Technical Session 1
Software development for facilitating sport and contest rocket launch logistics, and creating a cloud-based database for sport rocketry performance data. Presented by the RocQ development team sponsored by LOC Precision.

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Technical Session 2
International Rocketry Competition with U.S. Navy CAPT (Ret.) Trip Barber, a former president of the NAR.

Every two years the NAR sponsors a Junior and a Senior team, totaling about 30 members, who travel to Europe for a week to compete against teams of the best competition model rocketeers from over 20 other nations in the World Spacemodeling Championships (WSMC). This international competition, sponsored by the Federation Aeronatutique Internationale (FAI), is run by very different rules and requires totally different rocket designs compared to what we fly in the US. The levels of craftsmanship and competition are very high and the ceremonies and prestige of the event are very similar to the Olympics. This session will cover the experience of competing as a national team in the WSMC, and the technology and designs of the models that are competitive under FAI rules.

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Technical Session 3
RockSim Applications and Tips, with Tim Van Milligan, President of Apogee Components.

Technical Session 4
A Short History of Space Shuttle Main Engine Development and the Tribulations of Other Real-World Rocket Engines, with Dave Mohr of D&E Propulsion & Power.

Technical Session 5
Gabriel Lapilli of the Florida Institute of Technology discusses Liquid Sloshing Behavior in Microgravity with Application to Rocket and Spacecraft Propulsion Systems, an experiment now aboard the ISS.

Technical Session 6
Brian Nicklas, author of “American Missiles, The Complete Smithsonian Field Guide”, discusses the book and its genesis in the Smithsonian's esteemed Herb Desind Collection. More about the book here.

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Technical Session 7
“Africa Outreach: Paying Forward Internationally” with Roy Houchin.

Paying forward is all about making a difference  in the lives of those we have an opportunity to meet.  The magical appeal of rocketry provides us with many ways  to engage new friends...from the techniques of building a small single stage low power rocket to the wonder of launching a multi-stage dual-deploy high power masterpiece, we can share the benefits and camaraderie of our sport with others. 

Africa Outreach is a presentation about paying forward internationally.  It's about having the opportunity to spread the word about the rewards  of rocketry to eastern and southern Africa...And, for those with the opportunity, a challenge to spread the word to other parts of the world.

Dr. Roy F. Houchin II joined the faculty of the Air War College in 2006 following his retirement from active duty with the Air Force. He has taught previously at the School of Advanced Airpower Studies, Air Command and Staff College and in the Department of History at the US Air Force Academy. While on active duty, Dr. Houchin served as Director of Operations and Chief, Combat Operations, 607th Combat Operations Squadron, Osan, South Korea. He also held various air battle management assignments in the Tactical Air Command, Air Force Space Command, Air Combat Command and HQ USAF. He is the author of US Hypersonic Research and Development: The Rise and Fall of Dyna-Soar, 1944-1963, Taylor and Francis Publishing, 2006, several chapters in edited works and numerous articles in professional journals. He is an Associate Editor of Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly.  Dr. Houchin holds a B.A. and M.A. from Western Kentucky University, and a Ph.D. from Auburn University. His areas of interest and expertise are history of technology and military history (particularly space and World War I), as well as airpower history, theory and doctrine.

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Technical Session 8
New developments in rocket electronics are discussed with John Beans, founder of Jolly Logic.

Technical Session 9
The Curimba Mission – Controlled De-orbit of Spent Upper Stages The Curimba mission is to design, build, launch, and operate a low cost system to safely perform the controlled de-orbit of a spent upper stage rocket from low Earth orbit. A team of students from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will explain their mission design process and the motivations behind a mission of this type. They will also showcase the current progress of their research and design.

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Technical Session 10
Randy Boadway, Sections Activity Chairman for the NAR, owner of eRockets and a 40-year veteran of "rocketry activism,' presents an open forum for existing NAR section leaders and those interested in forming a new section. The discussion will include important topics like how to organize sections, motivate sections, serve your membership and grow your section. Discussion will how to form a new section and what the NAR can do to help.

Technical Session 11
Some people were on the inside of the American space program, hands-on, up-close and fully involved in the exciting era when man first left the earth for outer space- but the rest of us slobs had to watch it on TV.

