2011 Recapitulation

Way back in the beginning of the year I came up with three "Big, Fun Scary Adventures," referred to herein as "BFS Adventures." The first of these was a concrete goal: to obtain my level-2 certification for high-power rocketry. The story of this adventure was a long and comical one:

My first attempt was in June, using my rocket called "Stinger." I used a Cesaroni J285, which is a very small J-motor. For some reason, the flight was just a flop:



Next month I managed to put together an entirely new rocket (can't remember the name of it). It was a big, galumphing rocket made from thick cardboard tubes. The idea was to build heavy so that the rocket didn't go very high so I didn't need dual-deployment. That idea came back to bite me:



So I figured that the third time is usually the charm, and I came out next month with this rocket, which is the sustainer stage of a multistage project.



I figured that I had failed, but we kinda had to rush off at the end of the launch, and didn't talk much with the certifying member afterward. But a few weeks later I got my card in the mail, which read "cert level 2." So that's the story of how I got my level 2 certification.

My second adventure was less than exciting. I set a specific goal to "earn at least $5000 by working and at least $5000 of non-ISU scholarships." This one was also a success. I failed to find an internship, so I worked hard on a sod farm all summer, some weeks working 60 hours! It was quite the arduous ordeal but I earned about $4500 for school. Previously during the spring semester I had earned about $800 from working at Target. So there's my $5000 by working. And I got a pretty nice engineering scholarship for $8000 which helped me stay in school!

My last BFS Adventure was rather vague. "Invent something cool," I said. I'm counting the payload we built for USLI for this adventure. While it was not entirely my invention, I learned a lot of great stuff from being on that team and helped develop pretty cool technology for it. All of the structural components were designed and built by me. A lot of the programming was me, too. One thing is irrefutable: It was cool.

So there's 2011 in a nutshell. Of course, that leaves out 99% of my life, but now you have the 1% worth talking about.

I sense 2012 has some adventures in store that will make 2011 look like a walk in the park. Bring it on!

USLI

There is a group within the Iowa State Space Society called CySLI, which is a small club that participates in NASA's University Student Launch Initiative (USLI, I call it "Oozli," but I think I'm the only one). I think that this will be one of the coolest activities I will be participating in this year. Basically, USLI is a contest in which Universities design and build both a scientific payload and the launch vehicle to carry it to as close to one mile as possible. So far we've been talking about what kind of payload we want to design. One option we've been talking about is having a nose-mounted escape pod with a method of controlling the decent, and a live video feed from an onboard camera.

Here's a video about USLI:
(Iowa State's rocket is the big black one with the orange nose cone).

NASA Student Launch Projects Video

My Identity

A good thing to know about one's self is one's identity, especially when said identity will be challenged by the world when one moves to college.

So here's mine:

Above all, I identify myself with Christ. Since he saved me from sin and God's unbearable wrath, I am pleased to live my life following him.

Everything beyond that is just detail:

• I am exceedingly fascinated by all things that fly, and the giant expanse of the sky calls to me.
• So I study rocket science.
• I was born into a wonderful, Christian, home-schooling family.
• I have been lucky enough to live on a sod farm (rocketeer's envy!)
• I used to hate math, but now I love it.
• I am currently stepping up to the 2nd and 3rd rungs in my Ladder to Space.

The list was going to go on, but I ran out of time!

Thou hast given me understanding to compass the earth,
   measure the sun, moon, stars, universe,
   but above all to know thee, the only true God.
I marvel that the finite can know the Infinite,
   here a little, afterwards in full-orbed truth;
Now I know but a small portion of what I shall know,
   here in part, there in perfection,
   here a glimpse, there a glory.
To enjoy thee is life eternal,
   and to enjoy is to know.
Keep me in the freedom of experiencing thy salvation continually.

~A puritan prayer from The Valley of Vision