Science and Technology Adventure Club

The Science and Technology Adventure Club(STAC)
(updated 09/28/04 10:00am cdt)

STAC is a small group in the Twin Cities, Minnesota area who believe that learning should be an adventure and are interested in applying scientific and technological principles to build fun projects and to learn through hands-on experience. We are open to individuals of all ages who share our interests and are able to work cooperatively.

So far we have been focusing on rockets: both small model rockets, water rockets, and the ground support equipment and procedures for launching these. As we get better organized we will expand into other areas such as robotics. See our project ideas list below and feel free to propose new projects or adventures.

We try to maintain a broad range of topics and cooperate with other local clubs that specialize in particular subjects.

I've been overwhelmed with rocket activities this year, so STAC is temporarily on hold unless someone else would like to step up to plan some events.

News:

INSciTE will sponsor a Rocketry event.
Flew my Thor rocket and got my Level 2 Certification at the 11/10/01 Tripoli Minnesota launch.
The book that was our inspiration, The Mad Scientists' Club is back in print! See it at Purple House Press.
The national Tripoli launch, LDRS XX, was awesome! See my photos.
I've joined Jeff Sampson of TCRG to form a team to build a MechWars fighting robot. He has all the experience and parts, my role is just to help keep him focused.
We have the parts to build a pneumatic potato cannon and now have fresh experience working with PVC.
Ky Michaelson and the CSXT team succeeded in launching a private unmanned rocket to space.
Through IEAS, I'm helping build water rocket launchers for Farnsworth Aerospace Elementary and other schools.

Specific Event Schedule: (May need to check the weather first. Intellicast has wind forcasts also. NOAA has a nice site.)

07/??-??/04 Oshkosh Air Fest, Oshkosh Wisconsin
07/17/04 IEAS North Central Boy Scout launch in Casselton, ND
08/13-15/04 IEAS Convention #1 in Casselton, ND
09/??-??/04 BALLS experimental rocket launch in Black Rock dry lake near Reno, Nevada.

General Schedule: (Please call to confirm attendance)

[on hold] STAC work sessions every Tuesday night (except first Tue of each month) at my hangar (or my house if temps below freezing) from 6:30pm to 9:30.
[on hold] STAC Rocket & water rocket launches first Saturday of each month.
[on hold] Other activities third Sunday of each month.
The Junkyard Wars program on TLC
Robotica on TLC every Wednesday night at 8pm central.

Events of other groups we associate with:

Attend MASA rocket launch fouth Saturday of each month. See their site for details.
Attend MASA club meetings first Tuesday of each month. See their site for deetails.
During the summer, attend Tripoli Minnesota high-power rocket launch at North Branch second Saturday of each month. During the winter they have meetings this day.
During the summer, attend Tripoli Southern Minnesota high-power rocket launch at Maple Lake third Saturday of each month. During the winter they have meetings this day.
Attend Twin Cities Robotics Group meetings third Thursday of each month at 7:00pm at the Science Museum of MN.
Attend Twin Cities MechWars robot fighting competitions
Minnesota FIRST Lego League, a Lego(R) robotics competition sponsored by INSciTE they will also soon sponsor a Rocketry event.

Project Ideas:

Our most urgent projects have been related to preparing for model rocket and water rocket launches.
Other major projects will be the construction of a human-sized pneumatic robot and a very large water rocket.
Here is our list of pending projects.

Past Meetings/Events:

07/18/04

Estes Quark on 1/4A-3
Altair II - Estes C6-0 to C6-7: 2000ft lost upper stage in wheat field
Aerotech Initiator - Aerotech G40W-4: 2000ft. Temporarily lost in bean field. Found later.
NCR Archer - H-128W-S
Bic Arcas - MicroMaxx 1/8A

7/11/04 IEAS North Central lab: static firings

Pourable ANCP: atmospheric in nozzleless casing
Pourable ANCP: in "Betty" test motor
Pourable ANCP 2: atmospheric in nozzleless casing
Pourable ANCP: in single Hydrahex 54mm motor

05/09/04 Tripoli Minnesota Launch at North Branch:

Quark on A10-3T, just to get the season started
Altair II (from MASA junkyard rockets contest) on B6-0 to C6-7. Arced South after clearing rod. Staged nicely but mostly horizontal sustainer flight.800' up. Landed 1500' South.
BSD Thor on Pro38 J-330-11. Nice motor! 3,336'. Slight arc Northward. RRC2 was armed and had continuity but failed to fire either charge! Fortunately I had configured R7 as drogue and timed the motor delay well. Landed fine under the R7. The 60" main did not deploy. The EJ fired just fine in post-flight ground test using same battery. Altimeter was still functioning post-flight and beeping altitude. Need to ground test the RRC2 in my vacuum chamber. Perhaps battery was not weak?

