Space Cowboys look to break world record
Contact: Zack Plair
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擣or 10 years, they鈥檝e called themselves the Space Cowboys. Now, they also can call themselves champions.
Soon, they hope to be world record holders.
Earning top honors recently at the 2015 Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition in Green River, Utah, the 91传媒 rocketry team is turning its focus on breaking the world speed record for amateur rockets, which currently stands at roughly four times the speed of sound.
鈥淲e are thinking beyond competition to developing cutting-edge technology,鈥 said Keith Koenig, professor of aerospace engineering and faculty adviser for the Space Cowboys. 鈥淭hat project may take a couple of years.鈥
91传媒 President Mark E. Keenum said the international competition win by 91传媒鈥檚 Space Cowboys 鈥渋s yet another acknowledgement of our university鈥檚 growing reputation as a center of both nationally and globally relevant research.鈥
鈥淚 continue to be proud of how our students push themselves not only to compete, but to excel in so many fields of research,鈥 Keenum said. 鈥淭his team in particular rose to the occasion in international competition.鈥
At this year鈥檚 IREC, the Space Cowboys topped its rivals after almost a decade of near misses. Asimov, the team鈥檚 13-foot maroon rocket, flew 22,562 feet and reached a maximum speed of Mach 1.51 (about 1,150 miles per hour).
More than 70 universities representing seven countries competed at IREC. Notably, 91传媒鈥檚 Space Cowboys bested teams from engineering powerhouse schools such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan.
鈥淲hat this indicates is that our students here at 91传媒 know what they are doing, and our education is as good as anybody鈥檚,鈥 said Koenig. 鈥淚t also shows that despite a terribly demanding curriculum, this team can pull itself together and work together to accomplish a monumental task.鈥
The team of 23 students, most of whom were undergraduate engineering majors, spent 10 months designing, building and testing Asimov 鈥 named for 鈥淚 Robot鈥 author Isaac Asimov 鈥 before taking it to Utah this summer, Koenig said. At the competition, Asimov was judged for its design, flight and the functionality of its payload, he added.
Established in 2005, Koenig said the Space Cowboys competed nine straight years at a National Aeronautics and Space Administration-sponsored event. Often, he said, the team finished near the top, including a second-place finish in 2014. Having proven they could 鈥渇ly with anyone,鈥 Koenig said the Space Cowboys entered this competition year with a 鈥渜uiet confidence.鈥
Team chief engineer Eric Stallcup, a senior aerospace engineering major from Huntsville, Alabama, who managed the team鈥檚 budget and led all technical aspects of the project, said he didn鈥檛 know how well the team would compete at IREC, especially with the 鈥渟trong and deep鈥 field of competitors.
鈥淕oing in, I did not expect us to compete for an award, but I did know we had an excellent rocket,鈥 he said. 鈥淎fter the excellent launch of the rocket, I started to think we might have a chance. The win was incredibly validating.鈥
Stallcup admitted the team鈥檚 new focus was 鈥渢he most ambitious鈥 in its 10-year history, but he believes the Space Cowboys are up to the challenge. In a September launch of Asimov in Argonia, Kansas, he said, the rocket flew 25,500 feet at a top speed of Mach 2.1, or 1,500 miles per hour, both of which are team records. The speed also was roughly halfway to the team鈥檚 world record goal.
Ultimately, Stallcup said he wants to become a rocket scientist with NASA or the U.S. Department of Defense. He believes his time with the Space Cowboys has afforded him the hands-on technical knowledge and leadership training to help get him there. But he said the desire that first placed him on his planned career path is the one that still drives him.
鈥淚 just really enjoy launching rockets,鈥 he said. 鈥淲ho doesn鈥檛?鈥
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