PEGGY PEATTIE /
Union-Tribune Gustavo Torres,
left, smiles as he declares his team's well-packed raw eggs to
be safe after being launched in side a rocket. At right is
Mike Jerauld, vice-president of the DART rocket club who
consulted with Torres and his classmates from El Cajon Valley
High School on their rocket
construction.
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EL CAJON – The raw
eggs tucked beneath the nose cones of each rocket should fall to
Earth unscathed tomorrow, if all goes according to plan.
But students on these high school rocket teams have seen their
share of misfires and craters: Most know that success is a process
of trial and error.
As part of a competition sponsored by a San Diego defense and
space technology consortium, six teams from five East County high
schools have built rockets capable of flying 1,500 feet in the hopes
of winning a $1,000 prize.
The cargo in this high school competition is considerably less
precious than any manned rocket, but the teens have pondered every
way to make their mission a success.
El Cajon Valley High conducted a test launch on Fiesta Island
yesterday, in an area approved for low-level rocket launches.
One rocket eventually cleared the launch pad, but only after the
second stage ignited. Another went off course, cracking an egg
despite the cushion of thick padding.
After adjusting the timing system, the team – one of two at El
Cajon Valley – hopes to have the rocket painted and ready for the
competition.
El Capitan, Grossmont, Granite Hills and Mount Miguel have each
entered one team. The teams must conform to rigid standards and will
be judged on how closely the rockets meet those specifications.
The models must weigh no more than 3.3 pounds and consist of two
stages, one which separates after it burns out, similar to an Apollo
rocket.
Altitudes will be measured by a small altimeter given to each
team. The eggs will be distributed at the launch to prevent
hard-boiling or any artificial strengthening of the shell.
DEFCOMM, the consortium sponsoring the competition, operates a
28,500-square-foot software engineering center in El Cajon with ties
to the defense industry. It is in the Gillespie Field business park.
PEGGY PEATTIE /
Union-Tribune Khanh Dang,
below, checks the fuse on his team's two-stage rocket on
Fiesta Island before launching. At left is Khoa Nguyen, part
of the team from El Cajon Valley High School.
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Gustavo Torres, 17, an advanced
placement physics student on one of the El Cajon Valley teams, wants
to build missiles for the military after college. He said there was
no espionage among the teams, or any attempt to steal the blueprints
from fellow rocket designers.
In February, some students thought of the Columbia shuttle
disaster as they were building their rockets with the help of a
special computer program.
"Even the government can't get things right all the time," said
El Cajon Valley senior Jeremy Foote, 18. "It sort of makes all our
failures seem insignificant."
The rockets are slated for blastoff at 9 a.m. at the Cuyamaca
College track, 900 Rancho San Diego Parkway, El Cajon.
Finding a good place to launch in California is getting harder,
said Mike Jerauld of the Diego-Area Rocket Team, or DART. About 10
years ago a hobbyist fired a model rocket at a blimp floating over a
Los Angeles park.
The rocket merely bounced off the blimp's thick skin, he said,
but restrictions tightened after the incident.
Alex Lyda: (619) 593-4963; alex.lyda@uniontrib.com
