For the second year in a row, the Engineering program will send a group of students to Huntsville, Alabama to compete in the NASA Student Launch Program.
The Program, which is held at the NASA space center from April 5 to April 9, is designed to allow engineering students to learn the process that NASA engineers go through when sending rockets into space.
The Northview team is composed of 11 seniors and four juniors, with seniors Shane Banachowski and Brian Pribe as the chosen team leaders. Engineering teacher Ryan Reed is the team’s advisor while Mathematics teacher John Eckhart helps out with all the math involved in the program.
For the competition, each team has the opportunity to make whatever it is that they want as long as it involves rockets. NV’s team chose to create an ATRS, or an All-Terrain Recovery System. This is a system that uses inflatables to secure a rocket at the end of its flight so that no damage occurs in water or on the ground. The objective is for the rocket to go over one mile high and then safely land on the ground. Senior Brad Crandall came up with the idea to make an ATRS.
The team has been working on this project since the beginning of the school year, and will continue working on it until they travel to Alabama in April. Although they have only been working on it for less than two months, senior team member Justice DeLeon likes the progress they have made so far.
“We’ve already made a lot of progress and it is really just the start. We have been able to adjust our schedules for the workload and commitment needed for the program and have worked well together so far,” DeLeon said. “I am really looking forward to the great experiences that will come from this program.”
The NASA SL Program is a very selective competition with only elite engineering groups receiving admission. The NV team sent in a 35-page proposal explaining their idea to NASA and was selected as one of only 20 high school teams in the country to be in the competition. They will also compete against some of the best college engineering programs in America, including Cornell, Purdue, and Notre Dame.
Last year’s team did a project where they studied how G-forces affect blood while in a rocket. The team had a successful launch, but did not receive any recognition other than participation. This year’s team hopes to also have a successful launch and has been setting goals since the first day in order to achieve it. However, Banachowski doesn’t want the team to get too stressed out and forget how fortunate they are to be able to participate in the program.
“We set goals for this project at the very beginning. Some goals are smaller which help us stay on task for our larger goals,” Banachowski said. “In my mind, the biggest goal we have is to enjoy the moment. This is a privileged experience that we get to be a part of and we all hope to enjoy it while we can.”
Matt Bishop, Sports Editor
