• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

NASA to Launch Student-Built Rocket

Posted on: Thursday, 15 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

By LISA CORNWELL

CINCINNATI (AP) -- Three University of Cincinnati students decided two years ago that they wanted to apply what they had been studying in aerospace engineering by designing and building their own rocket.

Now with the help of NASA, they are eagerly awaiting the culmination of their work with a launch that the federal space agency hopes will inspire students around the country.

"We have had programs before where students worked on science experiments that we would launch on our rockets, but this is the first one of this scale where the students have done everything from scratch and made their own rocket," said Keith Koehler, a spokesman for NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

He said the UC rocket became a seed project for a new program in which NASA will partner with universities to let students build rockets that NASA will launch.

"Hopefully, this will provide hands-on experience and encourage students to come to work for NASA or the aerospace industry when they graduate," said Koehler.

The 20-foot-long, 330-pound rocket dubbed the Pathfinder is scheduled to be launched about 30,000 feet into the atmosphere between 5:45 a.m. and 8 a.m. Friday. The launch from Wallops Island, about 95 miles north of Norfolk off the coast of Virginia, will last only a few minutes, but they will be exciting ones for the students who have worked on the project since 2002.

Parachutes added to the rocket may allow it to be retrieved after splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.

"It would be nice to have a successful launch, but I don't think we will be that disappointed if we don't recover it," Roger Rovekamp, 24, the project team leader, said in a telephone interview Tuesday from Wallops. "We feel like we've accomplished a lot of things and learned a lot by just constructing it. The launch is almost a formality."

Rovekamp, who graduated from UC in June, now works for Lockheed Martin Space Operations in Houston as a project engineer. The other members of the original team also graduated this year. Greg Workman, 23, is a graduate student at UC. Justin Fisher, 24, is working for Microchip Technology Inc. (MCHP) in Phoenix. All three are in Virginia for the final assembly and launch.

"When we started this project, we originally wanted to build a rocket about 40 feet long that would go about 60,000 feet, but we realized we didn't have the capability or facilities, so we scaled back some," said Workman. "We also got some students at Casper College in Wyoming to partner with us and build the motor."

The project eventually included 15 UC students who built the rocket body and about 30 at Casper College who built the motor with help from some high school students. Rovekamp said the $10,000 funding for the body came from UC and the motor built at Casper probably cost about $5,000. Businesses in the aerospace industry donated some of the parts.

"I think that what we did with a low operating budget and by partnering with other schools hopefully demystified rocket science and shows people that they can do it too," said Rovekamp. "The key elements are motivation and persistence."

But Rovekamp and Workman said there were times when some hurdles seemed insurmountable and the repeated testing seemed endless.

"Sometimes it was like a root canal in slow motion," said Workman, laughing. "But slowly and surely, we got it done."

-----

On the Net:

NASA Wallops

The University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio

More science, space, and technology from RedNova

Copyright © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

More News in this Category