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National Association of Rocketry
Educator's Newsletter
October 2021
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In this issue:
2022 The American Rocketry Challenge (TARC)
NAR Scholarship Program, Robert L. Cannon Awards, Extracurricular Activity Grant Awards, and the Gleda M. Estes Scholarship
INSPIRING OTHERS
RESOURCES
Space History
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64 years of Space Flight
It’s hard to believe that October 4th is the anniversary of the first satellite, Sputnik 1, launched into earth orbit, and that there have only been rockets in space for 64 years. In one sense 64 years is a long time, but in the scope of human history we’re still in the beginning of the Space Age. Scientists and engineers have proven so much of what we can do in building spaceships to reach beyond our planet. And yet the rest of the solar system and all the stars above still await us. Do your students dream of exploring space? Can they imagine they will be the ones to set new records like was done with the Sputnik launch? Start with this history lesson to talk about rocketry. Then maybe you’d like to have your class launch a model rocket. Rocket science is part of our history, can your students make it part of our future?
Aim high!
Vince Huegele
NAR Education Chairman
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2022 The American Rocketry Challenge (TARC)
The American Rocketry Challenge (TARC) is an aerospace design and engineering event for teams of US secondary school students (6th through 12th grades) run by the NAR and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). Teams can be sponsored by schools or by non-profit youth organizations such as Scouts, 4-H, or Civil Air Patrol (but not the NAR or other rocketry organizations). The goal of TARC is to motivate
students to pursue aerospace as an exciting career field, and it is co-sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers, Estes Industries, the Department of Defense, and NASA.
Are you ready for the challenge?
Registration for the American Rocketry Challenge is officially open! Teams can now open their registrations, receive their team numbers, and start completing their applications to compete in the 2022 American Rocketry Challenge. Registration will remain open through 13 December.
Key elements of this year's challenge:
- Payload is two eggs, flown "sideways". These must be 56 to 59mm long, which means that they will not fit in a BT-70.
- The rocket external structure must be made up of at least two tubes, each no less than 150mm long, that must be of different diameters. The rocket motor and the eggs must be in different-diameter tubes. Putting a wrap on a tube is not considered to change its diameter for compliance with this requirement..
- All parts of the rocket must stay connected together during recovery, and recovery may be accomplished by any safe means.
- The qualification flight altitude goal is 835 feet and the duration goal is 41-44 seconds.
If you haven't already, make sure to check out our resources page. You'll find everything you need from parent consent forms, the 2022 rules, and the most current version of the 2022 Team Handbook.
Take the challenge!
NAR 4322 L3
TARC Manager
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NAR Scholarship Program, Robert L. Cannon Award, and Extracurricular Activity Grant Awards
Did you know that if you are a NAR member between the ages of 17 and 22 attending college or a vocational school that you may be eligible to receive a scholarship?
Are you a teacher or educator who uses model rocketry in the classroom? You are welcome to apply for a $500 grant to use in your program.
In 2001, the NAR's scholarship and Robert L. Cannon educational awards were inaugurated. Since 2010, we have awarded up to ten $500 Cannon grants and ten scholarships per year.
In 2015, a new program, the NAR Extracurricular Activity Grant (EAG) was initiated to provide up to ten $500 grants for after-school activities, such as rocket clubs, scout, Civil Air Patrol, 4-H, or NAR section programs involving model rocketry. TARC teams are not eligible for these awards.
The deadline for applications is June 1st.
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2022 Aerospace Inductries Association Title I Grants
This year, 25 grants are available to Title I schools who are interested in competing in the American Rocketry Challenge for the first time.
Title I grantees receive:
Free Registration in physical and virtual competitions: The registration fee ($125) for your team will be waived and your team will be automatically eligible to compete in our Presentation and Marketing Competitions.
Funding: A $2,000 grant will be awarded immediately after approval of your application, with additional funding available if your team qualifies for the National Finals in Washington, D.C. Funds will be dispersed via check made payable to your school or school district.
Rocketry Starter Kit: The information packet has everything your team needs to know about how to create a rocketry team, including:
- An overview of the competition;
- A week-by-week timeline of what your team should be working on, and key competition dates;
- Rocketry supply shopping lists, including suggestions on where to purchase supplies, and discounts from vendors;
- Instructional rocketry videos from the National Association of Rocketry;
- 2021 Rules for The American Rocketry Challenge;
- A sample letter to solicit local sponsorship if needed; and,
- A letter from the National Association of Rocketry outlining the safety of the hobby and competition.
- A curated selection of news articles highlighting the competition
Selection: Selection is made on a first-come, first-served basis. All applications must be completed in their entirety with all questions answered in order to be considered. Grant applications will be selected and awarded on a rolling basis. You will be notified of your grant status no later than two weeks after applying. All applications must be submitted no later than December 1, 2021. Check it out!
