May 1st. Yeeks.

I am supposed to make up my mind as to where I'm going to school next year by May 1st. I have narrowed it down to Iowa State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, but the biggest deciding factor is, of course, $$$$$. Subtracting grants, scholarships and loans from my financial aid packages, I have to come up $15,000 for IA State or $25,000 for Riddle this summer.

I have saved 0.

That said, I have to go into high-intensity mode for several months if I'm going to actually make this happen. But I still have to decide by May 1st. My brain is drowning in its own bewilderment. Please vote on the poll and leave suggestions or things to consider in the comments section. I'm a first timer when it comes to college (pretty much every college freshman is, I guess). I only have 20 days to decide!!!

Tidbit of the Week

Adventures in Florida

Sunday night was one of the most interestingly spent nights I've ever had. We arrived in Titusville, FL at about 5:00 pm and set up camp right on the edge of the water. Seriously, there was this little ledge about five feet wide that dropped straight off to the water, and we set up there. Front row seats, but rather precarious front row seats! People were already showing up to stake out spots to see the shuttle launch the next morning, so we didn't dare move lest someone steal our spot. So... it's kind of interesting to spend the night in such a situation, but it was all right--until someone warned us about crocodiles. Yeah, I didn't get much sleep, but it was fun anyway. When it got dark the launch pad 39A flodded the sky with lights, and the anticipation of the coming launch filled the spectators with alacrity. It was such a clear night, and I spent most of the time gazing up at the stars and other astronomical objects. There was a chilly breeze coming off the ocean, and every now and then some sort of fish would splash around below us sending a jolt through us (those of us paranoid of crocodiles).

Finally morning began to dawn. NASA was counting down. The International Space Station could be seen streaking across the sky, passing by the moon, before the Shuttle launched. Everybody cheered whenever the countdown was announced. Every minute seemed like five.

Main engine start... Liftoff for STS-131!

The bright glowing ball rises into the sky. Nearly a minute later the sound thuds against your chest. A minute after that the boosters separate. At some point it almost looks as if Discovery is coming back to Earth, but of course it's not. It's going over the edge of the horizon, and it is lost from view. Awesome!

It was definitely worth the wait.

More pictures and video to come!

Greetings From Florida!

Greetings, Earthlings! I am writing to you from a camp site in Florida, after a long day of touring the campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Sorry there aren't any pictures, My camera was not connecting to my computer for some reason, so I will just have to use a thousand words or more.

I stayed in a dorm room the first night, and got to meet some students, some in engineering, some not, but what I discovered I love about this school so much is that everyone attending share the same passion for the same subject: aerospace. Granted, they're in all sorts of disciplines related to aerospace, but everyone loves flying, airplanes, rockets, you name it. And these students are very serious about their academics. They aren't here to goof off or anything.

Rocket Club at this school means designing and building satellites, driving them over to White Sands, and launching them into orbit. Wow.

I was able to sit in on a class today with an aerospace engineering student. I'm glad I was able to follow along; it was on a subject I have already studied in physics, rotational kinematics. Only kicked up to a college level. We never used double integrals to crank out the moment of inertia in my high school physics class!

Tomorrow morning I am going to observe a student flight, meaning I'm actually going to go up in an airplane with a student and see what flight training is like. Ooooo. I haven't actually flown since I was three years old.

If I can afford it, I am definitely hoping to attend this school in the fall. Embry-Riddle is simply the ultimate school for the aerospace enthusiast.

The Results...

The first official flight should have been REALLY SUPER GOOD. We had a 47 second flight time, but our altimeter reported an unrealistic 270 feet. It was a beautiful flight, and had our atimeter worked properly, we would've started packing for D.C. But it didn't. The officiator is going to contact Trip Barber of the NAR to see if we can get a re-do flight for that one. I hope we do, but if not, we can be proud of the good job we did.

The second flight wasn't as good, but at least the altimeter worked. We only got 681 feet, so the flight time was only 33 seconds, disqualifying us for that flight. Also, the streamer dropped like a rock, which is unexplainable since it was exactly the same streamer.

We're hoping for a re-do flight for a chance to prove ourselves! Go Andover!

From left: Me, Sam, Phil, Matt

Me, climbing the tree to get the egg capsule/altimeter down.

Rocket Team at work

Me and my family are going out of town over spring break. We're driving all the way down to Florida to visit a college, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where I hope to enroll in the fall as an aerospace engineering student. It's going to be a very informative visit.

We happen to be down there at the same time NASA will be launching its fourth to last shuttle flight ever, April 5th. Since I've never seen a shuttle launch in person before, I never will unless I do on this trip. NASA is retiring the shuttle this year.

If I'm not able to blog on the trip, expect an exciting post filled with adventures on April 7th!

Don't Hold Your Breath, But We're Getting Close!

Monday is the day. Tomorrow is our official flight. If we're in the top 100, we go to Nationals in D.C. If not, we just pat each other on the back and say, "Well, it was fun anyway."

So far our best altitude was 810 ft. and our best flight time was 51 seconds. (We had a 36 second flight but more points are taken off for being under 40 seconds than over 45, if that makes any sense at all. That's probably because it's harder to make the rocket descend slower with a streamer than faster). Now if our rocket can just behave itself for the official flight, we'd be in good shape!

Tidbit of the Week--Tidal Locking

I've been doing a lot of tidbits on the moon lately. I wonder if it's because I've been thinking about the moon a lot lately. I guess so.

I never knew why only one side of the moon faces the Earth. I had some weird idea that maybe it was part of the Earth and it broke away and is still rotating at the same speed it's orbiting, or some such half-baked idea. But that's silly.

I was reading in 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Science, and I read about land tides on the moon. Apparently, after hundreds of thousands of years these land tides have despun the moon, so now it only shows us one side. The book didn't go into much detail as to how this works, so I decided to dig deeper.

According to Wikipedia, these despinning land tide forces are called "tidal locking." In short, "The change in rotation rate necessary to tidally lock a body B to a larger body A is caused by the torque applied by A's gravity on bulges it has induced on B by tidal forces." That's enough explanation for me.