Alaska Student Rocket Project Soars
STUDENT ROCKET COUNT DOWN---NASA Open Site Radar Operator Mersha Baily gets ready to help the students track the rocket in flight (left) while UAF Student JoAnn Neumaier connects an umbilical cable to the rocket (center), enabling her to check systems before launch. At right, the student rocket is shown moments after launch. Photos by Evelyn Trabant
The launch of a small 13-foot rocket from Poker Flat Research Range marked the end of a three-year project in rocketry for a group of students involved in the Alaska Space Grant Program last summer.
The upper-level students, many of whom were freshmen and sophomores when they started the project, watched as the 100-pound rocket flew 21,369 feet high, then landed about four miles downrange.
The students designed every aspect of the rocket, with the exception of two components: the motor and the Global Positioning System used to track the rocket in flight.
"Almost all of the rocket was machined right at the university," said Ian Ruiz, a 20-year-old electronic engineering major. "There were only a few instances where we had to contract out for the work, but other than that, everything was built on site by the students."
The students constructed even the most complex components, such as the rocket's microstrip patch antenna, dual onboard microprocessors, and a parachute recovery system with pyrotechnic actuators for controlling payload separation and deployment of the main parachute.
Before the flight, the students encountered many real-life problems related to the rocket business, including simulating preflight mechanical situations, getting FAA and military flight window authorizations and completing the project within budgetary restrictions.
Unfortunately, they also went through real-life disappointment when the telemetry failed shortly after the launch and most of the data the students hoped to gain was lost.
"It's hard, but failure is sometimes part of the risky rocket business," said Electrical Engineering Professor Joe Hawkins, the director of the Alaska Student Rocket Project.
All the steps involved in the project gave students valuable information they can use to pursue jobs within the commercial arena or additional educational opportunities.
"The primary goal of the project is to provide opportunities for students to become involved in the hands-on design, construction and launch of sounding rocket payloads," Hawkins said.
The project was funded by the Alaska Space Grant Program, a federally funded organization set up in universities and schools around the country to encourage space science research at all grade levels. The rocket was the second to be built by UAF students. The first student rocket was launched in July 1992.