May 2003
Eggs in the Air
By Patrick L. Barry
The sky will be filled with flying eggs on May 10, 2003, when a thousand
students converge on The Plains, Virginia, for the first-ever national high
school rocketry competition.
Called the Team America Rocketry Challenge (http://www.rocketcontest.org),
the competition sets the goal of flying a custom-built, two-stage rocket
carrying two raw eggs to a height of exactly 1,500 feet, and then returning the
eggs to the ground unbroken. The team that comes closest to 1,500 feet without
breaking their eggs will win the national title.
The competition is being organized by the Aerospace Industries Association and
the National Association of Rocketry (NAR). NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe will
attend the final event.
"The idea is to get kids interested in the world of aerospace," says Trip
Barber, director of the competition and vice-president of the NAR. "And they
will learn some important lessons about the power of math and science-and
cooperation and teamwork-along the way."
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| A Boeing Delta II (7326) rocket
launched the New Millennium Program Deep Space 1 spacecraft on October 24, 1998. |
To develop their designs, the students first used computer simulator software
provided by NAR. Then they had to apply old-fashioned ingenuity and
craftsmanship to bring the design to life and flight testing to refine it.
Students constructed rocket bodies using a combination of hobby-store rocket kit
parts and custom materials. A typical rocket might consist of cardboard tubes
from paper-towel or wrapping-paper rolls, a pre-made nose cone, rocket-kit body
segments cut to size, and light-weight, balsa wood fins. But the greatest
challenge for many was designing the compartment for the eggs.
Some used plastic Easter eggs as casings, padding the inside with bubble wrap,
foam peanuts, or even gelatin. Others decided not to "reinvent the wheel,"
making a cradle from the egg-crate material used for shipping eggs. Some chose
to make larger, more powerful rockets big enough to carry the eggs inside, while
others made smaller, more efficient rockets that have a bulging egg compartment
mounted on top.
A hundred unique designs will be put to the test in Virginia. Only one will win.
But for the students, the real prize has already been won: Learning an approach
to problem-solving that works, whether you're launching eggs over a field or
sending astronauts to Mars.
In the end, it's all about the future: Future technologies and the kids who will
grow up to create them. Many advanced technologies are being developed now by
NASA's New Millennium Program (http://nmp.nasa.gov).
Who will do that work in the future? Perhaps some kids who spent their weekends
launching eggs in the air.
Are you a kid? Would you like to build your own rocket? Visit NASA's Space Place
and learn how to make a bubble-powered rocket! (http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/rocket.htm)
It won't take you to Mars, but it's a good way to get started.
This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.