Rocketeers from around the world gather in Green River

By Alice Wadley Staff Writer

For the last 11 years Green River has been the site for the annual intercollegiate rocket competition. The Experimental Sounding Rocket Association has hosted the event since 2006. The competition started out with just a few teams and has grown to over 50 teams from all over the world. This years event had over 600 students participating. This year’s competition also included a high school team, Tesla STEM High school from Redmond, Wash. They competed with their rocket Lawn Dart. Every year the general public is invited to meet the rocketeers. This gives people the opportunity to meet the students and ask them questions about their rockets.
New to the competition this year was a team from Egypt. They attend a military technical college, the Institute of Aviation Engineering and Technology. All of the young men on the team were very friendly and excited to be at the competition. I had the chance to meet the team spokesman, Ahmed Samy. He was more than willing to answer any questions I had about rocketry and life in Egypt. Ahmed said, this is their first year in the competition. They plan on returning next year. The rocket name is Kemet, which means Egypt in an ancient language. The rocket was in the basic category expecting to reach an altitude of 10,000 feet. The entire rocket was student built except the motor. Many of the rocket features are 3-D printed. The parachutes were designed and manufactured by the students. A different feature to the Egypt rocket was the fins. They are attached by slots to the rocket as opposed to using an adhesive like epoxy to attach them.
I asked Ahmed what he thought about the weather and the people of Green River. He said the weather was great, but he is used to the hot weather in Egypt so it didn’t affect him. He wanted to thank all of the people of Green River. They are all so friendly. He specifically wanted to thank Raj at the hotel the team stayed at for his kindness.
I also spoke to teams from Embry Riddle-Daytona, Cal Poly-Pamona, Universite Laval, University of Akron, UCLA, West Virginia, Missouri S and T, a team from India and all the way from Cedar City, Southern Utah University.
The University of Akron has an outreach program. This year the team reached out to Central Hower High School in Akron. They taught ninth graders the science and math behind trajectory. The class competed in a class activity for a chance to design a part that would be utilized in the payload of the Akron rocket.
Many of the teams in the US have outreach programs. They try to get young students interested in Science Technology Engineering and Math. The teams receive extra points for any component that is designed by high school students. The Missouri S and T team worked with a fourth grade class made up of Native American students. The school receives no funding for STEM programs. The fourth grade class helped with an experimental payload and they wanted Legos to be part of the design. The payload was on display for everyone to see.
I spoke to the students from SUU. This is their first year in the competition. They purchased a fiberglass kit rocket. They designed their own motor and developed their own propellent. They had a budget of $3,000. They hope to increase their funding next year and return to the competition.
The next three days were dedicated to launching the rockets. The ESRA is thankful to the Emery County ambulance for being on site for the rocket launches. Other public events included a guest speaker, an open house and a movie in the park. An awards and closing ceremony was held.
The results are: Advanced Category-First place, Oregon State University, second place-University of Michigan. Basic Category: First place-Ecole de Technologie Superieure, second place-Concordia University. SDL Payload Challenge: First place-Minnesota, second place-Yale University. Jim Furfaro Award for Technical Excellence, Ecole de Technologie Superieure. Dr. Gil Moore Award for Innovation, Univeristy of California, Los Angeles.