Today marked the final day of the Goddard Teacher Training class. Unfortunately for me, but better for all of them, class was done by the time my lunch came around and I entered the class. Phil Houseal, was packing up his video equipment, Rebekah was packing up snacks, and coffee, and the teachers were headed out to find home again.
Mr. Matthes and I spoke briefly about the day. They spent the morning discussing Stability, and Propulsion. At the end of their time, Rebak Hyatt, spoke about the Philosophies behind rocketry.
It was my impression from the teachers that they all had a very informative and fun week, delving into the Goddard program.
July 19-23, four schools will train on the Tsiolkovsky level at Artesia Administration Building in Artesia, New Mexico. Canon City High School from Colorado, and Logan, Elida, and Animas High Schools all from New Mexico will all train with Program Director, Rebekah Hyatt. These classes are designed for Sophomore, Junior and Senior grade students whose projects are generally one pound/one mile rockets for launch at one of the spring launches.
The feature picture for today’s short article is Brazoswood’s Goddard rocket from this year. I thought it a fitting way to end the week.
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.
Anatomy of a Rocket was the continued subject today in Goddard class. Yesterday encompassed the aft end of the vehicle, where as today it was the forward section. Concentrations on Nosecones, Recovery, Payload and Fins were primary discussions, as per Mr. Matthes. Interestingly, one of those components does not belong on the forward section of a rocket. I do believe that would be a slight design flaw. This leads me to believe that it was obviously the end of the aft section before beginning the forward section. No pun intended.
Earlier in the day during the discussion on nosecones, the group took a short field trip to the FHS Engineering storage room. Here they looked at various examples of nosecones that FHS has used on past rockets.
Chris McLeod, told me about this part of the day. He stated that I had missed the best part, and that he knew it was hard to get good pictures of them working on the screen. He then supplied the picture from this field trip, and I used it as the feature for this article. Thank you, Chris!
When I entered the discussion today, they were at the end of examples of chute configurations and deployment options. Below is what greeted me on the screen. They had already come to the consensus that option C was what they were going to include in their diagram.
Recovery had been a big part of the discussion earlier and Chris Madsen, NASA JSC, had conferenced in to aid in this conversation.
There was still some discussions about tethering, reefing, and chording. Mr. Matthes, brought up a chute drawing from earlier in the day to discuss more options and ideas on how to best accomplish these necessities.
Placement of the main and drogue chutes in reference to the avionics and electronics bay, and an antenna system for tracking, recovery and telemetry of the rocket were discussed. The antenna is being implemented since radar tracking is not always a reliable medium. Having this antenna onboard will aid in these areas supplying a secondary system instead of just the radar. Attaching this antenna so that it stays intact during flight and chute deployment seemed to be the more difficult part of adding it to the design.
At this point, the class transitioned to the screen calling on a new volunteer to draw the forward section of their vehicle. Michael Dodson, the teacher from Lovington High School in New Mexico, took on this task.
First they listed the main components that needed to be included:
Just like Wednesday, the drawing kept evolving as they discussed what parts were needed and where their placement would be. Payload was added next. As per what the actual payload would be, I did not hear that answer. Although, 5 pounds of Playdough was mentioned as an option. At the Tsiolkovsky and Oberth levels it has been used, although not 5 pounds.
Playdough is not appropriate as a payload at the Goddard level. It was mentioned by the group as a kind of inside joke and therefore mentioned here to get the attention of certain individuals. You know who you are. We have to lighten the technical mood and have a little fun.
Here the payload compartment has been added to the diagram.
As the thought process stalled, Mr. Matthes, chided the teachers about having a deadline of 5 pm. tomorrow to complete their rocket. He razzed them about not putting in after hours time like the high school students do, to get the work done. During this time Mr. Dodsen added a frontal view of the recovery compartment to the drawing.
Doug Kimbrell and Doug Underwood sat at the back offering suggestions to the class and combing through material on the computer for ideas.
The class continued their brainstorming as I slipped out again for the day, my 40 minutes of class at it’s end.
Until tomorrow, if you are not dreaming of designing, building, launching and chasing rockets, you obviously have not hung out with this crew enough!
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.
Today’s lesson was concerning the Anatomy of a Rocket. Quite honestly this was not a good class to come into the middle of and expect to keep up.
