week. The vehicle ignited and smoked on the rail. It appeared at first that it would not lift off, but it did begin to lift about half way up the rail, before falling back down, shearing off the load cell and landing on the deck. The engine continued to burn and make small bounces as it sat there. It began to show Nitrous leaks, but the engine fired again and it began lifting up the rail a second time. About half way up it faltered hanging in place for several seconds before finally clearing the top of the rail. It was a short 9 second flight before it too developed a side burn and began to tumble end over end toward the ground. It landed engine first, popped the nose cone off, and then the engine broke free sending the body into the ground where it began its own short flight as it expelled the remaining Nitrous, did a vertical hop off the ground and crashed. Even with this dramatic flight, the vehicle did achieve 134 meters(300′) before it’s demise.

The mission was then called complete, and clean up and pack up began as this was the last day of testing for SystemsGo, students, and WSMR personnel.

Safe travels to all schools heading home, tomorrow. It is back to Texas and the upcoming Fourth of July Holiday, tomorrow. As for tonight, the team enjoyed dinner, drinks, conversation and an early bed time.

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.

Wednesday, First WSMR Launch Day-Rockets 2017

Today was an extremely early morning for the SystemsGo team and program participants, Fredericksburg High School, Union Grove High School and Alamo Heights High School. They were all up at 2:00 this morning headed to the range, here at WSMR to test. They had success in that they met all three T times for the day with only 20 minute variances.

Fredericksburg STEM Academy was first to test, leaving the rail at 6:20 a.m. It started off well with what looked to be a beautiful flight, but it was short-lived. It quickly lost thrust climbing to only just over 300′ before nosing over, refiring, and plowing into and along the range. Luckily, the nose cone shoot deployed shortly before impact, taking it away from the harsh landing. WSMR optics reported the vehicle only reached a speed of just under 100 ft/second, but still managed to travel 920′ down range.

This was not quite the flight students had hoped for, but for today they hold the flight record for these three launches. Even though, the schools are not competing against each other but awarded only on their own accomplishments, students all want to have the most successful flight of the season. Of course there are four more tests tomorrow.

SystemsGo was able to have Union Grove loaded on the rail, filled and ready to fire in just over an hour and a half. Their rocket had a 7:55 T-time. The rocket had ignition and began to lift off, but about two feet up the rail the the engine skirt sheered resulting in the engine landing on the pad while the body of the vehicle continued up to the top of the rail, and then slid back down until the end hit the ground where it stood continuing to dump the remaining Nitrous from the tank. The final impact with the pad dislodged the nose cone sending it to the ground. Union Grove students at Mission Control, had at first thought that their injector had blown out, but upon inspection after the failed launch, the injector was found to be intact. The students are still problem solving to determine what caused the mishap. This is a good learning curve for future of the Union Grove program.

Even with the 30 minute required wait time before approaching the Union rocket to remove it from the rail, Alamo Heights was loaded on the rail and attempted testing their rocket at approximately 9:40. They had ignition, but no lift or burn. Students are sure the Nitrous valve didn’t open. This vehicle also sat on the rail until wires from the engine stopped smoldering. It was quickly determined that it could not be repaired for retest today, and the call to complete today’s mission was made. Alamo Heights is seen here, working to repair the vehicle this evening for a last slot retest at the end of the schedule tomorrow. It was very impressive to see both the students at the launch site and those at Mission Control begin problem solving and discussions on what went wrong as well as ideas on how to repair the vehicle.

SystemsGo did great work meeting these very stringent T-times today.

Tomorrow’s schedule is another early one, but luckily nowhere near as early as today’s. They are all going out to the range at 5:00 a.m. to prepare for a beginning T of 8:00 a.m. If the schedule holds, even with a possible fourth test, they should be packing up the range by 3:00 p.m.

The following is the schedule at this time:

Thursday launch order:

8:00 a.m. Anahuac
10:00 a.m. Booker T. Washington (1)
12:00 p.m. Booker T. Washington (2)
2:15 p.m. Alamo Heights (Retest)

Event details will continue to be available here. Information will be available late tomorrow evening after all tests are complete and the range has been packed up. Pictures are not allowed on the range, but some pictures of teams getting ready to leave for the range with their vehicles might be available. If anything is available I will post it for your viewing pleasure.

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.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

fhseng

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: