2012 Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) rules announced

We have just announced the rules for the Team America Rocketry Challenge 2012.  They are posted in the files section of this group and on the event website <www.rocketcontest.org>.  Team registration opens on September 7, and we will accept up to 1000 teams.  The single best recruiting technique for TARC teams is direct person-to-person contact with someone who has done it before, either on a team or as an involved NAR TARC mentor.  Please help us do some recruiting among teachers, youth groups (Scouts, 4-H, CAP, etc.), and young people whom you have seen flying rockets.  Feel free to use one of the publicity fliers in the files section to assist in recruiting.  AIA recently released a really excellent promotional video about TARC and posted it on YouTube at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3oxw3p5Hok> ; this may also assist your recruiting.

Each year we change the TARC challenge enough to force the previous year's teams to go back through the design-build-test cycle that is the source of so much of TARC's educational value; we do not want them to simply use the previous year's rocket with minimal modifications.  This year we are emphasizing lighter airframe construction techniques by lowering the allowed liftoff mass and rocket motor power while increasing the payload mass.  Because Perfectflite has discontinued the ALT15K/WD, we are phasing in the two new Perfectflite altimeters: the APRA ($29, reads out peak only) and the Pnut ($48, data recording). These have the following features:

* Altitude range:  up to 100,000' MSL (not that TARC needs this)
* 24 bit ADC
* Calibration accuracy: better than +/- 0.1%
* Readout resolution: 1 foot up to 38,000' MSL
* Operating temperature range: -40F to 185F, second order temperature compensation.
* Pressure sensor is not sensitive to light and won't be triggered by direct sunlight.
* Altimeters are immune to wind gust triggering on the launch pad.
* Additional near-apogee spike removal and filtering mean pressure spikes caused by improper venting and ejection at high velocity will not affect reported apogee.


Key technical elements of the TARC 2012 challenge are:
2 eggs payload
altitude goal 800 feet
duration goal 43 to 47 seconds
liftoff mass limit 650 grams
rocket motor total impulse limit 80 Newton-seconds
recovery by parachute of any size
any of three altimeters permitted: Perfectflite ALT15K/WD, APRA, or Pnut

Other elements of the challenge of interest:

1000 team limit, no more than 5 per school
third flight at the Finals to settle any tie for 1st through 3rd places (only)

Thank you for being part of the NAR's biggest-ever "pay forward" program to inspire the next generation of aerospace professionals and rocket hobbyists.

Trip Barber
NAR 4322
NAR President