The best example I can give of how this went is as follows. My family often plays a game at holidays, we call “Pass Around Pictionary.” To sum it up, each person has a piece of paper on which they draw a picture, then fold the paper to hide the picture, and then they pass it to the next person to describe the picture in words. This process continues going back and forth from picture to words each time the paper is passed, and each person can only see what the person before them drew or wrote and must describe using the opposite action.
Now fast forward to today. I walk into a high level rocket training class just as the main lecture on how to design these vehicles has ended, and a student/teacher is selected to go to the board and draw/design a rocket with the help of his classmates. Not only are they drawing this vehicle as they go along, they are problem solving, designing, discussing parameters and components, and redrawing as the thought process changes and develops.
Here Conner Gorman from BCTAL steps up to the screen, at Mr. Matthes’ prodding for a volunteer, and Rhonda Baker, suggests that it is someone else’s time as she has already done board time earlier in the day.
The drawing began simple enough so I tried to draw my own copy picture as they went along. Their board allowed for erasing and changing as they went along. I brought a notebook and an INK pen to class today. It worked well the last two days, but failed me miserably today. I finally gave up on trying to complete the drawing, and went to listing components that I knew were part of a rocket. Needless to say I went from drawing to writing, watching as their diagram continued to evolve.
Incidentally, here is what my drawing and notes looked like.
You engineers, teachers and people who really know all this stuff, you can stop laughing now.
This too had it’s downfalls, because even though I know a lot of the pieces that go into a rocket, it is mostly the big stuff, like nose cone, tank, fins and fuel grain, and some of the tiny things like O-rings, valves, nuts, bolts, etc.
We were now discussing all the large, small, tiny, unknown and very necessary items. Several factors that effect each of them, their sizes, configurations, placement possibilities, etc. Not to mention the abbreviations, acronyms, and formulas that were being used as descriptors. I definitely need to take this class from beginning to end!!!
Here, Mr. Gorman almost appears to look like I felt. Although for him, it was probably just a thinking process moment.
One thing is for sure, these teachers were being held to the same standard or higher that the high school students in the program are and they were having to perform, just as they will be directing their future students to do. They were designing and developing a diagram of a rocket that they could look back on later as a working example. Each one was analyzing the possibilities and determining the best, what kind, why that one, and how of it all.
They were thinking through things like injector ports, vents, nozzles, electronics bays and their placements on the vehicles and determining if the design was good. Contemplating if they might need to reach that component later and how they would?
The drawing developed, morphed, changed and was redrawn as questions were put forth and answered. It was amazing to be a part of, but nearly impossible to take notes on and keep track.
Even these pictures really do not do the material or the participation of the working minds, justice. I cannot wait to see where they are tomorrow! Here are two more that were part of their discussion. I will let you fill in the captions for these.
We did have a few new faces today. SystemsGo Executive Director, Scott Netherland; Board President, Doug Kimbrell; and past graduate of the program, Robert Sanchez were all in attendance. At the time that I was there, Scott and Doug were observing. Robert said he was fixing one of the school’s 3D printers so that he could use it to fix the other 3D printer.
Until tomorrow, if you are not dreaming of designing, building, launching and chasing rockets, you obviously have not hung out with this crew enough!
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.
Teachers and others in the program probably already know this, but it was news to me. That was either because I have just missed it in conversation before today, or the fact just never came up. Maybe I should have known, but then I am not a teacher, just a crazy, addicted volunteer that loves and supports the program. The technical term is Rocket Junky! What didn’t I know, well the fact that they only do the Goddard level training every four years!!!!!
Doug Underwood, actually gave me that piece of information today. He is seen here with his materials laid out as the lecture resumes after their lunch break.
Not all schools participate in this level of the program. One reason is because these vehicles are expensive to build. It also requires extra travel for the students and schools, and the only window for launch is a month after the students have graduated and school has dismissed. Most schools stay at the Tsiolkovsky and Oberth levels. Therefore training every year is not always necessary or cost effective. That is my take on the why. Of course, SystemsGo may have more specific reasons for their why.
Either way, at first I was stunned and wondered, how can that be? But, knowing just what I do know, taking the things I have mentioned into account and the fact that not every school that does the Goddard program comes to WSMR to launch every year, it could be made sense of rather quickly.
Today the Goddard class was training on Propulsion. Engineering teacher, Andrew Matthes was manning the presentations, leading the discussions and taking questions again.