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ESTES
A new school year is coming up and that means new unit plans! We’re introducing “Shoot for the Stars” and “Ready, Steady, Go!” These brand new lessons bring engaging STEM and creative activities for students and full turn-key classroom solutions for educators. Only a small launch field is needed, or in the case of “Ready, Steady, Go!” all you need is a gymnasium!
Shoot for the Stars!
This unit is all about STEM! Students will learn about the forces of flight, how a streamer affects drag, and the importance of being able to accurately predict where a rocket will land.
Ready, Steady, Go!
Designed with the needs and expectations of both students and teachers in mind, this unit plan is all about options! Students can take on the roles of engineer, flight tester, web designer, and many more in their pursuit to pitch the perfect rocket to NASA, defying the norm and proving that STEM can be fun!
In addition, check these out!
It's Not JUST Rocket Science
In this lesson, students will act as consultants to an aerospace business where they can research and report on all types of careers within the aerospace industry including writing, graphic design, and people-oriented jobs, defying the expectations of what aerospace really means!
The Race For Space
Students will be introduced to the Space Race and challenged to conduct research and build a timeline of important events in the race to space. Understanding the history of space exploration, students will build and launch the Star Hopper their way, defying the limits of both STEM and aerospace.
Defy Expectations!
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NASA
The Solar System Ambassadors Program
The Solar System Ambassadors Program is a public outreach program designed to work with motivated volunteers across the nation. These volunteers communicate the excitement of JPL's space exploration missions and information about recent discoveries to people in their local communities.
The Solar System Ambassadors Program builds on and expands the outstanding efforts undertaken by the Galileo mission since 1997. Because of the success of the original Galileo Ambassadors program, JPL missions exploring Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Asteroids, Comets, Earth, the Sun and the Universe now come together to expand the program's scope to the Solar System and beyond.
To arrange for a Solar System Ambassador event in your community, click on Meet the Ambassador, select your state or territory and review the entries. Ambassadors furnish short biographical statements for the purpose of detailing their areas of interest and expertise. Following the biography is a list of past events conducted by the Ambassador to further aid in decision making. Inquiries about an Ambassador's availability should be made by sending an email directly to the individual.
Check the "Calendar of Events" section as well to see if an Ambassador event will be occurring in your local community.
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4-H
Uses Model Rocketry for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)
Rocketry is one of the most enjoyable projects 4-H has to offer. 4-H and the National Association of Rocketry have formed a partnership to help students learn about model rocketry and STEM.
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Civil Air Patrol
Promotes and Supports Aerospace Education
CAP educational programs (for its own members and the general public) help prepare American citizens to meet the challenges of a sophisticated aerospace society and understand its related issues. CAP and the national Association of rocketry have formed a partnership to help students learn about model rocketry and STEM.
National Standards-based Products
CAP offers national standards-based educational products, including a secondary textbook, Aerospace: The Journey of Flight, and the middle-school-level Aerospace Dimensions. Aerospace Education Members can get classroom materials and lesson plans from CAP.
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Africa Outreach-Paying Forward Internationally
Over the Summer, Jason Petula, Ph.D. (an Associate Professor of Education and the
Faculty Coordinator of Internationalization at Millersville University of Pennsylvania) and a colleague, met with the Ministry of Education in Ghana. The Minister of Education wants to accelerate their push for STEM education programming. Consequently, Jason and his colleague will be going to Ghana this December to run a professional development workshop for several hundred students!
They intend to use Art Applewhite's 13mm Qubit rocket as their initial kit for the workshop. In the past, Art has specifically designed his 13mm Qubit to represent various nation's flags. As such, Jason and his colleague will be bringing a unique rocket to Ghana and will be facilitating an equally unique Paying Forward opportunity!
Well done, Jason!
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Apogee Components
With the new school year starting, the folks at Apiogee Components felt like it would be a good time to go over the many resources they offer teachers, mentors, coaches, club leaders, and others share model rocketry with students...And to do so within a single resource: Peak of Flight Newsletter 557. From lesson plans through animations and interactive pages to RockSim design and flight software, Apogee Components has useful resources for your classroom. Check out what they have to offer! |
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NASA Makes Finding Teaching Materials Easy
NASA's Education Materials Finder will help teachers locate resources that can be used in the classroom. Users may search by keywords, grade level, product type and subject. With hundreds of publications and Web sites indexed, the finder is the best way to locate NASA educational resources.
