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REAL Astronaut Farmers: Cheyenne Mountain TARC

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Contributed by: Jeff Lane on 2/24/2007

Cheyenne Mountain High School
1200 Cresta Road
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80906
(719) 475-6110
Mr. Paul Martin, Principal

In the movie The Astronaut Farmer, former astronaut-in-training Charles Farmer (Billy Bob Thornton) pursues his lifelong dream by building his own rocket.
In real life, two students from Cheyenne Mountain High School and one from Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy are set to compete in the prestigious Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC), the world's largest model rocket contest. While they don't plan on raising any crops or livestock, they are growing some seriously competitive rocket designs using Rocksim software from local provider Apogee Components.

The team has already had one test launch, which is downloadable as a video here on their web page at Brandango.us. The TARC team consists of members Jacob Pfund, Nijat Worley, and Nathaniel Lane. Captain Pfund, a freshman at Cheyenne Mountain, said he was excited about the opportunity to participate in the fifth annual installment of the contest and hopes his team will qualify (as they did last year) to be among the top 100 teams that will travel to the national final event in The Plains, Va. just outside of Washington, D.C., on May 19.

The contest requires that students design, build and test a model rocket that can fly for as close to the 45 second total flight duration as possible while reaching an altitude of 850 feet. The rocket must also return the payload of one raw egg back to the ground unbroken. There are no commercial model rocket kits available that are suitable for TARC, and no sample designs are provided to the teams. The rockets are handmade using science, engineering and math skills the students have learned. About 7,000 middle and high school students participated in last year's contest, which was sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Association of Rocketry.

The Defense Department and NASA are both government partners and the American Association of Physics Teachers is the educational partner in this year's competition. There are many great corporate sponsors as well. Scholarships and other prizes for the winning teams total more than $60,000 as well as a trip to the Paris Air Show in June 2007 for the grand prize winners. Ten other Colorado schools and groups in addition to Cheyenne Mountain are competing this year: Turner Middle School, Burlington High School, Del Norte High School, Vail Christian High School (two teams), Montessori School of Evergreen, Foothills Cadet Squadron, HEADWAY America (Golden), Lakewood High School, and Rifle High School.

Three of the teams plan on doing test launches tomorrow (2/25) at the regular COSROCS launch in Peyton. The teams then plan on checking out The Astronaut Farmer movie for some inspiration and motivation.

The ambitious undertaking has costs, and while Cheyenne Mountian has three local business sponsors in the Air Force Association,Brandango, and Dry Cleaning Equipment Services, they are looking for more sponsors to help defray the cost of supplies, practice launches, and, if chosen for the finals, hotel and travel costs to Washington, D.C. EMAIL FOR MORE INFORMATION

TARC team supervisor Jeff Lane, owner of Brandango and webmaster for the COSROCS Web site, said the contest is an excellent opportunity for students to learn hands-on lessons in aerodynamics. "Learning about astronautics teaches students science, engineering, communications, and math; while protecting the life of their 'egg-stronaut' focuses their attention. Participants apply concepts like computing trajectory and eliminating drag to their models and see the results immediately."

In the Polish Brothers' family film The Astronaut Farmer, Farmer struggles with financial woes and a community of disbelievers, while simultaneously drawing heavy scrutiny and surveillance from the government. But Farmer remains determined to reach his goal and instill in his children the courage to pursue their own dreams, no matter the odds. "Similarly," Lane said, "The main goal of TARC is to spark enthusiasm for careers in aerospace among high school students who are making college and career choices, and dropout prevention by providing practical application of science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses taught during the school day."

The Astronaut Farmer was released yesterday by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

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