Send UCF Rocketry to International Competition
Help our team launch UCF's most powerful rocket at the 2019 IREC international competition!
Greetings from Team Tempest, we are the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS).
SEDS is a non-profit club within UCF that allows students to gain experience through participation in projects, conferences, and other networking events. The International Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) is the largest project that SEDS-UCF participates in. Over 100 university teams from around the world convene in the desert of New Mexico every June for the competition. The competition is kicked off with a conference in Los Cruces where teams showcases their rockets and payloads that they’ve spent the last year working on, in front of judges and industry professionals. Next, the teams travel 3 hours north to Spaceport America where they spend the next 4 days camping in the desert and launching their rockets. Finally, they attend the awards banquet back in Los Cruces before making the long trip home.
The competition is broken down into different categories; last year the UCF team competed in the 10,000 ft. - Student Researched and Developed (SRAD) category. The team researched, developed, and manufactured its own carbon-fiber body tube, solid rocket propellant, and nozzle, among other things. At the competition, the rocket was successfully launched to 13,700 ft. This year, the team aims to produce a hybrid rocket that will compete in the 10,000 ft. - SRAD category. The team has very ambitious goals such as the implementation of air brakes, live telemetry, and to be as close to 100% student research and developed as possible; we will make everything we possibly can ourselves, rather than buy it off the shelf.
Designing and building the hybrid rocket propulsion system and implementing these new innovative systems poses considerable challenges for the team’s budget. The UCF Student Government Association financially supports us by matching the money the team is able to raise through fundraising and donations, up to half of the approved budget, so your donations will be doubled for our budget! Last year, the largest contribution to the budget was from the extremely generous contributions of team members and their friends and family. This community of supporters is responsible for the amazing experience that so many students were able to participate in. SEDS-UCF again, would like to ask for your support in getting our team and rocket out to the competition in New Mexico! This is a truly amazing experience for young students and we will be forever grateful if you can help us make it happen.
