RockOn! is a space flight program for University students and faculty.

RockOn! 2009

Students and faculty from universities around the country participated in the 2009 RockOn! flight opportunity, June 21 - 26, 2009. Arranged jointly by the Colorado and Virginia Space Flight Consortia and supported by the NASA Space Grant Program and NASA Sounding Rockets Program Office, RockOn! is a hands-on workshop teaching participants how to create a spaceflight experiment, program a flight computer, and collect and analyze data. Additionally, in 2009, 10 universities were selected to fly experiments of their own design by participating in the RockSat portion of the program.

The RockOn! workshop participants arrived at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Sunday, June 21, 2009 and were greeted by Chris Koehler Director of the Colorado Space Grant Consortium and Mary Sandy Director of the Virginia Space Grant Consortium and their teams of students. This team of experts will guide the RockOn! groups through construction, integration and testing of their experiment kits, and on the last day of the workshop, the launch of a NASA two-stage Terrier-Orion sounding rocket.

There is definitely a lot to learn. The AVR microprocessor and the sensor suit, consisting of accelerometers, pressure sensor, Geiger counter, and temperature sensors, are integrated to form a complete experiment system capable of taking measurements and collecting and storing data during flight. Before any data can be collected, however, the AVR has to be programmed and the students are familiarized with the C programming language.

In a room with 50 people in 20 teams, the silence tells of the intense focus of the experimenters. Chris Koehler teaches the workshop in a very systematic fashion and the team of student assistants are on standby, ready to fan out into the classroom to help the groups complete the various tasks. The goal is clear; all experiment boards have to be in working
order before installation in the canisters, two days before launch. There is no time to waste.

The faculty/student team from Northwest Nazarene University, Idaho lead by Lawrence Miles are first time participants in the RockOn! workshop. The team is actively involved with the Idaho Space Grant Consortium and has launched BalloonSats in the past. They plan to incorporate their RockOn! spaceflight experiment into future BalloonSat launches.

Peter Plumley faculty member from Syracuse University, NY is here for the second time. Last year he attended as part of a faculty team, this year he brought along a student, Aaron Orbaker. Aaron appreciates the value of hands-on experience, particularly when added to a solid theoretical foundation.

Jahnieka Griffin, a physics major and freshman from Hampton University in Virginia, is exploring her career options. “This workshop gives me an opportunity to explore space and spaceflight related careers,” she says while inspecting the experiment board with her teammate Jayrick Hayes. Jayrick, a senior, also from Hampton University, will focus on Aerospace engineering next year and is graduating in May 2010. “This is an awesome hands-on workshop and an invaluable learning experience,” Jayrick says enthusiastically.

At 4:00 a.m. on launch day, the teams leave their hotel on Chincoteague to arrive Wallops Island in time for the 5:30 a.m. launch window opening. For most of the participants, this is their first sounding rocket launch and they are clearly excited, as are the Wallops staff members out on the Island watching the launch. At T-10 seconds the audience helps with countdown and at exactly 5:30 the Terrier-Orion rocket lifts-off and the RockOn! and Rock Sat experiments are on their way to space. The rocket reaches an altitude of 117 km and the payload starts its descent. A parachute slows the descent and softens the impact and sealed sections keep the payload afloat in the ocean until a recovery boat picks it up. When the payload returns to Wallops Flight Facility, approximately four hours after launch, the experiments are returned to the teams and the data analysis can begin. Initial assessment indicates that all the RockOn! experiments worked. Data analysis for the more complicated RockSats will take a few days.

Back in the classroom at Wallops, Jahnieka is downloading the Hampton University team’s RockOn! data and is relieved to see the data file stream from the experiment to the laptop. “The launch was definitely exciting, but learning how to build circuits and use microcontrollers is the most important part of the workshop. We’re already discussing a RockSat experiment for next year,” Jahnieka says while the data is downloading.

View the full 2009 press release from NASA Wallops Flight Facility

To find out more about this flight opportunity visit the Colorado Space Grant Consortium on the web at: http://spacegrant.colorado.edu/rockon/

or the Virginia Space Grant Consortium at: http://www.vsgc.odu.edu/

For information about the Space Grant program visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/national/spacegrant/home/index.html

RockOn! 2008 press release

University Faculty and Students to "RockOn!" With NASA

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. (June 12, 2008) -- University faculty and students from across the country will RockOn! with NASA during a workshop June 22 - 27 at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island in Virginia. During RockOn!, they will learn the basics of building experiments for flight on suborbital rockets.

RockOn! teams will build the experiments from kits developed by students from the Colorado Space Grant Consortium and learn about the steps and procedures for creating payloads for flight. Each experiment package will include a Geiger counter and sensors for measuring temperature, acceleration and pressure. The experiments then will be integrated into payload cans for launch.

The week will culminate with the launching of the experiments early in the morning June 27 aboard a NASA Orion sounding rocket. The 20-foot tall, single-stage rocket is expected to fly to an altitude of 41 miles. After launch and payload recovery, participants will do preliminary data analysis and discuss their results.

"The NASA Sounding Program historically has been a program for scientists, engineers and technicians to develop the skills necessary for developing and building advanced satellites and other spacecraft," said Phil Eberspeaker, chief of the NASA Sounding Program office at Wallops.

Almost 60 people from universities in 22 states and Puerto Rico are participating in RockOn!. Eighty-percent of the participants are faculty members.

"This workshop will equip faculty with the skills and knowledge to start their own student-led sounding rocket payload programs at their university or college," said Chris Koehler, director of the Colorado Space Grant Consortium in Boulder. "This workshop adds a new level of hands-on programs for higher education students. It is expected that many of the participants will have students come to Wallops to fly their own sounding rocket payloads in the coming years."

NASA's Space Grant program sponsors university-based consortia that focus on developing our nation's future scientist and engineers, as well as improving science, engineering and technology education. Using the lessons learned through RockOn!, participants will work to make flight experiments a part of the educational process at their home institutions.

"The workshop builds on NASA's interest in reaching out to universities for engagement with sounding rocket payload research and educational experiences," said Mary Sandy, director of the Virginia Space Grant Consortium in Hampton, Va. "It taps into the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program interest in having students and faculty participate in space experimentation and real space missions."

Contact: Mary Sandy, Director (msandy@odu.edu)