Tag: SRM Manufacturing

Fredericksburg’s STEM Academy/Rocket Program-Spring Term Update #2 (February 21-March 31)

April 1st is tomorrow, so time is becoming a factor for the Fredericksburg STEM Academy as launch dates approach for the junior and senior groups. There are no fools here though, just  several groups of future engineers working hard to meet their timelines. With March behind them there is only a little over 6 weeks left  for the  junior group until Rockets 2017 and their May 18th test date. The seniors have approximately 60 days as Redbird 18 is scheduled for completion two weeks before school ends to allow for preliminary systems tests.

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

Sophomores are currently taking mid-term exams. This is due to the new schedule for classes this year which puts a full year’s curriculum into one standard semester. They have been busy using AutoCAD to create multi view drawings of objects. Dimensioning and tolerancing of these drawings will be learned next, followed by isometric drawings and 3D modeling. The students have been printing models of their multiview drawings using the newly installed 3D printer. All 3  3D printers available now are working well.

The student aide, Colby Marthaler  has also been using the 3D   printers to print all the parts necessary to create a model of the Falcon 9 Rocket SpaceX uses to transport satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit.

Juniors had CDR’s (Critical Design Reviews) due for their rockets by March 30. Unfortunately they are just getting to them. Students will have to be studious in order to meet their May 18th launch date due to being behind schedule at this time. The payload for this rocket is a rapid growth slime mold. They have designed the payload in order to create a controlled experiment in which they should be able to determine how flight impacts the mold’s growth, negatively or positively.

The design criteria for their rocket is a one pound payload and breaking the speed of sound therefore achieving a transonic state. Currently neither criteria has been met so the group has more work to do to accomplish their goals by their launch date.

Their mid-term which is a LabVIEW development project has come along well. They are creating a workable program which requires specific methods and functions in order to attain a goal of designing and fabricating a micro test stand for Estes motors. They will be connecting  a (DAQ) Data Acquisition unit to a computer and registering it to that computer in order to read sensors, and programming a control and DAQ Virtual Instrument in LabView in order to run the test stand.

March began with more fuel grain tests at test stand. Two tests were completed in the first week alone, consisting of many hours of work to accomplish each. A temperature sensor indicated a high enough value in order to cause a programmed shut down on the first test that week.  After investigation, it was found that a ‘electrical noise’ caused an anomaly which gave the sensor its reading, and that it was in fact not outside normal operating parameters. The actual test did not experience any temperature concerns.

The same fuel grain was able to be used again in a 20 second burn, which allowed students to achieve a cumulative 40 second burn on one fuel grain.  The shut down was disabled for the second burn,  allowing the data to still record the temperatures caused by the ‘electrical noise’, but not to stop the burn test and it was a  full success without any further exceptions.

Mr. Matthes was very pleased with these burns and stated , “All data was processed and showed again the test stand was producing verifiable data similar to theoretical expectations.”

Students began another round of testing this week. Six new fuel grains will be tested accounting for three tests each of two different fuel types students have been working on. The  hope is that they will cycle through smoothly due to the fuel grains being prepped prior to testing.

  Here Hannah Boubel is working with graphite in order to make ablative, which is a sacrificial material in the pre and post combustion chamber so the burn does not penetrate the liner and steel test cell.

 In this photo,  Sterling Weatherford is preparing a fuel grain for installation in to the test cell.

Along with test stand work, the students have been hard at work on Rebird 18, their Goddard level rocket slated to launch at White Sands Missile Range on June 27th. Students have already contracted with Heartland  Enterprises and SRM Manufacturing for fabrications and parts have been supplied to them.

At this point in the process students are learning true cause and effect, and just how it can affect their outcomes.  The entire success of the vehicle from this point forward is contingent on the group not only working as a team as a whole, but also for each individual team to stay on top of their work and outcome. Many of the components are dependent on the progress of the others. Delays on one team’s  element directly affects the next  team creating delays down the line and strained time schedules.  Individual testing is conducted on each piece as it is finished.  Full up integration and testing of any systems that allow for ground based testing is scheduled for two weeks from the end of school when the rocket is due to be complete.

“They are well on their way to a successful vehicle.  The seniors will not have the luxury of adopting senioritis as there is still significant and mutually dependent work to be accomplished,” Mr. Matthes reported. “These next 60 days will be a true test of their team work, peer loyalty and persistence. ”

As the end of the school year approaches, these students are becoming more and more adept in their learning and knowledge as young and capable engineers. Their end of year rockets will be a testament to that learning, time and ability.

