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Exhibitor: SpaceLex, Rocketry and Propulsion

Location: Grehan / Basement

About the Exhibit

For younger students:

Students will get to assemble their own straw rocket!  Using safety scissors, scotch tape, straws, colored paper, and a guide (along with help from our wonderful members) they will put together their very own straw rocket to take home.  Students can choose to change design parameters like body tube length, the size, shape, and number of fins, and whether it has a paper or tape nosecone.  They can also choose decorative changes like color and to put a name on their rocket.  These will then be launched with an air launcher!  The purpose of this activity is to teach younger students about how changing parameters effects the rocket's performance (how far it goes) and how we make iterative design changes (changing the length to make it lighter or changing the fin shape for example) to better reach our design goals.  Iterative design is an important part of engineering and examining our There will also be some premade rockets available to show off general concepts and for younger children who might not be able to build one themselves but want to launch a rocket.

For older students:

SpaceLex will have real rockets and parts we use available to come see and learn about.  Want to see how a solid rocket motor works?  Interested in carbon fiber and fiberglass part manufacturing?  Want to see a real altimeter setup?  We will have that all available to look at and learn about.  Our members will also be there to answer questions about the aerospace industry, engineering, and the SpaceLex rocketry team!  Our members have experience working at various companies in the industry including SpaceX, Relativity, Space Tango, and more.  All of them have learned to live the engineering lifestyle and would love to talk to you about their experience at the University of Kentucky and about what we do at SpaceLex.