For this team, it’s all a matter of rocket science

A group of students from Irvine’s Avid Academy are heading to the national Team America Rocketry Challenge in Washington, D.C., to go rocket-to-rocket against 99 other teams for a chance at money and glory.

Calling themselves the Math for Service 2: MAXx Propulsion team, the students will compete on May 9 for $60,000 in scholarships and a spot in the International Rocketry Competition at the Paris Air Show.

The team consists of six students in seventh through ninth grade who attend the Avid Academy for Gifted Youth, an after-school learning center focused on rigorous math and science curriculum. Students Eleni Fafoutis, Matthew Wang, Christopher Wang, Ekas Chawla, Leo Yu and Steven Shih met nearly every week for eight months to construct their rocket.

Only Fafoutis, Matthew Wang, Christopher Wang and Chawla will travel to Washington, D.C., for the upcoming national competition.

Math for Service, an Irvine nonprofit dedicated to lending support to students working on math-related projects, is the team’s official sponsor. They provided the students with tools to construct the rocket.

Team captain Fafoutis and co-team captain Matthew Wang attended last year’s TARC as members of Math for Service’s Team RADAR.

“After that year, Matthew and I wanted to return for next year’s competition,” Fafoutis said. “It was a great experience the first time, so we wanted to come back and do even better than before.”

Team RADAR earned 38th place in last year’s competition.

This past summer, Fafoutis and Matthew Wang passed out fliers and held interviews to find other Avid Academy students interested in joining their team. By September, they found four other members and began work on their rocket.

MAXx Propulsion qualified for the upcoming challenge by demonstrating for a representative from the National Assn. of Rocketry that their creation could meet the requirements of the competition. The representative scored the team’s performance and the top 100 scores were invited to the national event.

The group will go up against teams from across the United States and three from the United States Virgin Islands at this year’s competition.

During competition, a team’s rocket must launch to exactly 800 feet and return to the ground between 46 to 48 seconds to qualify for the best score.

All teams must place an egg inside the rocket. After their rocket lands, each team will retrieve their egg from the rocket in front of the competition’s judges. If a team finds their egg is broken, they are automatically disqualified.

In addition to the egg’s safety, the engineers must ensure the rockets separate into two halves as they fall back down. As these two pieces separate, parachutes attached to these two halves must release.

Since 2002, the Aerospace Industries Assn. and the National Assn. of Rocketry have sponsored and hosted the TARC competition for students in seventh to 12th grade.

Students from schools, nonprofits or youth clubs can enter a team.

Some students were able to find team mentors from within their schools or organizations.

Bob and Jann Koepke, educational outreach members of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, were the MAXx Propulsion’s mentors. The students met them through the Avid Academy when the couple made various presentations.

The team often met at the Koepkes’ house in Orange to build and modify the rocket. The Koepkes also arranged practice launches in San Diego and Lucerne Dry Lake in San Bernardino County.

Even through the months of work and long drives, the Koepkes said the mentorship experience has been rewarding.

“The world needs engineers,” Bob Koepke said. “This kind of learning really encourages and excites young people to go into engineering. It’s more hands-on than just being in the classroom.”

As MAXx Propulsion prepares to travel to TARC, their feelings of excitement are stronger than their nerves.

“We’ll get to meet people from all over the country and see what they built,” Matthew Wang said. “They all care about engineering and rockets as much as we do.”