KSAT students receive professional advice from aerospace engineer

Students in the Krueger School of Applied Technologies at Krueger Middle School welcomed Kevin Marafioto, aerospace engineer with Southwest Research Institute, for a visit about scientific payload. His presentation assisted students with their written proposal to NASA for its Student Launch Initiative - which the purpose is to build a rocket that travels one mile high and carries a scientific payload.

KSAT students have been accepted to this program for the past three years because they have placed in the top 20 at the Team America Rocketry Challenge in Washington, D.C. each May.

The students will found out in October if their proposal was accepted. If so, NASA will help fund the materials needed and the cost of the trip. The students would also be involved in technical report writing, video conferences with engineers, and a trip to the Marshall Space Flight Center to fly their rocket with other schools around the country.

Marafioto explains his scientific payload ideas to Mrs. Thomas's High Powered Rocketry class. 

Posted September 14, 2009