Explorer Post 1010: Rocketry Project 2013

Our Teams

Team 13254

Jered Lottes
Namrita Perincherry
Ananth Rao
Kevin Rivera

Team 13255

Aidan Lucas
Mughilan Muthupari
Joe Puthumana
Samantha Steckel

Team 13256

Michael Josell
Daniel Roh
Shankar Srinvasan
Sam Zabronsky

Support

Bob Ekman
Les Cannon

Launch
Curiosity Mission Launch

Explorer Post 1010 registered three teams in the 2013 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. During the winter and into the spring we tested and launched our rockets at least once a month. We conducted three qualification flights for each team, but one had to be before February 18, 2013.

Unfortunately, none of our teams had launch scores that gave us an invitation to the National Fly-Off this year. The cutoff was a score of 16.12. Our best score was 17.40 - just 18inches away from an invitation. Team 13255 was listed as an alternate and ranked at 106, where the top 100 were invited. We need to consider our lessons from this year and step up our effort for next year.

Teams

This year we started with five members from last year. We recruited new members in October and planned to have about four members on each of three teams. To be on a team you must be a dues paying member of Post 1010 and have your parents sign the TARC permission form (PDF form, Word form). Members may switch teams until the first qualification flight. Members must participate in designing, building, and launching the rockets to remain on a team.

Workshops and Launches

We met during normal Exploring Program meetings on Wednesdays for work sessions and on Saturdays and Sundays for launches. Our first full work session was in October. Each team built several rockets, including test rockets and backups for their best models. We documented our activities and decisions on these web pages.

We have three test launch sites:

MD-F - Old National Pike Park, east of New Market, in Frederick county Maryland (directions, picture). Their launch calendar and other information is at http://www.narhams.org/.

MD-H - A construction field near Fulton, Maryland, just off Rt29 in Howard County (Market St, Fulton, MD).

VA - Great Meadow (directions, map, picture), near The Plains, Virginia, off I66, west of Manassas. Their calendar is at http://www.novaar.org. This is the site of the National Fly-off.

Launches

Saturday, Oct 20, (MD-F)
Saturday, Nov 17, (MD-F)
Thursday, Dec 31, (MD-H)
Saturday, Jan 19, (MD H)
Early Qualification
Saturday, Feb 16, (VA)
Final Qualification
Sunday, Mar 17, (VA)
Saturday, Mar 23, (VA)
National Fly-Off
Friday, May 10, (VA)
Saturday, May 11, (VA)
    Invitation List
    Results
    Full Data Results

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, Facebook, and call if unsure.

Resources

Wind speed is a big problem for our rockets, so we check http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/launch/code.cgi (Manassas, Frederick) 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.

2013 TARC Information

Our Team Information

Past Years