NASA's Adventures in Rocket Science Educator's Guide
This guide contains 25 activities designed for 4-H Clubs, Boys and Girls Clubs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, after-school programs, and other informal education venues. Participants learn about the history and principles of rocketry and NASA's newest rockets -- Ares I and Ares V. While doing these hands-on activities, participants also learn about Hero Engines, parachutes and surface area, altitude tracking, and Newton's Laws Of Motion. Learners can also build four types of rockets and two types of egg drops. Take a look at the Adventures in Rocket Science Guide!
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Y
National Association of Rocketry (NAR) offers Teachers and Youth Group Leaders Resources
Several years ago the NAR and Aerospace Industries Association produced a one-hour instructional video "How to Build and Fly a Model Rocket" in support of student teams in the Team America Rocketry Challenge student rocket contest. Originally only available in DVD format, this useful resource and much more are now available.
TIP--Planning Considerations:
While model rocketry offers a rich set of learning experiences, teachers should keep a few items in mind as they plan and conduct lessons.
Construction Safety
Be aware that many children have never used an X-acto knife or equivalent. It is best to hold a separate learning session on knife safety rather than during a model building session. Another alternative for untrained youth is to completely eliminate the need for a hobby knife during the build or have an adult pre-cut parts needing a hobby knife before the session begins. If you do choose to have students use hobby knives, limit the number being used at any given time and closely supervise their use.
Launch Safety
Model rocketry was created in the late 1950's as a means by which non-professional individuals could build and fly their own rocket powered models. The hobby was structured to safely pursue an activity that has a potential for personal injury and property damage. The use of manufactured motors to minimize the mixing and handling of propellants was a major factor in model rocketry's safety success. Safety procedures for the construction and operation of the models, based on aerospace industry practices, were another factor in this excellent safety record.
The primary safety officers are the Range Safety Officer (RSO) and the safety check-in officer. The RSO is responsible for safe operation of the rocketry range. The safety check-in officer is responsible for verification of the vehicle flight-worthiness. He will inspect the vehicles for structural integrity, systems condition (e.g. recovery system, motor restraint), motor certification, and dynamic properties (e.g. center of gravity, center of pressure).
NAR Sections all over the country hold numerous sport launches each year, at which you are welcome to come fly. The Section takes care of providing the permits, field, launch equipment, and range organization and safety; just bring your rockets, motors, and flight supplies and join in the fun! With sport launches accounting for over twelve million rocket flights every year nationwide, the NAR offers a number of services for the sport modeler.
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Civil Air Patrol
Aerospace Library
Dedicated to promoting and sharing Aviation, Air Force, CAP & NASA History, the folks at the Civil Air Patrol have put together a fantastic library of rocketry resources! Check it out!
Aerospace/STEM Education Products
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4 October 1957: The Soviet Union inaugurates the "Space Age" with its launch of Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite. The spacecraft, named Sputnik after the Russian word for "satellite," was launched at 10:29 p.m. Moscow time from the Tyuratam launch base in the Kazakh Republic.
Sputnik had a diameter of 22 inches and weighed 184 pounds and circled Earth once every hour and 36 minutes. Traveling at 18,000 miles an hour, its elliptical orbit had an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 584 miles and a perigee (nearest point) of 143 miles. Visible with binoculars before sunrise or after sunset, Sputnik transmitted radio signals back to Earth strong enough to be picked up by amateur radio operators. Those in the United States with access to such equipment tuned in and listened in awe as the beeping Soviet spacecraft passed over America several times a day. In January 1958, Sputnik's orbit deteriorated, as expected, and the spacecraft burned up in the atmosphere.
Officially, Sputnik was launched to correspond with the International Geophysical Year, a solar period that the International Council of Scientific Unions declared would be ideal for the launching of artificial satellites to study Earth and the solar system. However, many Americans feared more sinister uses of the Soviets' new rocket and satellite technology, which was apparently strides ahead of the U.S. space effort. Sputnik was some 10 times the size of the first planned U.S. satellite, which was not scheduled to be launched until the next year. The U.S. government, military, and scientific community were caught off guard by the Soviet technological achievement, and their united efforts to catch up with the Soviets heralded the beginning of the "Space Race."
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Launched November 7, 1967, it landed on November 10, 1967. Surveyor 6 landed on the Sinus Medii. Mass on landing: 299.6 kg (660.5 lb). A total of 30,027 images were transmitted to Earth.
This spacecraft was the fourth of the Surveyor series to successfully achieve a soft landing on the moon, obtain post landing television pictures, determine the abundance of the chemical elements in the lunar soil, obtain touchdown dynamics data, obtain thermal and radar reflectivity data, and conduct a Vernier engine erosion experiment.
Virtually identical to Surveyor 5, this spacecraft carried a television camera, a small bar magnet attached to one footpad, and an alpha-scattering instrument as well as the necessary engineering equipment.
