TARC 2020

We took time off last year and didn't compete, but we are back.  Getting the team together to get started.  We are adding a new member this year too.  We had an initial meeting and will get registered soon.

We are going to Nationals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We made the cut and have been invited to the National Finals in May.

We are honored and excited.

There is so much to do!  We've made our flight and hotel reservations and arranged shipment of our motors to a friend who lives in Virginia.

What do we need to do now?

Build another rocket and test that rocket to use as a back up.
Try to do some more fundraising.  Want to donate?  See below! :-)

We made it to nationals in 2015 and it was such a great experience.  It was such an exciting time.  If you would like to see that time frame and what it was like check this post out from the TARC 2015 Nationals.


Donations:

Tax-deductible donations:

Please make a check payable to Albuquerque ACTSO with Team Sigma Rocketry in the memo. 

ACTSO
c/o NAACP
PO Box 1922
Albuquerque, NM 87103-1922  

Sponsorship:

If you would like to sponsor the team let us know.

We can put your name on our team shirts we will be wearing at Nationals.  Contact us at teamsigmarockets@yahoo.com

It's Qualification Time!

We scheduled our qualification day for March 18, 2017.  The weather looked good in the forecast so we went for it. We contacted our qualification judge and got ready.

When we arrived at the launch site to do a few test launches with our new motors it was just as the sun was rising over the Sandias and it was windy.  So windy we were able to fly a kite while we waited for the winds to die down.

The winds finally died down and we got to launch.  We got lower scores than we ever got in our testing.  It was an amazing feeling to know that all of our hard work paid off.

Here is a video of one of our qualification launches

We submitted our qualifying scores and now we wait until April 7th to see if we made it to Nationals!

Finding Motors

Finding Motors

We have been getting some pretty good launches and scores in our testing.  We ran into a motor shortage right before we scheduled our qualification launches, yikes!  We went through approximately 30 something motors.  Now we couldn't find any anywhere and we were ready to schedule our qualification launches.  We only had 2 motors left.

Luckily there are very kind rocketry suppliers and we were able to find one to help us out.  We owe so much to them!  A special thank you to Bay Area Rocketry!

Fundraising

Every year we request donations for the raffle we hold.  We sell raffle tickets in January at Sandia Laboratories Federal Credit Union for 2 weekends.  This has been a successful fundraiser for our team.

We would like to thank our mentors for providing two of the large prizes, Nothing Bundt Cakes Albuquerque, and Premiere Cinemas Rio Rancho for providing gifts certificates for our raffle.  

Where have we been and a status update

This year the team was really stayed focused on the design, build, and testing of the rocket.  So we decided not to get to distracted with the blog.  So now that we have finished our qualification launches we are ready to update.

We started the year off great and actually early.  We wanted to test some a new rail launch system and that took a lot of trial and error.  We finally decided to go use the original launch design that we have been using the two previous years.

Now that that decision was made we got on with our launches.  Our goal is always to beat the Spring winds, specifically in March.  Our goal for the last three years has never been met.  Here are some pictures of one of our launches.  These photos only have half the team on this day.

We are getting closer to being ready to qualify.  Here is a test launch!

TARC 2017

We have formed our team for the 2017 Team America Rocketry Challenge!  We are ready to start testing our design.

What is TARC?

The Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) is the world’s largest student rocket contest and a key piece of the aerospace and defense industry’s strategy to build a stronger U.S. workforce in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and the National Association of Rocketry (NAR), TARC was created in the fall of 2002 as a one-time celebration of the Centennial of Flight, but by popular demand became an annual program.

Our Team:

Mentors/Advisors: 

Ms. Hernandez - Mentor

Mr. Long - Technical Advisor/Mentor

Team: 

Jeremy - 9th Grade - Team Captain/Design and Motor Specialist

Allison - 8th Grade - Payload Specialist

Aiden - 10th Grade - Safety and Weather Specialist

Isabelle - 7th Grade - Data Specialist

What is is ACTSO?

ACTSO (Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics) is a national yearlong achievement program designed to recruit, stimulate and encourage high academic and cultural achievement.    Albuquerque ACTSO participates in the TARC as one of the yearlong activities.