5th Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (2010) Information
For registration, schedule, competition rules, maps, and other information, click here.
Competition Background
ESRA hosts annual Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competitions
for student-designed and -built rockets capable of lofting a 10-pound
payload to 10,000 feet above ground level (as a minimum).
The
objective of these competitions is to get college engineering and
science students involved in hands-on rocket design, construction, and
operations. In doing this, we hope to provide them with valuable
experience, making them very marketable to space industry employers.
This is especially important as the older generation of space
professionals retires and also as new entrepreneurial companies start
expanding into the business of space launch and operations.
Utah State University students prepare their rocket at the 1st IREC, 2006
A
primary emphasis of the competitions (in addition to engineering design
and construction) is on communication skills, both written and oral.
Student teams are required to present their rocket design in an oral
presentation and written paper, similar to paper presentations at
professional conferences.
And of course, safety is of
utmost importance. Judges and event staff review the presentations and
inspect the rockets for safe hardware design and launch and recovery
procedures. All personnel are kept safe distances from the rockets at
launch through recovery. The launch site is selected so that rockets do
not reach adjacent buildings or roads.
The USU rocket in flight, 1st IREC, 2006
The
Launch Competitions are progressing down a path of increased numbers of
participants and multiple levels of competition. The first four competitions were to launch a 10-pound payload
(2-pound in the first competition) closest to 10,000 feet above ground level and recover the payload and
all rocket parts intact. For the fourth competition, we had an "Advanced" category (in addition to the 10,000-foot "Basic" category) for flights launching 10-pound payloads closest to 25,000 feet. Unfortunately, no launches were made in the Advanced category (one team dropped out and the other team's rocket had technical problems). Examples of future Advanced competitions include higher altitudes and/or specific functions or technologies (e.g. thrust vectoring, active controls, precision
recovery, flyback boosters, etc.).
The Future
Eventually, the
goal is to expand the competitions into Experimental Sounding Rocket
Expos that include workshops, demonstrations, and participation by
clubs and entrepreneurial companies.
As the competitions
grow and we gain experience and capability, we want to include the
public more and more. Initially, we will start with K-12 students, who
can observe the college students preparing the rockets before launch
and then watch the launches. By having younger students talk to the
college students and seeing their interest and enthusiasm, we hope to
capture their imagination and provide a motivation for learning science
and math and then pursuing technical degrees and careers.