Students participate in Parkview School’s Rocketry Class

Ever since humans first saw birds soar through the sky, they have wanted to fly. The ancient Greeks and Romans pictured many of their gods with winged feet, and imagined mythological winged animals. During the 19th century, rocket enthusiasts and inventors began to appear in almost every country.

Now, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is beginning a new era in space exploration focusing on sending rovers, experiments, and eventually astronauts to Mars. Through Parkview’s first-ever “Introduction to Rocketry Course,” the school is readying students for the marvels of a future in outer space. In class, students replicate each step of rocket design, manufacturing, and simulation to foster a better understanding of aerodynamics in real time.

For many years, the school has also participated in the The American Rocketry Challenge (TARC). This program sets a series of goals to assist students in learning about rocketry including target apogee, flight time, payload, and recovery system. Parkview’s Introduction to Rocketry Course also covers a wide variety of rocketry topics including rocket component design, aerodynamics, fluid mechanics, meteorology, data analysis, and Computer Aided Design (CAD) and simulation.

Parkview students explore the mechanics of rocket simulation through advanced computer programs that allow you to design any size rocket, and then simulate its flight to see how high, and how fast it will fly. Even before they start building their rockets for simulation, students are able to analyze statistics of rocket stability and safety for launch through the Rocksim and Solidworks programs.

Pictured are Parkview students participating in a recent rocket launch as a part of TARC. Keep up the great work, Panthers!