04/??/04 IEAS North Central: static firings of KNO3/Anydrous Dextrose. Nozzless configurations of un-melted powder mix to test burn characteristics. Also tried with Dichromated Mg, which increased intensity and sparks.
11/09/03 Tripoli Minnesota Experimental Launch at North Branch: Static tested MicroHybrid: successful burn.
11/09/03 Debut of Discovery Channel "Rocket Challenge" featuring Our Stinkin' Rocket, and the "Minnesota You Betcha's" speed build team.
10/18/03 Tripoli Minnesota Launch (postponed) at North Branch:

Altair II C6-0 to C6-7 (MASA junkyard rockets streamer duration contest rocket)
Big Daddy D12-3
NCR SA-14 Archer H-128M (team effort)

BALLS 2003 at Black Rock dry lake in Nevada:

09/20/03 Bic Arcas on MicroMax. Excellent flight.
09/21/03 Assisted Tim Covey with "Cold Genie". Some photos by Marcus Tallhamn are at the bottom of this page.

LDRS 22

07/20/03 Our Stinkin' Rocket on 2 M1419's with Ky Michaelson, Bruce Lee, and Tony ???. Link to video by VAHPR

05/18/03 Tripoli Minnesota EX Launch at North Branch:

EX AN/MG G-50 in Gold Retro-Experimental rocket (that Mike Van de Kamp gave me the day before). Used Delay kit from an Aerotech E-11 reload. Motor ejection was slightly early. Good flight to about 1000'.

11/09/02 Tripoli Minnesota Launch at North Branch:

Initiator G64-7W w/beeper
Big Daddy D12-3
Archer H-180W-S w/ R/C ram-air 2 part deploy. Also video'd & and still photos of someone's L2 flight.

10/26/02 MASA Launch at Blaine: Junkyard Rockets theme. Flew my team's two-stage streamer duration rocket three times then helped search the woods for lost rockets.

B6-0 to C6-7 (very high but lost in the woods for a while and didn't get it back in time)
B6-0 to B6-6 weather cocked and deployed low
B6-0, B6-6 weather cocked again. Ended up with second place.

09/28/02 Tripoli Southern Minnesota Launch at Maple Island: Flew my NCR SA-14 Archer on H128W-Short w/2 part recovery and R/C control of Ram Air parachute on Payload section.
09/20-22/02 BALLS Experimental Launch in Black Rock Dry Lake near Gerlach, Nevada. 5,000 mile trip with Brian Elfert.
09/14/02 Tripoli Minnesota Launch at North Branch:

Flew my NCR SA-14 Archer on H180W-Short w/2 part recovery and R/C control of Ram Air parachute on Payload section.

09/07/02 Osceola Wings and Wheels air display and book sale
08/25/02 Eau Claire, WI Airshow with USAF Thunderbirds
07/20/02 MASA Picnic at Otsego VFW Club (photos):
07/10-17/02 LDRS 21 Trip: just watched.
07/06/02 Fargo EX launch.

Flew Archer on H-128W w/2-piece deployment with Payload under Ram Air deployed from bag attached to booster.

06/08/2002 Tripoli Minnesota Launch at North Branch:

I was tired and only flew my Bic Arcas on new MicroMaxxII motor (took 2 6v batts in series to ignite).

06/25/2002 Tripoli Southern Minnesota launch at Maple Lake:

NCR SA-14 Archer H-128, w/Ram Air chute. It fowled.

05/18/2002 MASA Launch at Blaine:

Two-stage Avenger "Wind Test Dummy" C6-0,C6-5: Nice boost but no ignition of 2nd stage, lawn dart w/major damage
Big Daddy on D12-3
Taurus C6-5: perfect
Initiator F22J-5 rms Ram Air chute, beeper. Perfect flight on 2nd try. Arced downrange though so a bit late deploy good deploy of Ram Air, nice glide

03/23/2002 MASA Launch at Sunrise Middle School, White Bear Lake:

Stomp Mk1 C6-3: Good.
Avenger "Wind Test Dummy" B6-0 to B6-6 (too much angle, just missed tree)
Beta A10-0T, A3-4T (20+yr old motor) Excellent, very high flight. Very long boost

