MARC TEAM

Description.  Our Model Aviation and Rocketry Club (MARC) is a fun, STEM-based club, that promotes aviation and rocketry concepts, as well as fosters cadet expertise and skills related to aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and rockets. It offers JROTC cadets with a competitive program that is both mentally and physically, challenging. They partner with Starbase 2.0 to design, build, and launch model rockets. The club also builds smaller rockets, known as Alpha Rockets, to earn their Model Aviation and Rocketry Badge. 

Sponsor: Colonel Zucco

Competing

Through Starbase 2.0, our team competes in a National Competition known as the American Rocketry Challenge (ARC). Each year's competition has a different set of parameters that need to be met. This include, but are not limited to: Number of eggs, minimum and maximum length, target altitude, flight time, descent speed, size of the body tubes, and number of parachutes. Any failure to comply with these parameters may result in your team being disqualified, or having a point penalty. 

The scoring system is similar to golf. The lower the score, the better. For each foot of altitude gone over or under the target altitude, you will receive a point. For every second gone over or under the time frame, you will receive four points. If a broken egg is discovered upon recovery, then the team's rocket will be disqualified. 

Throughout the year, our teams build and test rockets that meet these parameters. As the year progresses, the rockets become more effective at reaching these goals. And, with enough luck, our team can make it to the National Championship, located just outside Washington, D.C. 

Here, outside our nation's capital, 100 teams compete to move on to the International Championships.