Tarleton Aeronautical Team goes to NASA Competition

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Kristen Bowman/ JTAC News 2016

Kristen Bowman/Staff Writer [email protected]

The Tarleton State University Aeronautical team has been around since 2011. Last year, they took second place in the NASA University Student Launch Initiative and received $15,000 for future projects along with the Rookie Award, Best Team Spirit Award and Science Mission Directorate. This year they return to the competition in Huntsville, Alabama in April.

“The NASA USLI competition is a completely unique opportunity for Tarleton students to go head to head against Division 1 universities by designing and engineering a real-world applied build-out,” said Team Faculty Advisor and Mathematics Instructor, Steve Merwin. “The Rocket Team has proven that Tarleton students can go up against the best engineering students in the world and win. Our Mathematics Department has a lab full of hand tools, Computerized Numerical Control (CNC) machines, and rockets. Where else can you find that?”

Since August 2015 Aeronautical Team has spent over 1,000 man-hours working on their rocket for the NASA Student Launch. The team has 12 members that each has specific responsibilities to help them get ready for the competition. Their team lead, Sophomore Jordan Doornek, shared the steps that it has taken to get where they are now.

First, they created a proposal of their ideas to send to the NASA Student Launch program. Doornek expressed that this stage is usually the toughest because not everyone gets accepted, so, the team was very please to have been accepted.  

Next, they are given the Statement of Work; this is the rules, guidelines, and a series of tasks to creating their rocket, but it does not tell them how to make the rocket. By understanding the rules they were able to write their Preliminary Design Review, Critical Design Review, Flight Readiness Review and more. Each of these documents takes the group significant time and effort. In order to make all of their papers professional, the team has three technical writers: Taylor Hamilton, Kaitlin Sullivan and Corbin Lowe, all of whom are Technical Writing minors.

Each member has specific jobs that are assigned to their position. Junior Mark Mosby, is the Safety Officer. His job is to make sure that all of the procedures are followed correctly and to write about his contribution.

Sophomore Grant Gregory, has the position of the Autonomous Grounds Support Equipment (AGSE) Section Lead. He, along with Junior Elliot McCraw, work on the robotic arm that remotely prepares the rocket for launch.

To control the AGSE, the Programming Section has developed an app for the smart phone. Junior Colby LaRue, is the Programming Section Lead. He also programs the electronics on board that reads in data.

Next, Sophomore Recovery Section Lead Andrew Olbrich makes sure that the rocket is fully recoverable. The recovery system includes multiple parachutes and the avionics to deploy them.

Lastly, Sophomore Structure and Propulsion Section lead, Cody Bedwell, along with sophomore Shelby Epperson, combine all of the above components into the final build.

Overall, the team works together to meet important criteria for the contest: their rocket must cost under $7,500, must fly exactly one mile, be autonomously prepared, and much more. The team will be launching their rocket on April 16, 2016. The prizes of the day include; $10,000 for third place, $15,000 for second place and $25,000 for first. Any money won would go to the next year’s team to further the undergraduate research.

When asked what makes their rocket different from the other 40 rockets, Doornek just says one word: “Simplicity.”