After receiving an invitation to the Spaceport America Cup (SA Cup), the UTM Rocket Team will travel to Las Cruces, New Mexico, in July to compete in the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition, a rocket building/launch competition against over 100 colleges around the world.
The UTM Rocket Team will compete against other Student Research and Design Rockets (SRAD), meaning the rockets are engineered and fabricated by the teams themselves, in the 10,000 foot apogee category.
While this is only the team’s second year of existence, president Cy Pemberton believes that UTM could win the competition due to the dedication and skill set of the team.
“Our established goal has always been to compete in and win the SA Cup. Because of this, the rocket must meet the criteria of the competition and we began with this in mind,” Pemberton, a senior Mechanical Engineering major from Milan, said.
“A lot of the material that is learned in the classroom all falls into place when designing and building something like this rocket. Classes on thermodynamics, strengths of materials, computer-aided design, electronic circuits and others all come into play at some point or another when designing the rocket.”
The rocket will be judged on how close it reaches, above or below, the 10 thousand foot apogee, creativity, design and scientific value.
The UTM rocket, “The Skyhawk Screamer”, is roughly 11 feet tall and weighs approximately 75 pounds. According to Pemberton, the motor produced 750 pounds of thrust in the preliminary trials.
UTM is the only team from Tennessee competing at the SA Cup.
“For our Engineering department, it is yet another confirmation, among many, that our students, our graduates, are just as prepared to take on the challenges of modern engineering as the students attending some of the most well-known institutions in the country and the world,” Shadow Robinson, dean of Engineering and Natural Sciences, said.
“I think what is really special about the opportunity is what it means for the students. It is one thing for our faculty members to know that our students are that well prepared and to tell them. It is quite another for the students to get to experience it directly. The opportunity for our students to be in that environment, to see that they belong and can thrive there, gives them the confidence to dare great things.”
The Rocket Team functions as a source for seniors to complete their final design implementation projects required by the Engineering department to graduate. The team has 10 members, including seven seniors who will graduate in May.
The SA Cup is sponsored by Spaceport America and the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting engineering and education.
The Rocket Team will continue to test and improve the “Skyhawk Screamer”, and the public is invited to attend.
Follow The Pacer for competition updates as the UTM Rocket Team launches the “Skyhawk Screamer” in Las Cruces, New Mexico this summer.
The initial testing of the Skyhawk Screamer motor resulted in 750 pounds of thrust. | Photo Credit/Forrest Coleman