02/23/2002 MASA Launch at Sunrise Middle School, White Bear Lake: 45 degrees. Found-Parts Free Rockets contest. Completely Cardboard 2
01/01/2002 New Year's Day launch: Fire two New Year's party horns from driveway.
11/17/2001 MASA Launch at Sunrise Middle School, White Bear Lake: 67 degrees! Stomp rocket drag race!
11/12/2001 Student Aerospace class rocket launch at Cleveland Middle School in St. Paul. 30 students from STAC member TJ's class flew their Alpha rockets. I built a 4 pad launch system and acted as Launch Control Officer to help get all rockets launched within 45 minutes.
11/10/2001 Tripoli Launch at North Branch: My Level 2 Certification flight!
10/27/2001 MASA Launch at Blaine: "Clusters" Cold but very clear day. Cold winds picked up through the day but not too bad.
09/08/2001 Tripoli Launch at North Branch: drizzly day but did a lot of flying. Did not get to fly the Thor for L2.
08/25/2001 MASA Launch at Blaine: Nothing particularly special, just a nice day of flying. Passed my L2 written test afterwards.
08/11/2001 Tripoli Launch at North Branch: My father's BAR flight on his Aerotech Strong ARM and my L1 certification on my BSD Thor on an I161W.
07/25 - 8/02/01 Oshkosh AirVenture
07/19-22/2001 Large and Dangerous Rocket Ships (LDRS XX) launch in Lucerne, CA
07/14/2001 Hardwood Range Open House (East of La Crosse, WI. Scroll to bottom of map): watch F-16's, B-1B's, etc drop bombs and strafe.
07/10/2001 STAC Meeting at my hangar: flew, cleaned launch rods, worked on Thor motor mount staging rod guides
06/23/2001 MASA Launch at Blaine: "Going Crazy in Stages". Avenger B6-0 to A6-4, Beta A10-0T to 1/4A-3T, Arrow300 B6-0 to B6-0 to A6-4, Big Daddy D12-5, Completely Cardboard D12-3 with Streamer Rainbow, NCR Archer G80-4T with Magnetic Apogee Detector dual deployment (charge didn't fire due to weak battery, but 2nd chute opened due to opening shock of first chute). I won a Custom Venture kit in the staged fliers raffle.
06/12/2001 Minnestoa Air Guard Museum: Host museum tour for MASA members
06/09/2001 Tripoli MN Launch in North Branch. Got to fly my two dumpster-diver finds: NCR Archer and Estes Big Daddy. Also flew Custom Cardboard on an E11 for the first time.
06/02/2001 Twin Cities MechWars at Aldrich Arena in St. Paul. We had a great time watching robot chaos!
05/29/2001 STAC Meeting at my hangar: assembled PVC high power launch pad, repaired NCR Archer and Estes Big Daddy rockets
05/28/2001 MASA Launch at Blaine (informal): MicroMaxx Bic Arcas through Initiator on G64-7W, including staged rockets on mini's and C6 to B6.
05/12/2001 Tripoli MN Launch in North Branch
04/28/2001 MASA Launch at Elk River. I flew my cardboard D12-5 rocket, Bic Pen, and MicroMax Mosquito. See MASA Photo Gallery and Launch Report. It was so windy that my range box fell over onto my rocket box and damaged 4 of my rockets. The Cardboard rocket was damaged (split body tube) on a hard landing due to tangled streamer after an otherwise nice flight.
04/14/2001 Impromptu launch of my new cardboard rocket: C6-5 underpowered - hit ground at ejection, D12-6 great, D12-6 even better!
04/10/2001 Meeting at my house: Built rockets. Ray: Estes Tie Fighter, Paul: Aerotech Strong ARM, TJ: Mutiny on the Bounty scratch, Jeff: 3" upscale of Mutiny on the Bounty w/24mm MMT.
03/20/2001 Meeting at my house: demonstrate lightwave communications techniques
03/03/2001 Informal MASA/STAC Rocket Launch: At White Bear Lake
02/27/2001 Met at my house: Watched the Russian Buran shuttle video I recently had translated to US tv format, NASA 25yr Anniv Video
01/27/2001 MASA launch: White Bear Lake
01/01/2001 Rocket Launch at Beaver Lake in St. Paul
01/01/2001 New Year's launch of "Mutiny on the Bounty II" on B6-4. Perfect launch but lost rocket in trees.
Year 2000 Archive

Other Links:

Here are some links to the type of cool stuff I envision STAC (Science & Technology Adventure Club) doing:

Omniscience Futureering Here's a site sponsered by the teacher I wish I'd had in school:
Radical and Extreme Hobbies
Stuff the Warning Label Says Not to Do. These guys are trying to launch a potato SUPERSONIC!
The Annals of Improbable Research
Spark, Bang, Buzz and Other Good Stuff
Backyard Ballistics A good page about potato cannons
Science Toys: Learn how to make a radio out of a rusty razor blade, and many other simple experiments
The ScienceOlympiad
The "Instructibles" web site with many project ideas and plans. A special section of "HowToons" use cartoon style illustrations.

Here are some links I was looking at last year when I built my electromagnetic BB pistol:

Other Science/Tech Links:

The Whole Frog Project: Discect a frog on-line
Fractal Art
How Stuff Works: This is a site to check every week. They pick several common devices and explain them in detail.
Powers of Ten: A web page that lets you step through a sequence of images from the view of a single Protons to our whole Galaxy.

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