We’re moving right along with our rocketry program! Last
week we received our first kit, a Madcow DX3 that we’ll use as our foundation for
the entire program. Not only will it give us group experience in assembly, but
once we launch, we will use this first rocket as the cornerstone to building a
sponsorship package we’ll use to seek funding.
On Tuesday evening this week, we met in the DML (Design
Manufacture Lab where most of our work will be done in the evenings or on
weekends because of people’s schedules), and with our kit in front of us, I led
a tutorial in OpenRocket. We measured all of the pieces and dimensioned them
into the software program so everyone could get a feel for the program. A
number of us are still going through safety training for the DML facility, but
we intend to begin assembly with epoxy next week. We still aren’t certain when
or where we will launch, but that should also be resolved here within the
coming week.
Not explicitly related to rockets, Thursday morning I got a
ride with a classmate to OSU’s Unmanned Aircraft Flight Station twenty minutes
outside of Stillwater. A number of graduate students were doing some flight
testing that day, and I got to tag along. This facility is where Speedfest is
hosted each spring and is also used for flight research throughout the year.
One test of particular interest was some software that had multiple quadcopters
following a specified leader to form various aerial formations. It was quite
exciting to see a “swarm,” as they are called, of four drones follow a fifth
leader and then autonomously form a column above that leader several hundred
feet high.
This semester has been unique on so many levels compared to
my previous four semesters at the university. The focus of the first two years
is certainly classes, but now that I have passed the weed-out courses, the
material isn’t as homework-heavy. With a lessened workload, it has allowed me
to invest more time and energy in involvements outside of the classroom.
Another observation over the last two years includes an ever-changing
definition of the words “busy” and “tough” as far as managing such a schedule
in college. I thought freshman year was difficult (and it was, at the time),
but each subsequent semester only allows me to push myself further and
accomplish more. I’ve never felt more focused and driven, and those qualities
seem to increase with each week. It is tremendously exciting, exhilarating
almost, that I am always learning about what I’m capable of. By the same token,
there are times throughout each week when I’m positively overwhelmed and
anxious, but fortunately, those moments are only very brief. It keeps things in
perspective that way.
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