Tag: Bradley Plaza

Goddard Level Rockets Ride The Skies in 17 Days Redbird #20 Among Them

The Goddard level rockets, which are the capstones of the SystemsGo program and the culmination of all the skills the students have learned throughout their years in the STEM program are set to launch June 21-23. This marks the final senior project for the schools that participate in this level of the SystemsGo program.

Redbird #20 is scheduled for testing at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) Sunday, June 23. This marks the last big event for Rockets 2019 and the Fredericksburg Engineering/Rocket Program.

As of today, May 31, when I was able to get a report on the rocket’s status, from team member, Dawsen Harkins, was in good standing. He reported that as of May 30, the nosecone had been assembled and covered with its first layer of fiberglass.

In this photo the nose cone ring is being secured in place, and centered by skewers for fiberglassing.

Although, the tank required 2 trips to SRM to have leaks rewelded, it has now completed its pressure testing successfully. It will be returning to SRM again to have the hatches and holes cut in.

New for this year is a piston valve system. This has also performed well when tested.

This year’s rocket is supporting three payloads. The first came from Harvard University, courtesy of former FHS student, Joseph Sanchez, who attends school there. It is a CubeSat with a pneumatically deployed solar panel.

They second one was created by Keith Jenkins, the FHS IT guy. It is a small electronics bay.

The third the team provided. It is a GoPro camera. It will be positioned behind an acrylic window in the hatch, so that it can look out and video the vehicle’s flight.

According to Harkins, “All components bays have been made and 3D printed and fit perfectly in the rocket.”

The fuel grain is also on the task list. They have assembled the mold for pouring it. One part of the mixture for the fuel grain is still not in but they will be mixing and pouring it as soon as this arrives.

As of this report, supplied last Friday, the following list of things is left and then they are FRR complete.

  1. Complete the fiberglassing of the nose cone.
  2. Make the fuel grain and assemble the motor system.
  3. Assemble the recovery system.
  4. Weld fins to body.
  5. Cut hatches and have holes drilled in the body tube.
  6. Fix minor little things for flight.

The current list of students from this team attending the WSMR launch is as follows:

Rodolfo Avila, Cody Blohm, Gloria Burns, Alexander Casteneda, Lucio Castro Vazquez, Clayton Ellebracht, Jose Escalante, Jabin Gipson, Dawsen Harkins, Cooper McDonald, Eduardo Memije, Bradley Plaza, Joshua Reese-Hadley,  Nicholas Rodriguez, Robert Sanchez, Deja Turkett, Gabriel Voorhees, Carl Wilger, and Robert Zowie.

Currently there is not a team picture available, but here is Nick Rodriguez, Deja Turkett and Dawsen Harkins taking a work break on the stairs at FHS.

Launches are scheduled for June 21st and June 23rd. The team will travel out to WSMR on Wednesday, June 20th, and back home again on the 24th.

There are 7 schools scheduled to launch 8 rockets. These schools include:

  • Alamo Heights
  • Anahuac
  • Booker T. Washington
  • Brazoswood
  • Fredericksburg
  • Marble Falls
  • Union Grove

The current launch schedule is as follows:

  • Thursday, June 2oth
    1. Travel Day
  • Friday, June 21st
    1. Mrorning-T-1/Site Set up WC-50; Afternoon-Launch Union Grove & Alamo Heights ( or whichever rockets are ready)
  • Saturday, June 22rd
    1. Launch Day Two (Four Rockets-Booker T., Anahuac, Marble Falls, & Brazoswood)
  • Sunday, June 23rd
    1. Launch Day Two (Two Rockets-Fredericksburg & Booker T Washington)
  • Monday, June 24th
    1. Travel Day (Could travel home on the 23rd if operations are complete in time.)

This article is for the 2018/2019 school year to update 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.

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.

#Rockets2018 #SystemsGo #FredricksburgSTEMAcademy #Launcher01 #RideTheSky #Texasrockettrail

 

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 10th, 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 4th-8th grade engineering outreach event to be held on February 17th.  Look for more in the newspaper and students of those grades bring home flyers in January.

 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.

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.

 

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.

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.