Mars Rover Explorer Post 1010
Lockheed Martin Exploring Program

Team America
Rocketry Challenge 2011
 
 
Team 9212
Bernadette Cannon
Daniel Du
Daniel Roh
Ben Fann
Team 9213
Jay Soni
Connor Armstrong
Stephen Redlack
Team 9214
Mattie Bryant
Samantha Steckel
Kathleen Yu
Disa Yu
Team 9215
Anton Yakovlev
Kate Sorensen
Heather Liu
Nancy Cao
Kunal Kukreja
Devin Kukreja
Support
Bob Ekman
Ted Makowski

 

 

 

 

Delta II Launch 


Explorer Post 1010 has four teams in the 2011 Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC). The main challenge web site is http://www.rocketcontest.org/. This a year-round activity. We started with experiments focused on the challenge in the summer and the fall. We recruited new members in the fall and started to design and build our competition rockets. We will test launch our rockets at least once a month. During the winter and early spring we will attempt to qualify our rockets for the national competition. If we do well enough, we will be invited to participate in the national fly-off in May.

Teams

Last year we had 18 members on three rocket teams, but many of them graduated and have gone off to college. This year we started with eleven members from last year. We are planning to have about five members on four teams. To be on a team you have to be a dues paying member of Post 1010 and have your parents sign the permission form.  Members may switch teams up until the qualification flights, but membership on the teams is strictly followed. Members must participate in the design, building, and launching of the rockets to remain on the team.

Workshops and Launches

We will meet during normal Exploring Program meetings on Wednesdays for work sessions and on Saturdays for launches. Our first full work session was in October.

Each team will build several rockets, including test rockets and backups for their best models. We will document our activities and decisions on these web pages.

Most of our test launches were at the Old National Pike Park, east of New Market, Maryland (directions, picture). Their launch calendar and other information is at http://www.narhams.org/. We will also traveled to the Great Meadow site (directions, map, picture), near The Plains, Virginia, off I66, west of Manassas, for practice and qualification launches. The calendar for that site is at http://www.novaar.org.

We always need parents to drive to the launch sites. Participants should bring money for lunch or bring food when we are out all day. Wear appropriate clothing. Schedules can change at the last minute due to weather, so keep watching this web site and call if unsure.

Launches

Resources

Wind speed is a big problem with our rockets, so we check http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/launch/code.cgi before we launch. The Weather Channel is another source for weather at the Virginia Site and Maryland Site.

The Internet and email are a very important resource for our teams. Each member should sign up for the TARC Yahoo Group and review the recent emails and files.

2011 TARC Information

Our Team Information

Copyright 2011 Lockheed Martin Exploring Program
Updated: May 21, 2011