It landed on November 10, 1967, in Sinus Medii, 0.49 degree in latitude and 1.40 degree w longitude (selenographic coordinates) - the center of the moon's visible hemisphere. This spacecraft accomplished all planned objectives. The successful completion of this mission satisfied the Surveyor program's obligation to the Apollo project. On November 24, 1967, the spacecraft was shut down for the 2 week lunar night. Contact was made on December 14, 1967, but no useful data were obtained.
Lunar soil surveys were completed using photographic and alpha particle back- scattering methods. A similar instrument, the APXS, was used onboard several Mars missions.
In a further test of space technology Surveyor 6's engines were restarted and burned for 2.5 seconds in the first Lunar liftoff on November 17 at 10:32 UTC. This created 150 lbf (700 N) of thrust and lifted the vehicle 12 feet (4 m) from the Lunar surface. After moving west 8 ft (2.5 m) the spacecraft was once again successfully soft landed. The spacecraft continued functioning as designed.
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16 November 1973: Skylab 4 was the last Skylab mission.
Gerald Carr, William Pogue, and Edward Gibson arrived aboard Skylab to find that they had company - three figures dressed in flight suits. Upon closer inspection, they found their companions were three dummies, complete with Skylab 4 mission emblems and name tags which had been left there by Al Bean, Jack Lousma, and Owen Garriott at the end of Skylab 3.
The all-rookie astronaut crew had problems adjusting to the same workload level as their predecessors when activating the workshop. Things got off to a bad start after the crew attempted to hide one astronaut's early space sickness from flight surgeons, a fact discovered by mission controllers after downloading onboard voice recordings. The crew's initial task of unloading and stowing the thousands of items needed for their lengthy mission also proved to be overwhelming. The schedule for the activation sequence dictated lengthy work periods with a large variety of tasks to be performed, and the crew soon found themselves tired and behind schedule.
As the activation of Skylab progressed, the astronauts complained of being pushed too hard. Ground crews disagreed; they felt that the astronauts were not working long enough or hard enough. During the course of the mission, this culminated in a radio conference to air frustrations. Following this, the workload schedule was modified, and by the end of their mission the crew had completed even more work than had been planned before launch. The experiences of the crew and ground controllers provided important lessons in planning subsequent manned spaceflight work schedules.
On Thanksgiving Day, Gibson and Pogue accomplished a 6 and a half hour spacewalk. The first part of their spacewalk was spent replacing film in the solar observatory. The remainder of the time was used to repair a malfunctioning antenna. The crew reported that the food was good, but slightly bland. The crew would have preferred to use more condiments to enhance the taste of the food. The amount of salt they could use was restricted for medical purposes. The quantity and type of food consumed was rigidly controlled because of their strict diet.
Seven days into their mission, a problem developed in the Skylab attitude control gyroscope system, which threatened to bring an early end to the mission. Skylab depended upon three large gyroscopes, sized so that any two of them could provide sufficient control and maneuver Skylab as desired. The third acted as a backup in the event of failure of one of the others. The gyroscope failure was attributed to insufficient lubrication. Later in the mission, a second gyroscope showed similar problems, but special temperature control and load reduction procedures kept the second one operating, and no further problems occurred.
The crew spent many hours studying the Earth. Carr and Pogue alternately manned controls, operating the sensing devices which measured and photographed selected features on the Earth's surface. The crew also made solar observations, recording about 75,000 new telescopic images of the Sun. Images were taken in the X-ray, ultraviolet, and visible portions of the spectrum.
As the end of their mission drew closer, Gibson continued his watch of the solar surface. On January 21, 1974, an active region on the Sun's surface formed a bright spot which intensified and grew. Gibson quickly began filming the sequence as the bright spot erupted. This film was the first recording from space of the birth of a solar flare.
On December 13, the crew sighted Comet Kohoutek and trained the solar observatory and hand-held cameras on it. They gathered spectra on it using the Far Ultraviolet Camera /Spectrograph. They continued to photograph it as it approached the Sun. On December 30, as it swept out from behind the Sun, Carr and Gibson spotted it as they were performing a spacewalk.
The crew also photographed the Earth from orbit. Despite instructions not to do so, the crew (perhaps inadvertently) photographed Area 51, causing a minor dispute between various government agencies as to whether the photographs showing this secret facility should be released. In the end, the picture was published along with all others in NASA's Skylab image archive, but remained unnoticed for years.
Skylab 4 completed 1,214 Earth orbits and four EVAs totaling 22 hours, 13 minutes. They traveled 34.5 million miles (55,500,000 km) in 84 days, 1 hour and 16 minutes in space.
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