It was an early start for our STEM Rocketry team of Amy, James, Max, Ollie, Simon, Teddie, Will and Zoe as they made their way to compete in the UK ROC National Rocketry Final.
After the long journey to Buckminster, the team arrived at the venue with their rocket, Ham, named after the first chimpanzee in space.
The National final this year comprised a launch and a presentation before the top three teams completed a second launch to decide the winner. The winning team will ultimately represent the UK in the international final next month.
Following a safety briefing the team set up the rocket, and loaded the altimeter and egg payload before passing scrutineering and heading to the launch pad. A successful launch followed, with Ham shooting up into the sky and graciously returning to Earth with the payload intact. Unfortunately, Ham went a little too far above the target altitude leading to a longer than required time of flight.
The second part of the competition saw Zoe, Simon, Amy, Ollie, Teddie and Max present to a panel of expert rocketeers on their journey from the initial designs to building and testing, speaking about what they had learnt through their experience and winning the regional final. The team were highly commended for their insightful presentation which scored very highly.
Dr Telfer-Mason said: “We are incredibly proud of the team to win the regional final for the first time and to represent Epsom at the National final. This wonderful competition offers students an insight into engineering and the challenges they can overcome when working collaboratively as a team.”
Mr Johnstone added: “The team worked very hard to design a rocket capable of competing in the final. It often comes down to very tiny margins of errors that determine whether a flight is successful or not.”
Unfortunately, when the scores were combined the Epsom team were not in the top three so missed out on a chance to fly-off to win. All the students had a great experience and look forward to competing again next year.
The team wanted to thank Mr Johnstone and Dr Telfer-Mason for their encouragement, knowledge, support and time in helping them enter the competition.
