Rocketry Planet

LAKE ZURICH, Wisconsin USA — A group of four seventh-graders from Lake Zurich Middle School North beat out high school teams of up to eight students to win second place in the May 16 Rockets for Schools competition in Sheboygan, Wis.

"Oh my gosh, they did a fantastic job," said Don Peet, advisor for the seventh-graders' Super Rocket Buddies team, and father of team member Eric Peet.

Lake Zurich Middle School North seventh graders (from left) Eric Peet, Sean Kilbride, Michael Brenner and Danny Krueger hold their rocket that won second place in the Rockets for Schools competition in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Photo: Don Peet.

"They did it for fun, definitely they can be very proud," Don Peet said. "(The rocket) was more advanced and sophisticated than the parents thought; it was more advanced and sophisticated then what I thought."

Sixty school teams from five states participated in the competition, and Super Rocket Buddies won second place in the category one competition, despite this being their first year in competition.

The members of the team were seventh-graders Eric Peet, Michael Brenner, Danny Krueger and Sean Kilbride. They founded the team and started building in December 2008.

"I was really excited to win second place, competing against all these high school students," 13-year-old Eric said. "I didn't expect to place in the top ten."

"I really thought we had a good chance," said 13-year-old team member Danny Krueger. "I wasn't really that surprised, because we had a really nice rocket."

The team was judged in three areas: Payload, presentation and rocket design. The team's four-inch diameter, 5.5-foot tall rocket had to have a payload to take with it on launch.

Eric Peet got the inspiration for the team's payload from riding in a car with a helium balloon.

"My son noticed every time we sped up, the balloon wouldn't go to the back of the car, it would move forward, due to the air pressure in the car changing," Don Peet said.

The payload was a collection chamber with three valves, which would trap air moving toward the ground within the rocket, and a pressure gauge to measure how much air was trapped.

"(The pressure gauge) was a really hard one to find - They had to scour the Internet," Don Peet said. "They knew they needed a very sensitive gauge."

The rocket ended up trapping 0.7 pounds-per-square-inch of air within the chamber.

The team also had to give a presentation to competition judges on what real-world applications its payload might have. They told the judges they could use air moving within a car to drive a small fan, or shift the center of gravity within a rocket.

"I was a little nervous, but we had a really nice presentation board," Krueger said. "It was 3D."

The team was also judged on its design, including whether the rocket's fins were at exactly 120 degrees, how well epoxy had been used in its construction and the rocket's paint scheme.

Eric Peet said his team had based their paint design on the planes of the Flying Tigers, the volunteer American fighter pilots who had fought for China against the Japanese during World War II. Eric said the team members often have used the shark-mouth design on their own radio-controlled model planes.

"(It's) kind of a bringing the old and new together," Don Peet said. "Some adults came up to the kids while they were carrying the rocket (and) mentioned, 'Hey, that is the Flying Tigers' - They were proud of that."

Eric said there was another reason for the design as well.

"The shark it's designed after gives you a feel of pressure from the water, which kind of tied into our payload," Eric Peet said.

The competition ended with all the rockets being launched by competition staff to a height of 3,000 feet, and recovered by the Coast Guard in Lake Michigan. All 60 teams assisted in some part of the launch.

Eric said he had learned teamwork and time management from the competition.

"I learned a lot about the rocket history, and the way the rockets work, and I learned how to work as a team," 13-year-old team member Michael Brenner said.

Eric said he hopes some day to become an aeronautical engineer, but right now he's just aiming for next year's category two competition, where the rockets are a foot taller and seven inches in diameter.

The first, second and third place winners in category two competition have a chance to participate in NASA's Student Launch Initiative in Huntsville, Ala.

"I'm already starting to plan for next year," Eric Peet said.

Copyright © 2009, Pioneer Local.