Written by Jessica Copeland
The Harding University Flying Bison rocket team is launching April 18th at the University Student Launch Initiation in NASA”s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The NASA Web site states that USLI is “a competition that challenges university-level students to design, build and fly a reusable rocket with scientific payload to one mile in altitude.”
The competition will feature rockets from 22 teams across the nation. Most teams are affiliated with other universities.
The teams are evaluated on the performance and design of their rocket. The Preliminary Design Review, Critical Design Review, and Flight Readiness Review are carried out by scientists and engineers from NASA. Officials will be at the competition to oversee rocket launches and make sure each team passes safety regulations.
The Harding University Flying Bison has about 10 members, and they spend three to four hours a week working on the rocket. Megan Bush, a biochemistry and molecular biology major, has been on the rocket team the past three years. The Bush said the team has not won the competition the past two years, but Bush she hopes this year’s rocket will be a success.
“We’ve been working hard, and I think it will show this April,” Bush said.
Each member of the team specializes in a different part of the launch. Junior Greg Lyons, the team leader, works on each part of the rocket and helps the other members with theirs. He said that he learned a lot about rockets from Brett Keller, a Harding graduate who lead the team during his time at Harding.
Bush and the team sponsor, Dr. Ed Wilson, are contributing with research on spectroscopy of hybrid rocket fuel. This research is funded by a grant from Arkansas Space Grant Consortium.
The rocket team is currently building a test stand behind the science building to hold rocket motors for data acquisition. Once this is completed, the team will be able to make final preparations on the eight- foot- tall rocket.
“They have been altering the fins and length of the rocket, along with the parachute and telemetry equipment,” Bush said. “This will hopefully insure a safe recovery of the rocket after launch at this year’s competition.”
The team puts its rockets through test flights in Memphis. The last test occurred just after Spring Break, Lyons said, and it went “perfect.”
“No hitches, all the parachutes deployed at the right time and that’s that,” he said.
However, the rocket that will fly in the competition has encountered some issues. When all the components were assembled, the rocket weighed in at 13 pounds, which is “grossly larger than what we projected it to be,” Lyons said. According to computer simulations that take weight into account, the rocket should only reach 4,000 feet in flight.
“Unless we figure out how to lose a lot of weight really fast, we don’t stand much of a chance,” he said.
In addition to the competition, NASA requires the rocket team to do outreach projects. The team members have traveled to schools and military bases to demonstrate and teach others about their rocket.
“Being on the rocket team has allowed me to get real-life experience in the professional world,” Bush said. “We have done everything from writing papers to traveling and presenting at conferences.”
“Rockets are usually a cool enough thing that pretty much anybody enjoys [them],” Lyons said.
Bush said the best part about the rocket team is “interacting with people who are science majors but aren’t in my field of study.”
Lyons, a physics and mathematics major, said he did not plan on working with rockets after college, but said that he was using his time on the team to develop leadership skills.
“You learn a lot about yourself, and you learn about what the other people are willing to do and what they aren’t willing to do,” Lyons said. “At the end of the day, it’s also pretty cool to see one of these things go up. It’s nice and loud and noisy and … pretty.”
