A core part of our mission is to help spread the word that incredible things are possible and just on the horizon for the British space industry.
We returned to the student conference held by IRIS, Institute for Research in Schools. Our team lead and an outreach coordinator went down to Manchester to talk about endeavour and outreach.
We went to Bathgate Academy west of Edinburgh to introduce endeavour and rocketry & STEM, and held a workshop with Tinkercad for electronics activities.
We participated in the student conference held by IRIS, Institute for Research in Schools. Our Darwin technical lead and outreach lead talked about endeavour and our outreach experience.
Our outreach team went to The Community School of Auchterarder (TCSoA) up north of Edinburgh where we talked about endeavour, rocketry, and life in university.
We participated in the Space 101 week organised by The University of Highlands and Islands. We've talked about our experience in developing rockets as students in Scotland, and it was exciting to see the development of the space sector especially with SaxaVord Spaceport.
We went to Liberton high school here in Edinburgh to talk about endeavour, life and studies in The University of Edinburgh, and career in rocketry and STEM.
With RS Grass Roots, we've developed a bottle rocket kit with RS Component sensors. It aimed to give the general public a comprehensive rocketry kit, and a fun way to spend time with family during COVID-19.
As part of our recruitment campaign for academic year of 2020/21, we organised four talks covering:
- history of UK space,
- getting to know our universe,
- future of space exploration,
- basics of rocket science.
These talks were done online, and we were able to engage students, give information on space, and recruit members.
In collaboration with John Bonsor from the UKRA and SARA, we held our inaugural rocketry day at the University of Edinburgh’s central campus to give 15 undergraduate students from all kinds of academic backgrounds a chance to build and launch a rocket within just six hours!
The day started off with a quick lecture on the basics and fundamentals of model rocketry given by John. The task of the day was also revealed:
Launch and safely land an unboiled hens egg to 100m and back!
The 15 then split into four teams to start work on their ELR (Egg Lofting Rocket) designs.
At 3pm with the sun still low in the sky, the team all headed over the the stunning setting of Holyrood Park and our beloved Arthur’s Seat to launch their creations before sunset.
Although the path was incredibly icy, we all made it to Hunter’s Bog to set up our launch site and the excitement began to grow amongst these first time rocketeers!
With a race against time before the dying of the light, the launch pad was set up in the shadow of Arthur’s Seat and one by one the rockets made it onto the launch pad with a small camera strapped to them facing down.
Powered by Estes D motors and with a “sizeable” payload on board, each rocket made it up to 100m into the air before deploying the egg containment device with its own parachute as well as deploying the chute for the body tube itself.
Out of four launches two eggs managed to make it successfully to the ground in one piece (still uncooked) and much fun was had by all!
