We started off this week with another review of the rocket designations bringing each student to the board to fill in the rocket's total impulse, thrust, burn time, and delay time. This week went a lot faster than last and we could tell their confidence was building!
After going through this review we gave the students a little taste ofwhat was going on in the rocket industry. It was a busy week in terms of launches. On Friday, March 4th a Taurus rocket carrying a NASA payload failed due to the inability of the payload fairing to jettison. The students were asking a lot of questions about exactly what happened, who was responsible, and how much money was actually lost. The satellite cost almost $500 million! The next night an Atlas V launched an Air Force Space Plane successfully and the Friday after class (March 11) there was a Delta IV launch of a secret NRO satellite. More details can be found at www.spaceflightnow.com
Finally, it was time to continue building the hobby rockets. The students all picked up from where they left off last week and didn't miss a beat. All of the rockets were finished up and we actually tried to launch one. We decided to go with the weakest engine, an A-engine, just to get a feel for how powerful it was going to be. Unfortunately, the rocket was too heavy for the engine and it only went up about 15 ft. in the air. It was a good lesson, however, and the students are looking forward to putting in a more appropriate size next week.
After going through this review we gave the students a little taste ofwhat was going on in the rocket industry. It was a busy week in terms of launches. On Friday, March 4th a Taurus rocket carrying a NASA payload failed due to the inability of the payload fairing to jettison. The students were asking a lot of questions about exactly what happened, who was responsible, and how much money was actually lost. The satellite cost almost $500 million! The next night an Atlas V launched an Air Force Space Plane successfully and the Friday after class (March 11) there was a Delta IV launch of a secret NRO satellite. More details can be found at www.spaceflightnow.com
Finally, it was time to continue building the hobby rockets. The students all picked up from where they left off last week and didn't miss a beat. All of the rockets were finished up and we actually tried to launch one. We decided to go with the weakest engine, an A-engine, just to get a feel for how powerful it was going to be. Unfortunately, the rocket was too heavy for the engine and it only went up about 15 ft. in the air. It was a good lesson, however, and the students are looking forward to putting in a more appropriate size next week.
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