To all Aerospace Engineers and Enthusiasts,
The AIAA leadership team hopes everyone had a relaxing summer and is excited for the new year. We have been working throughout the summer to get ready for the school year. With a completely new leadership team we are eager to grow AIAA and build on the past accomplishments of the club. This year we are going to try and send out monthly newsletters so that everyone is up to date with what is going on in each competition team as well as in the club overall.
Our kickoff meeting will be in 1410 Engineering Dr, Room 85, at 6PM on Thursday, September 19th. Please come to this meeting if you would like to actively participate in AIAA this year as we will be setting up teams as well as finalizing the club roster. If you cannot attend this meeting and would still like to be on the roster and receive information about AIAA please send an email to join-aiaa@lists.wisc.edu so we can add you to the current email roster. Please also sign up on our Wisconsin Involvement Network Page (WIN Page). This year we will be requiring membership dues of $20 for the entire year. Dues can be paid at the kickoff meeting on September 19th by either check or cash.
Throughout the 2019-2020 school year we hope to hold multiple Friday After Class talks with faculty in the Engineering Physics department. During these talks Professors will typically meet students at Union South on a friday afternoon to discuss research, experiences, classes, and all things aerospace. Our first FAC will be held Friday October 4th at 5PM with Professor Riccardo Bonazza. In addition to Friday After Class, there will be a few talks by aerospace industry professionals throughout the school year. These will range from former astronauts to working aerospace engineers. More information about industry talks will be available at a later date. We also hope to organize tours of some of the cool labs we have on campus. In the fall, we hope to tour the flight simulator lab used for Introduction to Private Pilot (EMA 110 and EMA 120), and in the spring we hope to have a tour of the wind tunnel used for Aerodynamics Lab (EMA 522). Again, more information will be available at a later date.
For off campus social events this year, we will be attending the 3rd annual Buck’s Aerospace Jam in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Students interested in aerospace from across the state of Wisconsin will be able to attend this event. There will be a speaker, networking session, and free admission to a Milwaukee Bucks game. The projected date for this is Saturday, November 3rd. The official date for this event has not been released yet and there will be more information as we approach that date. For the spring trip this year we plan on traveling to New Orleans to tour the NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility. We are also looking into the possibility of touring Stennis Space Center (NASA’s rocket testing facility) and Marshall Space Flight Center. More details about the spring trip to come as the year progresses.
For our competitions this year, we are going to continue to work to complete the WI Space Race rocket. WI Space Race will operate autonomously within AIAA for the duration of 2019-2020. A second competition that we will be competing in will be Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC). AIAA did a good amount of work on this competition last year but did not enter the competition. We hope to finish this project this year and compete. If enough people are interested, we can have teams compete in the Midwest Rocket Launch (MRL) or the AIAA Design Build Fly competition.
Some of the current projects WI Space Race is working on this year are as follows: Development of the catalyst bed and propulsion system for the rocket, development of control algorithms and measurement of airspeed as well as angle of attack, and most importantly fundraising. There will be many more projects that will need to be started and worked on this year with WI Space Race. Technical and general questions about WI Space Race should be directed at Max Goldberg (mgoldberg4@wisc.edu) and Brandon Wilson (bwilson8@wisc.edu).
On a similar note, some of the current tasks with IREC are as follows: Development and testing of the solid rocket motor, structural design of the rocket, and finalization of the payload. Right now, we are in the process of building a test stand for testing our rocket motor. This will greatly help refine our design and give us a much better idea of how much more work will have to be done to get the rocket launch-able. We will be needing a lot of structural design and fabrication for the rocket as well as some analysis to make sure the payload is secure and will be able to withstand the forces of launch. Our payload is already fabricated and almost ready for launch. We will be looking at how plant cells respond to the high g-forces experienced by a relatively small scale rocket. This project is in association with Gilroy Labs, which is an astrobotany lab on campus who has multiple experiments aboard the International Space Station. With that said, if you are interested in participating in this competition please come to the kickoff meeting on September 19th or email Andrew Marek (amerek2@wisc.edu).
If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to anyone on our leadership team or check our website. We hope you have a good semester.
Sincerely,
AIAA Leadership Team