• 55°

Bob Jones’ Team Kratos and UAH to deliver payload to Venus

Team Kratos at Bob Jones is collaborating with University of Alabama in Huntsville and NASA personnel to design a payload that will travel to Venus. (PHOTO/COURTESY OF NASA)
Team Kratos at Bob Jones is collaborating with University of Alabama in Huntsville and NASA personnel to design a payload that will travel to Venus. (PHOTO/COURTESY OF NASA)

MADISON – Team Kratos at Bob Jones High School is devising ways to deliver a payload to Venus.

All 23 seniors in Jessye Gaines’ engineering internship class are engaged in the NASA-sanctioned project. Kratos and two other teams are satisfying the required design project for the Bob Jones Engineering for Tomorrow Academy.

Team Kratos is collaborating with University of Alabama in Huntsville seniors and engineering professors Dr. Matt Turner and Dr. P.J. Benfield. “UAH students are designing an orbiter, balloon and lander that will travel to Venus,” Gaines said.

For high school teams, UAH has allotted a specific volume and mass, which is less than five kilograms, for a scientific payload that “will catch a ride to Venus for the experiment,” Gaines said.

They must protect instruments from the harsh Venusian atmosphere. Students are using a Siemens SolidEdge CAD package to three-dimensionally design their payload.

Team Kratos refers to Venus as “Earth’s Evil Twin,” Gaines said. While the neighboring planets share similar size and mass, Venus has a hostile environment for life.

The students must determine how their experiment can benefit life on Earth, a design prototype and document their decisions using Figures of Merit Decision Analysis. “They must include engineering analysis for physics calculations proving velocities, mass totals, drag force and assumptions,” Gaines said.

In only 20 minutes, Team Kratos will present their findings to a NASA review board at UAH. The board has 10 minutes for questions.

This experience will prepare the teenagers for their senior design project in college. “They will feel empowered and confident to take leadership positions,” Gaines said.

The project epitomizes collaborative learning. “My students constantly email UAH seniors to bargain for more mass and ask to borrow instruments from the orbiter,” Gaines said.

“This isn’t a worksheet that takes 30 minutes to complete; it’s a semester-long project that has multiple reviews and checkpoints,” Gaines said about real-world application. “They see the design process (from when) it’s an idea in their head to physically holding their payload prototype.”

Bob Jones High School

Local Talent Shines In Alabama Baseball Victory At Toyota Field

Bob Jones High School

Bartlett selected as Executive Director of US Chess Federation

Madison

Mill Creek students shine in Elementary Science Olympiad

Madison

Facility dog Daryl comforts, ‘listens’ to children at Midtown elementary

Madison

Batt-Rawden named ‘Alabama School Psychologist of the Year’

Madison

Madison city councilman Teddy Powell loses to Marilyn Lands in special election for HD10

Bob Jones High School

Bob Jones’ population fondly remembers Angela Mooney

Digital Version

Digital version of The Madison Record – March 27, 2024

Events

AUSA showcasing the U.S. Army’s technological advances in Huntsville

Madison

Voters in HD10 to decide who fills unexpired term today

Madison

Jackie Smith’s legacy thrives through her students at Mill Creek

Harvest

AUSA sponsors ‘Operation Deploy Your Dress’ for women’s gowns

Bob Jones High School

Bob Jones ‘fetches’ ‘Mean Girls – High School Version’ for Spring Musical

Events

Arts Huntsville announces Panoply Arts Festival 2024 highlights  

Huntsville

Women in Tech – Huntsville event to view business future, open scholarships

James Clemens High School

Students in grades K-11 earn City Chess Champ titles

Madison

MVP Community Impact Grant helps library’s Music Garden

Harvest

Enjoy a day of celebration at TARCOG’s Senior Fun Fest

Madison

Kim Dykes named state’s Augmentative and Alternative Communication Professional

Bob Jones High School

All-Girls National Chess Championships set for Chicago

FRONT PAGE FEATURED

Mustang Mud Run Set For April 13- Register Now

FRONT PAGE FEATURED

Madison Miracle League Facility Hopes To Be “Shining” Location

Bob Jones High School

Madison Visionary Awards: Madison residents and business leaders named finalists for volunteerism awards

Digital Version

Digital version of The Madison Record – March 13, 2024

x