Forget rockets red glare how about gold?
| Published: 07/17/2007 |
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An MSOE student team and their 9-foot rocket took first place in the national intercollegiate Rocket Launch Competition held in Utah.
The rockets were designed to carry 10-pound payloads to an altitude of 10,000 feet above the ground. To compete in this engineering challenge, the students also had to write technical papers and give presentations on the design of their rockets. Judges from the rocket launch industry and academia evaluated the rocket performance and design. MSOE won the Goddard Intercollegiate Rocket Trophy for taking first place.
The MSOE rocket flew flawlessly to approximately 10,900 feet, then parachuted back to earth for a complete recovery. The GPS tracking payload it carried aloft also worked perfectly. The trophy, named for rocket pioneer Dr. Robert Goddard, was presented to the winner by Goddard’s sixth cousins, Michael and Linda Goddard of Salida, Colo.
The MSOE team comprised two graduate students studying engineering, Brian VanRoy (Elcho, Wis.) and Sarah Johnson; and mechanical engineering undergrads Matt Woodruff (Fond du Lac, Wis.) and Joe Nelson (Broadhead, Wis.).
Arizona State University took second place overall and Utah State University took third.
The competition was organized by the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association; the event was co-sponsored by the Rocky Mountain NASA Space Grant Consortium of universities.