Cheyenne Mountain Team America Rocketry
Challenge
Introduction
Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and
the National Association of Rocketry (NAR) sponsor
the 8th annual Team America Rocketry Challenge.
2010's Challenge is for 7th to 12th graders to design, build,
and fly a rocket carrying one egg for 40-45 seconds and
reaching an altitude of 850 feet. A challenging technical
aspect this year is that the egg and altimeter must be recovered
by streamer. Qualification Scores will be submitted by early
April, and Cheyenne Mountain hopes to compete for a share of
$60,000 at the 2010 National Finals in The Plains, Virginia,
in May, 2010. We are competing against 666 teams
across the United States.
Our Team
The Cheyenne Mountain team was formed in late
2006 and is on the national TARC registry, has had many meetings
and build sessions, has built and launched virtual rockets
in software, and has launched test rockets to gain build experience.
The team includes students from D12 (Cheyenne Mountian)
schools and other districts and currently numbers 4.
Our proposal…
is to continue building multi-year
TARC teams. The educational benefits include practical experience
in aerodynamics, craftsmanship, physics, propellant dynamics,
trigonometry, and teamwork. The team members are experiencing
enthusiastic support from local experts. At finals 2009 they
spoke to recruiters from most of the nation’s top aerospace
companies like Boeing, General Dynamics, L-3 Communications,
Lockheed Martin , Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Pratt &
Whitney. During the flurry of activity leading up to and
during the finals, there was a significant boost in local and
national news coverage and public relations for the school district
and students. Last year at finals there were broadcasts on national
networks, national webcasts of the finals competition, as well
as lots of local news coverage.
Sponsorship
In order to pay for materials and plan for trips
to the finals, the parents of the team members have proposed
approaching local businesses and aerospace education organizations
for corporate sponsorship to pay for all engines, building supplies
and materials, travel and lodging expenses. Sponsors may get
exposure on three national networks and our sponsors’ logos
will be prominently displayed on our rocket proportional to their
amount of support. We have opened bank accounts that are
accessible to the team accountant. The team will submit a full
report of financial activities to sponsors at the end of this
year’s
efforts. If the team doesn’t make it to the finals in a
given year, we’ll have a substantial monetary foundation
for next year’s effort.