Here are a few things I heard in my 30 minutes in class today. Do not expect these session to be perfect and totally technically on because, I am not an engineer, though if I could go back and do this stuff I would. I am just a writer and volunteer for the program that loves to soak up all that I can like a sponge and throw it out there for the many more rocket junkies like me, including other students, teachers, rocket followers, etc. so that we may all have a piece of the action and involvement. First and foremost I love to bring more light to the program in any way I can. And have some fun with all I see, hear and learn.
That being said, here is my bit of today’s lessons. There was much discussion about the fuel grain and how it reacts with Nitrous and Oxygen. Specifically how the vapor off the surface of the fuel grain burns with the oxidizer to create combustion. Hot expanding gasses were a topic at this point, which brought forth a quote about hot gasses from the movie, October Sky!
I tried to locate the exact quote, and it did speak about the necessity of the nozzle in the design and how it directs the flow of hot gasses. Of course the comments in the movie went south after hot gasses.
The class went on to discuss fuel grain flow designs. The first of which is pictured here:
This lead to discussions about expansion within the fuel grain, as well as pressure changes, flow rate changes and various other effects as it burns. One such example that is likely with a single port is that the port gets larger as it burns. This changes the Mass Flow Rate also causing the DOF to get larger.
Another comment mentioned was that with only one port, the expansion creates two separate sides to the fuel grain, kind of like two separate pieces of wood burning, which also changes the potential of the propulsion.
According to some in the class, “Two sticks burn better than one!” Chris McLeod, said that I definitely needed to include that comment in today’s blog, so there you have it.
The anatomy of fuel grains and what works well and does not,
as well as nozzle designs were also touched on while I was present, as seen in the pictures shown above and below.
At the beginning of class the internet was down. Apparently it is an intermittent problem. Mr. Matthes made a call and it restored quickly. Jerry, the FISD, IT guy stopped by to check. He said the server had actual gone off momentarily. Some of you might remember him from Willow City a few years back. He brought his drones out to help aide recovery.
Yesterday, someone commented that they wanted to see who else was in attendance besides, Chris McLeod, so here maybe you can make out a few more people. Rhonda Baker is one you might know.
SystemsGo Program Director, Rebekah Hyatt was there when I first arrived, but left quickly to address some issues back at the office.
The same seven teachers were present for training again today. As previously noted they are from Birdville Career and Tech Center, RL Turner, Union Grove, Brazoswood, Booker T Washington, and Jal High Schools.
Today, most of the photos are already included, but I thought this one could be of some interest since the discussion is Goddard rockets. It is the aft end of an old Goddard vehicle. Not a clue if it belongs to a FHS Red Bird or some other school, but it is a prime example of how success often comes to you in pieces.
Until tomorrow, if you are not dreaming of rockets, you obviously have not hung out with this crew enough!
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.
Goddard training began today with FHS Engineer teacher, Andrew Matthes directing the class.
SystemsGo Program Director, Rebekah Hyatt, sitting in the back where she was able to add in information or examples as needed. SystemsGo Regional Director, Doug Underwood was also in attendance.
Seven teachers were present for training. Most were from schools around Texas including Birdville Career and Tech Center, RL Turner, Union Grove, Brazoswood, and Booker T Washington High Schools, and one from Jal High School in New Mexico.
I watched and listen for about 40 minutes today, during which, Chris Madsen, NASA JSC, Orion Entry GN&C Systems Manager skyped in to present The SystemsGo Goddard 6-DOF Inputs session of the training.
As I listened to discussions including center of mass, Roll, Yall and Pitch, metric and standard measurement uses, weight balance across the vehicle, just to mention a small fraction of the information being presented, I was really wishing I had brought a folder for notes and not just a camera. I definitely wish I could have stayed for the full presentation as this program and all they do, never ceases to amaze and fascinate me.
Here are a few more pics. Not too much different, but I will check in on them again tomorrow to see if there is more of interest to report.
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.
Rockets 2021 has barely ended as the Team and students returned home from launches at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, on June 27th, and July already starts a new year.
Rockets 2022 begins with SystemsGo Teacher Training for the 2021/2022 school year. 22 Schools from Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado will be participating in training on all levels of the program at locations in both Texas and New Mexico.
July 12-16 kicks off these educational events at the Goddard level. FHS Program teacher, Andrew Matthes, will conduct this event in the Fredericksburg High School Engineering Department classroom.
