Northwest Indian College Space Center

Gary, Mariya, Cathy, Delanae and daughter Angelina, presented a water rocket workshop at this years, Women/Girls and Men/Boys Conference in Gold Bar, WA this past Wednesday, August 25. After a several hour trip in the maroon van, whose air conditioning didn’t work (of course on one of the hottest days of the year), we arrived and setup for the afternoon’s activities. 

We had about 20 participants who made their own water rockets and then flew them in an open space at the front of the Conference Center. We had several spectacular flights and all were exciting. The launches drew a largish and admiring crowd of enthusiastic supporters.

After the launches, we cleaned up and were treated to a really good dinner after which we hit the road and were home by 9:00pm. Many of the younger folks expressed interest in learning more about rockets (and science and all things connected). 

This past weekend Gary went to the Pasture Blaster, a rocket launch sponsored by the 4-H Olympic Peninsula Rocketry Club. It was held just south of Discovery Bay and they logged about 250 launches over the 2 ½ day event. Gary launched two high powered rockets that carried and altimeter and video camera and a rocket that he built especially for this weekend. It also carried an altimeter and video camera. His highest altitude was 2300’ Clouds kept the launches lower that what was possible. Here are some photos (mine is #16).

Several of the rocketeers had met the NWIC Space Center people in Mansfield and remembered our water rocket launches. They spoke highly of what our rockets had done and the organizer of the Pasture Blaster asked us to do a water rocket demo if we decide to come next year. He offered to set aside some launch time for us.

Yesterday Gary and Dave used the College’s brush whacker and started mowing a launch area near where the old block house used to be on the dike road. It’s about half done and will be completed by week’s end. We hope to begin launching soon after classes start.

Julie Clift and Debora Nielson, both of NASA, were instrumental in encouraging us to attend. They certainly made our attendance attainable by providing possibilities and opportunities. They and all of the other NASA and university people there made us feel very welcome and greatly expanded our knowledge about physics, engineering, and other topics that end up being rocket science.  Great photos on facebook, and here (there was a cool car show going on too).

We decided to apply (application due, 10/1) to become one of the the university and colleges that are selected for the USLI. Our rocket payload will be a science package that will gather atmospheric data such as pressure, temperature, relative humidity, solar irradiance and ultraviolet radiation. Measurements will be made at least every 5 seconds during the descent and every minute after landing for at least 10 minutes. Data will be transmitted from the rocket to a ground station.

Last year’s top five: The 2009-2010 USLI Top 5

University of Alabama in Huntsville
Mississippi State University
North Carolina State University
Mitchell Community College
Georgia Institute of Technology

We’ll be in good company!

We hope to intrigue Terri Plake and some others in the BSNES program to be part of this NWIC effort.

The most fun part was that Justin and Trisha each built a high powered rocket and successfully launched and recovered them at the Bonneville Salt Flats, thusly earning them their National Association of Rocketry Level 1 Certifications. We now have 8 NWIC Space Center members that have their Level 1 Certifications. However, some of us need a Level 2 certification in order to fly the bigger rockets that will carry our science payload.

Talk about salt! It’s white, blinding, hot, and very very sticky! I grew an extra inch within about 5 minutes of walking around on the flats. Distances are deceiving because there are no reference points. What looks close, isn’t! We returned to the motel by 7:30 after a very exciting and tiring day. Our team earned the “Team Spirit” award and were complimented numerous times about their dedication and focus. We had a blast, literally and figuratively! We left at 4:30 am Wednesday and returned at 2:45 pm on Sunday, 8/8. Utah is hot and dry, except for the daily thunderstorms that roar through and then dry up really really quickly. On Thursday we took a tour of the ATK (http://www.atk.com/) facilities where the Space Shuttle’s solid fuel rocket engines are built. Now that was interesting!

A very useful and exciting trip for all of us. We want to thank the Washington State Space Grant Consortium and our very own Joel Green for the monetary support so that we could attended this workshop. Once again our students were excellent ambassadors for NWIC.

We were just informed of our 2nd place finish at the First Nations Rocket Launch held in Wisconsin during the weekend of April 30- May 1, 2010. Weare pleased with our results and are planning on improving our skills and knowledge at future competitions.

This is the response to a question that Gary asked Kent Newman, president of the Washington Aerospace Club regarding taking the Level 2 certification written test:

It’s easy, Gary.   Both NAR and TRA have a test question pool on-line that becomes the source of the written test for each organization. 

Let me know if you can make a meeting; I can administer a test to you and/or whomever at that time.  If not convenient, the test may be administered at a launch, too.  The test must be taken and passed before the L2 certification flight attempt.  The test will be held (up to a year) until the flight is successfully completed.  The test and the completed flight paperwork will be submitted together to the organization of your choice. 

Simple!
Kent