The “Growing up with Spaceflight” presentation will involve the fun and sometimes humorous aspects of those of us who were space-buffs, yet relegated to watching the program from the outside. No doubt most of us can relate to those days of fuzzy black and white TV images from the Cape, captured from out of the airwaves by tinfoil-wrapped rabbit ear antennas and presented on one of the three networks. Between missions we rode our bicycles to the local hobby store and spent the money that we earned mowing lawns on bagged rockets kits and hands full of B6-4 engines. With one hand holding the kits to the handlebars and a pocket full of engines we rode back home and proceeded to build our own space program. We launched missions that Cronkite, McGee and Bergman would never cover. Of course those massive engineering efforts normally ended up on a power line or eaten by a neighbor’s tree, but that was a key component of growing up with spaceflight.

A trip back to those days is what the “Growing up with Spaceflight” presentation is all about. Join us as we all take some time to be a kid again and look back at a time when we launched US astronauts from US soil aboard US rockets.

With author Wes Oleszewski of Dr. Zooch Rockets.

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Technical Session 12
High-power rocket Construction techniques for achieving your Level 3 Certification with Rick Boyette of the Florida Spacemodeling Association.

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Click here for a PDF of available charts from this session.

Click here for a PDF of available charts from this session.

Click here for a PDF of available charts from this session.

Technical Session 13
Austin Coffey, student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a member of the team that won the AIAA Commercial Space Launch design competition last year describes their winning Launch Vehicle entry.

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AND

Trey Pietras, a senior in aerospace engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, will explain Project Icarus, an ERAU student-built rocket set to travel to one hundred kilometers.

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Technical Session 14
Low-power rocketry construction quick tips, “how-to” topics such as finishing, decals, etc., with Chris Michelssen of Odd'l Rockets.

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Technical Session 15
NAR Research & Development Competition How-To with Mark Wise.

Have you wanted to enter the Research and Development competition but were afraid that you wouldn’t be good enough? Have you competed in R&D and want to know how to do better next time? What do judges expect to see in a strong presentation? How do people come up with good research topics?

NAR Trustee Mark Wise served as an R&D judge at NARAM-50, 53, 54, and 55. He will share a judge’s perspective on the event, as well as some do’s and don’ts for competitors. His presentation will be followed by a moderated discussion and Q&A session with leading R&D competitors.

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Technical Session 16
Orion Multi Purpose Crew Vehicle status and EM-1 and EFT-1 flight processing at Kennedy Space Center, with Jules Schneider of Lockheed Martin.

Technical Session 17
Joe Bussenger of Florida Tech and SpaceX tells us about FIT's Pathfinder program and their six-degree-of-freedom static test stand.

Technical Session 18
“Rapid Disassembly Just Outside the Blockhouse” – When the 1997 Delta II/GPS IIR-1 failure happens right over your head, you're inside the blockhouse and it fills with smoke, with Marc "Moose" Lavigne. Veteran photojournalist Carleton Bailie (who was at the press site about a mile or so away) will share his photos of the launch, explosion and aftermath.

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Technical Session 19
A "Maker Session" highlighting and demonstrating 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing for Rocket Applications with Mike Myrick.

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Technical Session 20
Examples of a “Full Pre-Flight Analysis” on a Rocket: A presentation of the various physics analyses which can be performed to assess a rocket’s performance; Trajectory, Dynamics, Mechanics, Structures, Thermal, and Fluid Analysis with Sean Stapf of SECorp.

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Technical Session 21
Frank Panek explains the Civil Air Patrol’s program: Aerospace Education, Rocketry and Reaching for MARS

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Technical Session 22
Recollections of Florida Model Rocket History, with a panel of space modeling veterans Bob Koenn, Mike Myrick, Marc "Moose" Lavigne and Richard Fox.

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Technical Session 23
"Reliability Engineering: Consideration to Ensure Mission Success" at the Kennedy Space Center with Amanda Gillespie of SAIC. The presentation will describe the challenges, techniques, tools and processes in implementing a sound reliability engineering plan. The terms Reliability, Maintainability, and Availability (RMA) will be defined and their relation to each other will be discussed. Tools and techniques for Reliability Block Diagram Analysis (RBDA), Weibull Analysis, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) will be identified, and examples of how reliability engineering improved the overall mission success will be provided. This presentation will provide an understanding of the importance of reliability engineering in mission success.

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Technical Session 24
Future launch vehicles on the drawing boards to fly from Cape Canaveral and elsewhere are discussed with Matt Steele of ATK and North Coast Rocketry.

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