Five teachers from Texas high schools, including Birdville Career and Tech Center, RL Turner, Union Grove, Brazoswood, and Booker T Washington High Schools, and one from Jal High School in New Mexico will attend and secure certification to teach the curriculum at their respective schools this fall. This first week of training encompasses the senior level rockets which launch at White Sands Missile Range. It is the final and highest level of the program. These vehicles are designed to reach 50,000 feet.
July 19-23, four schools will train on the Tsiolkovsky level at Artesia Administration Building in Artesia, New Mexico. Canon City High School from Colorado, and Logan, Elida, and Animas High Schools all from New Mexico will all train with Program Director, Rebekah Hyatt. These classes are designed for Sophomore, Junior and Senior grade students whose projects are generally one pound/one mile rockets for launch at one of the spring launches.
The following weekend, July 24-25, two teachers will train on the Oberth level also at the Artesia Administration Building in Artesia, New Mexico. One is from the West Texas school of Fabens and the other from Canon City in Colorado. Regional Coordinator, Doug Underwood, will conduct these trainings. July 31- August 1 he will be in Fredericksburg training Texas teachers on this same level. Hollenstein, Georgetown and McGregor High Schools will be in attendance in Fredericksburg. This level teaches students in the Junior and Senior years on the Transonic rockets, which are designed to break the speed of sound.
The next week will be back at Fredericksburg High School, where Program Director, Rebekah Hyatt continues training teachers on the Tsiolkovsky level of rockets. The Texas schools of Summer Creek, Hollenstein, Friendswood, Atascocita, Galena Park, Georgetown, and McGregor will attend this session in Fredericksburg.
The first week in August, PD Hyatt will also be conducting webinars for teachers needing the Intro to Engineering training. These teachers generally work with eighth and ninth graders just starting in the program, which teaches the Research Design and Development Loop as well as the history and basics of rocketry. These are two hour working web trainings that are scheduled as needed. Currently there is only one on Wednesday, August 4th, but a second may be added later.
Covid caused many schools and teachers to drop the program last year. Fortunately, many are returning this year and at least five new schools have been added. SystemsGo is glad to see this uptick in the program.
The more schools and teachers mean many more students involved, and with that many more potential career paths in the STEM fields.
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.
The Goddard level rockets, which are the capstones of the SystemsGo program and the culmination of all the skills the students learned throughout their years in the program are set to launch June 25-27. This marks the final senior project for the schools that participate in this level of the program, and the last big event of the Rockets 2021 season.
Four schools are scheduled for testing at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) . The numbers of schools able to participate in this part of the program this year are significantly down. This is again due to COVID creating learning and participation barriers for students in both the 2020 and 2021 school years. Lack of in class time made it hard for students to finish large projects like these.
Due to shutdowns for COVID last year, White Sands Missile Range is also backlogged with military contracts that take priority. They are still accommodating our group but our regular range, WC-50 is under heavy contract and will not be available. We will instead be located on a smaller range, ABC-1. This poses several new restrictions for the group.
The first of these is an even more limited number of personnel allowed on the range during set up and launches. ABC-1 is a smaller range than what the group usually uses. It is not equipped with a large bunker like WC-50. Therefore, only two SystemsGo personnel will stay on the range during each launch. ALL others will be evacuated to Tula G. There will be video and radio communications with the pad available at Tula G.
A small group of SystemsGo essential people will evacuate to a limit of 5 miles out to expedite turn around between launches.
Because of this change, no non-essential personnel should expect to attend the event. Chaperones should be limited and double as drivers if possible. Along with a smaller launch site, there will not be any public viewing for parents and students at Range Control. WSMR COVID restrictions still do not allow for visitors at Range Control.
The second big change will affect the teams and their rockets. ABC-1 is a much smaller range than is generally used for this event. Because of this, it does not meet the criteria in recovery radius needed for vehicles reaching an altitude of 100,000 feet. Schools are now required to alter their rocket altitude requirements to a lesser height of 50,000 feet. The suggested correction for this is to adapt fuel loads for each vehicle to quell the altitude it can reach.
That sounds simple but adjusting fuel load and altitude also effects things like apogee and recovery deployment just to mention. Students are reminded that adjustments to their altimeters and recovery systems to adapt to the 50,000 ‘ Apogee limit is a necessity.
Part of this program is the challenges and meeting those challenges. It is late in the process, but it will be interesting to see how each team steps up to these new challenges and overcomes them in the time they still have before arriving for launch at WSMR.
