Broadcast 812 (Special Edition)

Dr. Paul Mueller, James Kendall Villarreal, and Brian Van Roy were the guest for this special program to discuss the Intercollegiate Rocket Launch Competition. You can find out more about this exciting competition by visiting http://spacegrant.usu.edu/esra. Dr. Mueller started out with an explanation of the program and then both James and Brian talked about their teams, membership, funding, rockets, and technical issues. Listeners asked several questions ranging from the application of what they learn in these rocket programs on the academic level to what they might do in a career at NASA, ULA, or even a company such as Space-X. Listen to their answers to hear just how good these experiences are for future careers for students. One listener asked them about university and peer acceptance of their work and programs throughout the university setting, including students, administration, and other professors. You will find their responses to this question most interesting. All three talked about the various competitions, how they do their rockets and motors, fuel, and much more. This is an excellent program about college level student rocketry, educational outreach and it clearly makes the case to expand these activities to other schools and even into the upper grade levels of high school. From learning appropriate safety measures to team work, to the engineering and science needed to do this substantial rockets, these are outstanding programs with outstanding students as you will hear. The Space Show looks forward to doing more programming with these guests and other university rocket program. If you want to follow up with comments or questions for our guests, you can reach Dr. Mueller at pmueller@engineering.usu.edu; James Villarreal at 'james.villarreal@asu.edu; and Bran Van Roy at vanroyb@msoe.edu.