U.S. student rocket engineers head to NASA's Marshall

William Atkins
Wednesday, 03 December 2008 01:55

Science - Space

Teams participating in the SLI competition qualify by participating at the Rockets for Schools competition held in Wisconsin or by winning the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) in Virginia.

The Wisconsin competition is held at Spaceport Sheboygan.

Over 300 students, from grades four to twelve, from Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan participate in the rocket launches.

Its goals are to make science exciting, to simulate academic interest in math, science, and technology, and to encourage students in future aerospace pursuits.

The Virginia competition involves 750 teams and about 7,000 students.

Their challenge is to design, build, and fly a one-stage rocket that can reach an altitude of 750 feet, stay airborne for at least 45 seconds, and return its payload (a egg positioned perpendicular (with respect to its long length) to the flight direction) unbroken back to the ground.

Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and the National Association of Rocketry (NAR) sponsor the TARC.

According to the NASA media release, “The annual event, which Marshall manages, is designed to inspire young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics -- fields important to NASA's exploration mission.”