The third change is another location change, this time for the Flight Readiness Reviews (FRR). These are normally conducted on WC-50. ABC-1 cannot accommodate this, so they will be hosted by the Alamogordo High School. Currently this is projected to be in their commons room. These will begin promptly at 7:00 AM, Friday morning, June 25th. Additional information about this may be available in an update email from Program Director, Rebekah Hyatt, closer to the event.
WSMR has military testing on Friday morning. At its completion, SystemsGo personnel will go down range to ABC-1 to begin set-up for launches. If Brazoswood and Union Grove are complete at this time they will bring their vehicles and assist in set-up, rail assembly, and will load their rockets onto the rails in preparations of first launch. If not, all remaining schools will wait and come as a group later in the day.
Launches are scheduled for June 26th and June 27th. The team will travel out to WSMR on Wednesday, June 24th, and back home again on either the 27th or the 28th. Hopeful expectations are that all rockets are launch complete on Saturday. Sunday is still open for contingency. There is a probability that WSMR may shift launch days and want testing for SystemsGo to be on Friday and Saturday. If this happens the first two rockets will launch Friday afternoon. This would also move FRR checks up to Thursday afternoon at either the school or the hotel parking lot as is available.
SystemsGo asks that everyone be prepared for any scenario and arrive as early as possible on Thursday so that any changes to the schedule can be accommodated. All paperwork must be turned in on Thursday as well. This includes:
UXO briefing registry
WSMR waiver
SystemsGo waiver
There are four schools scheduled to launch four rockets. These schools in their current projected launch order include:
Brazoswood
Union Grove
Booker T Washington
Alamo Heights
This order is based on the random draw and totally contingent on rocket completion and readiness. Otherwise, they will test in order of readiness, first done, first to launch.
Good luck to these students and schools! We will be seeing you very soon in New Mexico!
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.
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.
Complete the fiberglassing of the nose cone.
Make the fuel grain and assemble the motor system.
Assemble the recovery system.
Weld fins to body.
Cut hatches and have holes drilled in the body tube.
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
Travel Day
Friday, June 21st
Mrorning-T-1/Site Set up WC-50; Afternoon-Launch Union Grove & Alamo Heights ( or whichever rockets are ready)
Saturday, June 22rd
Launch Day Two (Four Rockets-Booker T., Anahuac, Marble Falls, & Brazoswood)
Sunday, June 23rd
Launch Day Two (Two Rockets-Fredericksburg & Booker T Washington)
Monday, June 24th
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.
Red Bird #19 is scheduled for testing at White Sands Missile Range(WSMR) next Friday, June 22. This marks the last big event for Rockets 2018 and the Fredericksburg STEM Academy for this season.
These are the Goddard level rockets, which are the culmination of all the skills the students have learned throughout their years in the STEM program. This marks the final senior project for those schools that participate in this level of the SystemsGo program.
As of today, June 15, the Fredericksburg Engineering Red Bird #19 rocket team is due to pick up the vehicle from SRM tomorrow, now that the welding is completed. The team still has to complete the assembly of the motor and then integrate it, as well as the, injector valve, payload, and parachutes. They will be attempting to finish the FRR tonight. In spite of the remaining tasks they are on schedule to make their launch at WSMR.
Red Bird #19 has an 8 inch diameter and is 25 feet long. The team outsourced the payload to the district IT employee and former FMS science teacher, Keith Jenkins. He created a sensor for the vehicle that will measure methane levels at the time of nose cone deployment.
When asked about the rocket’s expectations, Harrison Spisak stated, “My expectations are about 65,00 feet, but after NASA evaluated it they estimated 102,000.” Therefore that is the hopeful estimate if all goes perfectly.
Today, team members, Joey Leal and Harrison Spisak were working on the FRR, and T-1 briefing as seen in the photos below.
Here the nose cone and injection system also await integration.
Here Joey Leal checks on the rockets progress at SRM machine shop.
Harrison Spisak’s father will be hauling the rocket on his trailer to White Sands for the team.
Pictured here is this year’s Red Bird #19 Team: 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.
Launches are scheduled for June 22nd and June 23rd, with a contingency day on the 24th if needed. The team will travel out to WSMR on Wednesday, June 20th, and back home again on the 23rd.