According to Mr. Matthes, “Students are becoming ‘plagued’ with knowledge and experience:  the more they know and become aware of, the more they have to take into consideration and the more challenging the process becomes.  However, it also makes for conditions more aligned with success.  Additionally, if we consider these students products of FHS and the FHS Engineering, then they should be welcomed by a market hungry for what they have to offer.”

If you follow this program and like to view the launches, Rockets 2017  will be held at the Stewart Ranch in Willow City, Texas on the weekend of May 18-21, 2017.  This testing site is open to the public. Please watch the SystemsGo website and this blog for upcoming information on the event. The FHS junior group will be testing their rockets on Thursday, May 18, 2017.

The senior group is tentatively scheduled to launch their Goddard level rocket at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico the week of June 26-30. The current schedule for that event is as follows:

Sunday, Jun 25th             Travel Day

Monday, Jun 26th            T-1 and Site Set up/Rocket Prep at WC-50

Tuesday, Jun 27th            Launch Day One (Three Rockets – Fredericksburg, Union Grove, Alamo Heights)

Wednesday, Jun 28th     Launch Day Two (Three Rockets – Anahuac, Booker T. #1, Booker T. #2)

Thursday, Jun 29th          Contingency Day

Friday, Jun 30th                Travel Day

There are also launches in Houston for schools in that area the weekend of May 12-14, 2017. New for this year the Hobbs, New Mexico group of schools will launch 1/1 rockets in Jal, New Mexico on April 27, 2017, this site will also be open to public viewing.

This article is the sixth 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.

Second Term Update #1 (January 9-February 21)-Fredericksburg’s STEM Academy/Rocket Program

January  is past and February is waning quickly, but the spring program is really building. There are big goals and events  for each class group. This semester is where their learning  hits the pad literally for the junior and senior groups as they build toward Rockets 2017 and their end of class projects.  There are three class groups this semester as the sophomore class begins study and the freshman class is complete until they re-enter the program as sophomores in January of 2018.

The freshman have moved on due to the new accelerated block schedule, but at the end of the semester they all agreed that communication skills were what they felt they had developed the most. They found themselves to be much more comfortable and  proficient  when speaking in public. Their final projects, the orange juice production plants went well as reported by Mr. Matthes. The students were all very excited about the class and course study, but not about having to wait a whole year to return to the STEM Academy.

The sophomores are just beginning their 5th week of studies since they are new to the program for this year. Their studies to this point included learning to hand draw multi-view drawings, interpreting 3D objects, and learning engineering lettering which they have recently completed. With these skills accomplished, they will be moving on to the ACC Auto CAD course within the next week.

These students have been using two older 3D printers  for these projects. The printers have a relatively small build space and so limit what the students can produce on them. The district has recently received a new larger 3D printer, the MakerBot Z18 which will be available later this month. This will be a benefit to these students as well as both upperclassmen groups as it will allow for much larger production pieces and will give them the ability to prototype designs.

While junior and senior classes will use this printer more often, the sophomores will be the first to learn how to use it. Even though their current course study will still be focused on smaller printing jobs, prototyping and future uses will necessitate knowing how to use the new printer.

Juniors began work on January 23, on their transonic rocket that they will launch in Willow City in May. They have begun the initial stages of the Design and Development processes. A timeline and a problem statement have been created, and they are about midway through the research process.

They have a Critical Design Review (CDR) due before spring break. Unfortunately they have not been able to narrow down the scope of their research as of yet. This keeps them spread out as  a team, and means they have to make up ground in order to make the pre-spring break CDR  deadline.

They are researching rapid growth organisms for a possible payload for the rocket, and hope to be able to study how flight affects their growth.

On Friday, February 17, the juniors along with sophomores, Gloria Burns and Eston Cooke joined the juniors as Brian Evans of Space Propulsion Group provided instruction on the basics of mathematical modeling. At the end of the presentation, juniors had the opportunity to present models they had developed and then also do trouble shooting on their profiles.

20170217_120050Sophomores Gloria Burns and Eston Cooke with Dr. Brian Evans.

The junior students were very receptive to Mr. Evans and his instruction, alleviating numerous roadblocks and enabling rapid progress in their modelling.

