By Henry Stewart
This blog certainly missed the story when the winners of the 2017 Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) and 1st Annual Spaceport America Cup, which was held from June 20th - 24th in Las Cruces, NM and at Spaceport America in Truth or Consequences, NM., were first announced.
But by early August, when the results were posted on the Space Concordia Facebook page, it was becoming obvious that Canadian universities had won far more than their fair share of trophies. As outlined on the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA) website post on "the 2017 Spaceport America Cup Winners!!!," Canadian teams won in a variety of categories including:
Maybe that will change by the time they graduate. After all, the contest has certainly proved that Canadian's can build rockets anytime they want!
Henry Stewart is the pseudonym of a Toronto based aerospace writer.
This blog certainly missed the story when the winners of the 2017 Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) and 1st Annual Spaceport America Cup, which was held from June 20th - 24th in Las Cruces, NM and at Spaceport America in Truth or Consequences, NM., were first announced.
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| An overview of the ESRA, which has historically organized the annual IREC, and Spaceport America, its new partner for 2017. Video c/o Spaceport America. |
But by early August, when the results were posted on the Space Concordia Facebook page, it was becoming obvious that Canadian universities had won far more than their fair share of trophies. As outlined on the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA) website post on "the 2017 Spaceport America Cup Winners!!!," Canadian teams won in a variety of categories including:
The IREC Technical Excellence and Innovation Award category;
- Team 11 from the Ecole de Technologie Supérieure Montreal which won the Dr. Gil Moore Award for Innovation.
- Team 96 from Waterloo University which won the Jim Furfaro Award for Technical Excellence.
The Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) Payload Challenge;
- First place was awarded to the University of Victoria.
- An honorable mention for "incredible engineering research on propellant slosh done at altitude" was won by Team 9 from Concordia University.
- A second honorable mention for "engineering design and fabulous manufacture of a quadcopter" was also presented to Team 36 from McGill University.
The IREC category award for 10k ft COTS was won by Team 70 from the University of British Columbia. In the IREC category award for 30k ft COTS, Team 53 from Ryerson University placed second, while Team 96 from the University of Waterloo won first place in the 10k ft SRAD Hybrid/Liquid category.The full list of winners is available on the ESRA website.
It's unfortunate but true that most of the Canadian competitors for this event won't end up in Canada if they decide to look for employment in rocketry, at least the way the industry stands today.
Maybe that will change by the time they graduate. After all, the contest has certainly proved that Canadian's can build rockets anytime they want!
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Henry Stewart is the pseudonym of a Toronto based aerospace writer.
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