Aerospace Engineering

Ram Pillai - AE 2A - Liberty High School

1. What did you learn?

   1. Fly by wire is a topic that I've heard about before, but I've never fully dived into it. I already knew its benefits, but I learned about its history and future advancements that will take this technology to the next level.

2. What was the most challenging?

   1. Researching the future advancements was definitely the hardest part, as information about it is limited and spread out across many different sources.

3. What would you do different?

   1. I'd like to spend some more time researching the future advancements to expand on that section more, as I found it the most interesting and I'd love to learn more about it.

Ram Pillai - AE 2A - Liberty High School

1. What did you learn?

   1. I learned a lot about how to construct a glider, optimal designs, and small things that improve its flight perfomance.

2. What was the most challenging?

   1. Changing the design every time we flew to see how we could improve the performance.

3. What would you do different?

   1. Next time, I'd like to add performance pics to the presentation, and talk about trail edge taper and glue fillets. I'd also like to refine our design more to get it to have better performance.

Ram Pillai - AE 2A - Liberty High School

1. What did you learn?

   1. I learned about what the musculoskeletal system is and how its affected by microgravity versus on earth. 

2. What was the most challenging?

   1. Finding what research is being done to improve this system's resistance to microgravity and prevent harm. This was because the information on this is less accessible than the other sections. 

3. What would you do different?

   1. Next time, I'd like to spend some more time research about new technologies used to help astronauts train this system, as I think its an important part of future research and adds to the section in an interesting way.

Ram Pillai - AE 2A - Liberty High School

1. What did you learn?

   1. This was my first time building a model rocket, and I learnt a lot about how the process for that works and how model rocket engines work and how they are designated.

2. What was the most challenging?

   1. Buiilding the rocket was definitely the most challenging part as we made a few mistakes during it that made the launching more difficult. 

3. What would you do different?

   1. Next time, I'd like to build the rocket in a more time efficient manner and make fewer mistakes while making it. 

Ram Pillai - AE 2A - Liberty High School

1. What did you learn?

   1. I learned about the relative scale of objects in our solar system and universe, and how to calculate their size and weight.

2. What was the most challenging?

   1. Some of the unit conversions were difficult to do and keep track of, and this led to some mistakes in my calculations.

3. What would you do different?

   1. Next time, I'd like to use dimensional analysis to keep track of units better and help my calculation accuracy.

Ram Pillai - AE 2A - Liberty High School

1. What did you learn?

   1. This was my first time experiencing a model rocket engine combustion, so I really enjoyed that. I also learned a lot about the Estes engines and their information about their various engines.

2. What was the most challenging?

   1. Doing the average thrust calculations and identifying which graph was which engine, as I didn't have practice on it before this assignment. 

3. What would you do different?

   1. Next time, I'd like to redo my calculations on the average thrust, as I got my numbers wrong. I'd also like to have a bit more practice identifying the different graphs and nomenclature/designations, as I think it would help with my final exam.