CONTEST EMAIL ARCHIVES
Date: 04/13/2006
Subject: Eudora High School
Per Aspera
High school rocket team reaches sky through difficulty
By Patrick Cady, Reporter
The Eudora News
Thursday, April 13, 2006
http://www.eudoranews.com/section/frontpagelead/story/6316
At the end of a test launch for the Team America Rocketry Challenge Thursday afternoon, Eudora High School junior Whitney Box summed up the Aerospace Alliance's mood in two words.
"I'm mad and sad," Box said after failure of the team's launch in a NASA rocket competition.
Moments earlier, the EHS team's rocket bowed to heavy winds buffeting the chosen launch site on farmland owned by Bonnie and Bruce Neis.
To add insult to model rocket fuel, their test missile caught fire and thrust the group in a race against time.
They had two days to pick up the pieces, find the problem and begin again before their final launch opportunity with a visiting judge looking on.
"We had a rocket day," Box said. The team members drifted in and out of class Friday as their free time allowed to work on the complete refitting of the rocket.
The looming deadline brought the last few months into focus for the team, which formed for the first time this year.
The Alliance had already solved the problems of recruiting, fund-raising and conceptualization, but with Thursday's failure they faced a new challenge ---- a rapidly approaching deadline.
"The only thing the team saved from the old rocket was the fins," group sponsor Crystal Woods said.
In the months leading up to the test, the Alliance met weekly to delineate responsibilities for research and construction.
To fix Thursday's problem, the entire team chipped in.
"It came together pretty fast," Woods said.
In recreating the rocket, the team still had to worry about the contest's ultimate goal ---- to fly a rocket 800 feet for a total of 45 seconds while safely protecting an egg.
With one rocket blackened in front of an official judge's eye, the team found a bright spot when they discovered their egg survived.
With that good news and prospect of a new rocket, team members felt they still had a chance.
"We just had to get it done," sophomore Connor Hartpence said.
When Sunday came, the Alliance found a much different environment than Thursday's troubled launch.
Gone were the gusting winds and impending threat of storm, and the group found a replacement for a faulty O-ring in the rocket's engine. The circlet was the culprit in Thursday's fire.
While preparing the rocket for the next launch, Box didn't feel nervous.
"It was a perfect day to launch," Box said.
In the end, Box said she covered her eyes when the final countdown began.
The rocket arched into the sky and reached a maximum height of more than 600 feet and lasted 32 seconds. And, once again, the egg survived.
"The qualifying judges were impressed with the team's ability to work back from two unsuccessful flights and produce a successful launch," Wood said in an e-mail announcing the victory.
"The qualifying judge called the placement of the altimeter elegant and was impressed at the rocket's ability to not weathercock in severe winds."
Although not quite hitting the goal, the group's final score might be enough to send the Alliance to the national launch in Virginia and a shot at a $60,000 prize.
"Regardless of whether or not we qualify for nationals, this has been a successful first year for the organization," Woods said. "(The students) have learned how to design a stable rocket, how to adjust their designs to modify the performance of the rocket, how to use and maintain composite fuels, how to launch on a rail system and how to work together as a team."
With only one senior on this year's team, the Alliance is ready to come back to compete next year. With 15 people interested, the club might submit up to three different designs.
"Rockets are cool," freshman JoAnna Male said.
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