AEM1305

This hands-on course will take students beyond (Estes-type) "model rocketry" into the realm of "high-power rocketry," building rockets with H-size (or larger) motors, some capable of reaching altitudes of several thousand feet! The class will begin by building a "kit" rocket (in teams), then attending a day-long "Round 1" launch event, which will be a required class activity for a weekend date mid-semester. This will be followed by designing and building a "Round 2" custom "scratch" rocket (in teams), then sending representatives of the team to launch it late in the semester. In addition to learning basic rocketry physics, using rocketry computer simulations, constructing high-power rockets, and flying them, this class will include lectures, discussions, and activities associated with the past, present, and future of "real-spaceflight rocketry" for manned and unmanned rocket-powered missions to low-Earth-orbit and beyond.

Required all-day class flight activities, often on a Saturday mid-semester. High-power rocketry classes will have a second class flight date to which every team will need to send attendees. Specific launch date(s) will be announced at the beginning of the semester. Transportation to rocket launches will be provided.

This course is taught by Dr. James Flaten, the Associate Director of NASA’s Minnesota Space Grant Consortium, a higher education program whose goals include promoting interest in space science and space exploration. Though housed in the Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics (AEM) department, Dr. Flaten’s academic background is actually in experimental physics, and he has also taught many physics, astronomy, and basic engineering classes in the past. He particularly enjoys using high-power rocketry and helium-ballooning (stratospheric free ballooning and R/C airships) as a low-cost means of giving students hands-on experience building and flying hardware.

001475

Periodic Fall