Friends of Amateur Rocketry "FAR 1030 5R" contest

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Congratulations to the Citrus College Rocket Owl team for taking first place in the 1st annual FAR-1030 competition.

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Interesting, it's good to see more rocket engineering competitions around.

Seems very similar to IREC though, what are the distinctions?
 
It does appear to be IREC/ESRA-esque. How many teams were there this year? Is there more information that the PDF available on the FARS page? What was the prize?

Edward
 
Interesting, it's good to see more rocket engineering competitions around.

Seems very similar to IREC though, what are the distinctions?

I do most of my motor testing and launching at the FAR site. Over the past ten or more years I've helped many university teams doing both the NASA SL and the IREC competitions with experimental motor and flight testing. For the NASA teams, the goal is launching to 5,280' using commercial motors only (NSL is a NAR run launch) and the IREC competitions to 10,000' and 30,000' with 8.8 pound payloads. For the NASA teams that spend the year designing, building, and launching their rocket at the Huntsville Alabama event in April, it gives them another competition opportunity to fly their rocket using an even larger motor commercial or experimental. For the IREC teams, it gives them an pre-IREC opportunity to flight test their vehicle for the IREC competition at the New Mexico Spaceport (I've been a judge and safety inspector for IREC and have found some teams their have never previously launched there rockets prior to the competition.

For this years FAR-1030 (Saturday, June 1st 2019), the payload requirement is 1 kg (2.2 pounds) and any mass required for stability must be water, preferably ejected safety at apogee. Complete requirements can be found at the FAR website https://friendsofamateurrocketry.org/ under launch contests (we offer three different ones). The water requirement is for safety; over the years I have seen people use from lead weight for stability (once 45 pounds in a nose cone) to a 6 pound container of 1/2" steel nuts and bolts). How safe is that should an anomaly occur?

Also, registration for the FAR-1030 is $25 vs $700 for IREC. I have some teams enter the FAR-1030 simply because of the IREC expense, registration, transport, lodging, etc.
 
It does appear to be IREC/ESRA-esque. How many teams were there this year? Is there more information that the PDF available on the FARS page? What was the prize?

Edward

It was originally planned to be called the FAR-50, a student competition to 50,000'. ESRA IREC had been doing both a 10 and 25,000' competiton in Utah with few teams making over 15-20,000' successfully. And since we were having so many teams come to FAR to flight test their NASA SL and IREC rocket, I wanted to make a competition that teams from both of those events could modify their existing rockets to compete in a 10 or 30,000' competition. We had 5 teams last year (our first year, and we currently have 7 teams that have expressed interest in competing this year.

Prize? Our registration is $25 vs the $700 registration and $50 per team member for IREC. If it is prizes team's are interested in, the FAR-Mars competition offers two $50,000 awards.

Information on this year's FAR-1030 can be found at the FAR website under Launch Contests
https://friendsofamateurrocketry.or...19/01/FAR-1030-5R-Competition-June-1-2019.pdf

If any additional information is needed their is an email contact address in the pdf
 
the FAR-1030 competition postponed...because of the C-19 virus school mandated closures, only two of the 15 registered teams for the FAR-1030 have indicated they could still be ready next month's competition date(s). Because of this, we are scubbing the launch until a later date this year.
Most team's that have responded to our inqury have indicated a launch between Sept-Dec would be best. Two teams indicated they would prefer next year and be registered for the 2021 FAR-1030.
We will now be determining when during the FALL to hold the competition.

Registration fee will be due after the new date is selected.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2522069307840737/
 
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