Cool! Incredible! Feel the Heat!

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Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy ( CMCA) has a team of budding rocket scientists who were recently invited by NASA to submit a proposal to build and fly a large rocket with partial funding from NASA.
You can feel the veritable heat radiating from their crania. The NASA program is called Student Launch Initiative, or SLI, and is one of the rewards offered to teams who place among the top 20 at Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) national finals.

The Cheyenne Mountain Charter students placed fifth at TARC and last week their proposal was accepted by NASA, making CMCA an official vendor for NASA and one of only 11 schools in the entire country to gain entry into the program this year. This is a prestigious accomplishment, made all the more incredible because of the age of the students. At TARC, the team was entirely composed of 7th graders competing against mostly junior and senior high school students, and one of the CMCA students was only 12 at the time.

The CMCA team is featured in a new TARC video, "It's a Blast" posted on the National Defense Education Program site. A professional film crew followed them around during the second half of the day at finals. There are also two videos of their finals flights at TARC on their team page. For a new SLI Web page featuring the team's activities, click here.

Kenneth is the SLI project manager and an 8th grader at CMCA, "I would like to have a career in the aerospace engineering industry and SLI is a phenomenal opportunity. Plus, flying rockets is incredible fun. I'm still pinching myself."

The NASA SLI involves middle and high school students in designing, building and testing reusable rockets with associated scientific payloads. This unique hands-on experience allows students to demonstrate proof-of-concept for their designs and gives previously abstract concepts tangibility. The CMCA experiment is an instrumentation test: the altimeters used in TARC and SLI give variable readings from one unit to the next, and the students are curious about the accuracy of the altimeters. A solid-state (no moving parts) HDTV recorder and a GPS unit will be in the same payload bay with an altimeter. A comparison between the three instruments will allow the team to determine exactly how accurate the altimeters are. The team will put the science and math they've been learning in class to practical use building and flying the rocket and analyzing the data from their experiment. They have already designed and flown a full-sized rocket in Rocksim (an engineering and simulation program) and are currently beginning to build a scaled-down prototype vehicle to test stability and performance before building their final rocket.

Adelaide is on the recovery, outreach, and sponsorship teams, "I want to be a veterinarian or a computer engineer. Whichever of those fields I land in, this experience with math, science, engineering and technology and the opportunity to actually see engineers at work at Marshall Space Flight Center in the spring is as cool as it gets!"

Colum attends Cheyenne Mountain High School, "I want to be an engineer. My involvement in SLI will be one of the most important things on my resume when I start looking at colleges. I think it will double my chances of getting into exactly the program I want to be in."

The CMCA SLI team has received enthusiastic support from the Colorado Springs Rocket Society (COSROCS) and from many local businesses and individuals, including Thad Zylka, Norm Black, ITT, Cheyenne Mountain Charter Adademy/PTO,El Pomar Foundation/ Cheyenne Mountain High School, American Astronautical Society, Rocky Mountain Section, Brandango.us, Compleat Games and Hobbies, The Schuck Foundation, Zeal, and Colorado Aerospace Education Foundation.

The student who commutes the farthest to participate in SLI is Tyler, "I attend Classical Academy in North Colorado Springs, but I don't mind the trip South. SLI is giving me a fun and practical experience in the world of NASA, especially the testing and scheduling aspects. I'm beginning to see the value of all the time and effort NASA puts into scheduling, safety planning and conceptual work."

Both new and returning teams construct the vehicle that is designed to reach an altitude of one mile above ground level, or AGL. In addition to actual vehicle performance, teams are also evaluated on design and other criteria. This educational experience culminates with a launch at Marshall Space Flight Center in the spring.

Teams can qualify to participate in the Student Launch Initiative through the Rockets for Schools competition held in Wisconsin or by placing at the top in the Team America Rocketry Challenge, or TARC held in Virginia.

Inspiring the Next Generation of Rocket Scientists

Ex-NASA engineer and COSROCS education director Warren Layfield lays it on the line, "These students are our future. Not just going back to the moon, Mars and beyond. But in leapfrogging technology, regaining our engineering lead on the rest of the world and being able to brainstorm the next generation of ideas to make the quality of our lives better. In a bad economy heading into a recession, we need to generously support these teens with our time, expertise and financial support."

The two main goals of NASA's education program are to "inspire and motivate students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics" by supporting education in the Nation's schools and to "engage the public in shaping and sharing the experience of exploration and discovery" by supporting informal education and public outreach efforts. NASA's commitment to education places special emphasis on these goals by increasing elementary and secondary education participation in NASA projects; enhancing higher education capability in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, disciplines; increasing participation by underrepresented and underserved communities; expanding e-Education; and expanding NASA's participation with the informal education community.

The Office of Education will continue to support NASA's strong historical role in education at all levels, with linkages to NASA research as a central part of our focus. The majority of NASA support to higher education is delivered through the NASA Mission Directorates.

The Office of Education supports the work of the Mission Directorates by coordinating projects for students, faculty, and institutions that broaden the base of those who compete for NASA research awards. These efforts will help create and sustain the scientific and engineering workforce of the future. In addition, the Office of Education will continue to emphasize sharing the results of NASA missions and research programs with wider audiences by using science discoveries and research applications as vehicles to improve teaching and learning at all levels.

Jacob is a COVA student, "Bottom line, when those huge rocket motors ignite and we feel that bone-crushing thrust, the heat of the exhaust, the thunder and crackle of the burn, we're not students anymore. We're real rocket scientists, with NASA engineers helping us along. It's almost unbearably cool!"