There are 5 schools scheduled to launch 6 rockets. These schools include:
Alamo Heights
Anahuac
Booker T. Washington
Brazoswood
Fredericksburg
Union Grove
The current launch schedule is as follows:
Wednesday, June 2oth Travel Day
Thursday, June 21st T-1 and Site Set up/Rocket Prep at WC- 50
Friday, June 22rd Launch Day One (Four Rockets-Fredericksburg, Brazoswood, Booker T., Anahuac)
Saturday, June 23rd Launch Day Two (Two Rockets–Union Grove, Alamo Heights)
Sunday, June 24th Contingency Day/ Travel Day
Monday, June 25th Travel Day if needed
This article is the eighth for the 2017/2018 school year in a series of periodic updates that has followed 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.
May is here and time is running out for the Fredericksburg STEM Academy as launch dates approach for the junior and senior groups. Juniors have a May 18th test date at Rockets 2017 in Willow City. While the seniors are down to less than 3 weeks as Redbird 18 is scheduled for completion two weeks before school ends to allow for preliminary systems tests.Due to delays in manufacturing, testing will have to occur in the process of construction as components come in. Final testing will be the week of June 19th prior to their test at WSMR the following week. It is slated to launch at White Sands Missile Range on June 27th.
During April the seniors tested Low Density polyethylene (LDPE) three times on teststand. Data on all tests was consistent and exemplary. Currently the injector plate is being drilled again to increase the oxidizer flow rate to the correct value to provide for complete combustion. Due to this testing is on hold. Lately they have been experimenting with different ablative arrangements. The ablative has burned through slightly but not enough to damage the test cell.
Below is an actual video of an engine burn test. This one of the first video’s with HD video quality and audio. The regularly captured video does not have audio embedded. This is good for them too as they do these tests for NASA and this gives them something more to show of their work.
Mr. Matthes had this to say about this particular burn, “It looks pretty good but we’re only getting about 1/3 of the oxidizer we should be getting so it is fuel rich. It will not be as orange when we get the oxidizer flow rate correct. The hope is that it is a really clean plume with mach diamonds in the plume.”
The senior’s “junior teststand” nick named “Baby Bird” is almost complete. They hope to conduct their first ever test on this new teststand possibly late this week. This teststand was created by the seniors starting last year during junior studies to test a fuel grain system designed and developed by them to interface with the hyportek injector and tank. They hope to have 3 successful tests on this teststand. If they achieve this, then they get to fly this new system at Willow City in last year’s rocket. At this point, they are getting fuel grains prepped. Pictured below, are nozzles created for Baby Bird.
Redbird 18 still currently does not resemble a rocket, but they are making steady progress. The nozzle has been manufactured, seen here
and the nose cone mold is also back, seen here.
Machining could only be created to within 8 inches of the tip, therefore they created the tip with 3D printing and epoxied it to the nose cone and are preparing it for fiberglass.
Other needed materials are in and have been sent out to Heartland Enterprises for machining. Currently, Mr. Matthes says that the biggest test coming up will be next week when they pressure test the oxidizer tank.
Juniors are under pressure as the deadline for 100% completion of their rocket is May 11. Meeting this deadline will allow them time to complete their Flight Readiness Reviews (FRR) and be able to high light problems or errors that still exist. Components are coming in and weights on some are different than originally reflected in RockSim. Due to this they are updating their design to accommodate. Currently they are still on the wire between breaking the speed of sound and exceeding the 13,000 feet maximum allowable altitude. Breaking Mach means they also exceed altitude. Staying under 13,000 feet means then they lose their shot at breaking Mach.
Here Chris Calzada is working on RockSim trying to resolve the altitude velocity conundrum.
Meanwhile the Sophomores have been entrusted to work at their own pace to finish their last chapters and projects. Time remaining after completion of these is for 3D printing and modeling. Their learned skills in isometric, creating section views, details and working drawing sets would now allow them to communicate effectively to a machine shop without the need for clarification.
Paul Kucherka, a FISD maintenance man and school function videographer developed an issue with the quadcopter that he uses to video. A few of the sophomores are going to attempt to design and develop a new wiring harness that may provide the solution to Paul’s needs, hopefully by the end of the school year, this would allow him to continue using this equipment for video. In order to do this, a few other sophomores have been creating the multiview of one of the quadcopter’s parts on the 3D printer. Pictured below is the original part they are attempting to recreate.
This article is the seventh in a series, new for this school year ’16/’17 of monthly 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.
In this photo the nose cone ring is being secured in place, and centered by skewers for fiberglassing.
It will be returning to SRM again to have the hatches and holes cut in.
Here Chris Calzada is working on RockSim trying to resolve the altitude velocity conundrum.
On the Wings of Angels 