20170217_111700Here  juniors, Harrison Spisak and Jacob Weinecke make their presentations their burn model to Dr. Evans.

“Dr. Evans was down to earth and made  comprehension of something really difficult, easy.”-Corbin Smajstrla

“It was nice to have rocket science explained so it wasn’t rocket science.” -Evan Knapp

Juniors have been officially invited to begin learning and participation in fuel grain motor test burns, but currently seniors are the only ones conducting any test burns.

20170217_111026 Corbin Smajstrla and Dr. Evans at the board.

The seniors conducted their first hot fire test on Friday, February 17, while Dr. Evans from the Space Propulsion Group was in attendance. They accomplished a 10 second burn of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE).

starboard-view A still photo from the burn test.

According to Mr. Matthes, ” The test was extremely successful with outstanding data acquisition that showed the motor preformed nominally, according to expected design parameters.  This was very exciting to have such a good, clean burn, good data, and fitting expected performance.”

Heartland Enterprises and SRM Manufacturing created a newly designed injector plate.  This allowed the class to keep their Friday deadline.  In spite of the piece needing to be manufactured quickly for the project,  these companies came through and the product was, “beautifully machined and performed with 10% of expectation regarding oxidizer mass flow rate,” stated Mr. Matthes.

On January 27, the Fredericsburg Middle School 7th grade GT(Gifted and Talented) group presented their payload for the Redbird #18 Rocket to the senior STEM class. It consisted of a group of sensors to measure UV Light, methane, acceleratometer, and barometric pressure.

20170127_142251 20170127_135355 The 7th grade GT class presentation.

New this school year, Mr. Matthes started requiring after school and extra curricular hour work on senior projects. When asked how this senior group was doing with this on their project, here is what he had to say about the group.

“There have been  a solid group of students who have been putting time in during study halls and some others who have been able to commit extended numbers of hours outside of school time to keep things moving forward.  These senior students have worked phenomenally.  They bit off a lot to accomplish this year and are on target to meet all of their expectations.  It is quite remarkable having the opportunity and privilege to work with them.  A substitute recently commented that during my absence, walking into the classroom after the passing period between classes was like walking into a full-fledged workforce environment where students were all fully engaged, scheduling, designing, problem solving, and just plain working without any instruction to do so.  I believe the skills these students have honed over the last 4 years through this program and all their other coursework has created a ‘product’ that any college, industry, and organization would wish to recruit.”

Keep up the great work, seniors, what an amazing and glowing endorsement.

If you follow this program and like to view the launches, Rockets 2017  will be held at the Stewart Ranch in Willow City, Texas on the weekend of May 18-21, 2017.  This testing site is open to the public. Please watch the SystemsGo website and this blog for upcoming information on the event. The FHS junior group will be testing their rockets on Thursday, May 18, 2017. The senior group is tentatively scheduled to launch their Goddard level rocket at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico the week of June 26-30.  There are also launches in Houston for schools in that area the weekend of May 12-14, 2017. New for this year the Hobbs, New Mexico group of schools will launch 1/1 rockets in Jal, New Mexico on April 27, 2017, this site will also be open to public viewing.

The STEM Academy group was encouraged to attend the movie, “Hidden Figures” on Friday, February 10th at Fritztown Cinema. About 35 students from the program attended.  Here is what a few of them had to say about the movie:

“The movie was about African-American women breaking social barriers in the engineering community at NASA. It should be your talent, skills, and work ethic that decide your position at your workplace, not your ethnicity or gender. I found it to be a fun/feel good movie that was well-directed and enjoyable to watch. I found myself caring about the characters and rooting for them throughout the movie which means the characterization was done well.  My favorite part of the movie was the climax when they shot the marine into orbit. The entire movie was building up to this and it was worth the wait.”–John West

“I found “Hidden Figures” to be a very inspiring and thought-provoking film. The primary idea that I took away from the movie was to “look past the numbers.” During the film, NASA mathematicians had difficulty making complex calculations due to there being no existing method available to make them. The protagonist of the film “looked past the numbers” and was able to use her intuition to come up with calculations that fit the situation. In rocket science, numbers are nothing without a physical attribute to tie them to. My favorite part of the movie was when the machine that made quicker calculations than humans malfunctioned and the protagonist was brought in to confirm them. This invoked the idea that machines, although they may be faster, can never replace the need for an engineer.”–Jacob Weinecke

This article is the fifth 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.