Press
Press Release:
Madison West Rocket Club Awarded Two NASA SLI Grants Madison West High School Rocket Club has been awarded two NASA Student Launch Initiative grants for the 2008-2009 school year. Two teams (17 students total) will enjoy the opportunity to work on NASA supervised sounding rocket research projects and launch their final flights at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, during the week of April 15th, 2009. The target altitude for each flight is one mile (5,280 ft).
The senior team (veterans of 2007-2008 season) has successfully proposed a study of an airflow around the rocket both during an actual rocket flight and a simulated flight in a wind tunnel. A two stage vehicle equipped with an array of pressure and temperature sensors will be used for the study. The actual grant proposal is available online as http://westrocketry.com/sli2009/SOW_Airflow_MadisonWest2009.pdf
The team wishes to acknowledge invaluable input and support received from Professor Riccardo Bonazza the from the UW Dept of Engineering Physics.
The junior team enters the SLI scene with a study of bacterial concentrations both below and above the planetary boundary layer (PBL). The current location of the PBL will be determined by real-time analysis of local atmospheric data measured during the rocket ascent, the bacteria will be collected on the descent. Please visit our documents section to read the entire grant proposal.
Dr. Shanteri Singh from UW Department of Pharmaceutical Research and Professor Edwin Eloranta from UW Department of Atmospheric Sciences provided crucial input during the experiment development.
At this opportunity, Madison West Rocket Club would also like to recognize its facility providers, namely UW Space Place (workshop space), DNASTAR, Inc. (research and conference environment) and Reddan Soccer Park (local launch site).