*COPY* of MC's LOST SnowWolf Geocoin

Another trip back to the Gold Coast Skydivers dropzone; this time to make a memorial skydive. Last year shortly after competition the high school robotics team I work with experienced an awful tragedy. Omar, one of our team students was lost to us in the waters near Ship Island. Omar was a great kid, was very well liked, was smart, and had quite a sense of humor. He was missed terribly this year. I know I thought about him often as we were meeting, designing and building the robot, and competing. In honor of Omar, the team tee shirts we wore to competition were made in his favorite color. The team selected the phrase "Fly High Omar" and had it printed on the tee shirt sleeve, as well as on wrist bands and pens that we handed out at the competition.

Now that the competition season is over, in keeping with the "Fly High Omar" theme, I decided to make a skydive in honor of Omar's memory. I wore the team tee shirt and the team wrist band, drove to the Gold Coast Skydivers drop zone in Lumberton, went up to 14,500 feet, and jumped. This was just my way of acknowledging a great kid who was taken from us much too soon.

Fly High, Omar! You are missed.
Blue skies!
Model Citizen - Zero Discipline

During breaks between matches at the robotic competition I had time to go out and do some quick geocaching. I hadn't realized how beautiful Huntsville is. There was a large park, and a stream running through the city with lots of pools and fountains. Wish I could have spent more time here.

Blue skies!
Model Citizen - Zero Discipline

Team Hero, team number 2190 from Petal High School in Petal Mississippi, competed in the Rocket City Regional of the FIRST Robotics Competition in Huntsville, Alabama Thursday through Saturday. "FIRST" stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology" and is a high school robotics program started around twelve years ago by Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, to foster interest in science, technology, and engineering in kids. Sam and I have been mentors with the Petal High School team for ten years now. Sam and I are electrical engineers, but we had Darren, William, and Andy helping out with mechanical design and construction this year.

Every year early in January the FIRST organization reveals what the competition will be for the year. Each year has different goals, rules, and challenges. Once the game is revealed the schools have just six weeks to design, build, and program their robot to meet the challenges within the financial, size, and weight restrictions set forth in the rules.

This year's game was very interesting. It was a medieval theme. At each end of a rectangular playing field was a castle tower with high window openings and low door openings. One of the goals of the game was for the robots to pick up grey foam balls ("boulders") and shoot them into the windows and doors of the opponents' castle tower to earn points. Also, near the center of the playing field were two rows of obstacles, or "defenses", that extended all the way across the field. There were several to choose from: drawbridge, portcullis, sallie port (a swing gate), rough terrain, moat, rock wall, low bar, and cheval de frise (three teeter-totters side by side). Each team chose which defenses they wanted to use against their opponent for each match. Teams earned points by successfully crossing the other team's defenses. Each match started with an "autonomous" period when the robots operated on their own according the the computer program that the teams wrote for their robots. After autonomous, the tele-op period started. Students would step up to control stations and control their robots for the remainder of the match. At the end, if the robot could hook onto a bar high up on the opponent's tower and hoist itself two feet off the floor before the match ended, additional points were awarded.

Blue skies!
Model Citizen - Zero Discipline

Time for this geocoin to take a trip over to Huntsville, Alabama to participate in a robotics competition. But since we're going to Huntsville, why not get there early and visit the U.S. Space and Rocket Center at One Tranquility Base and see all the big rockets and space artifacts up close? Well, that's just what we did. I had been here before, but many years ago when my daughters were young. When you're away from them for a while you forget just how massive and powerful these rockets were. I remember watching the Saturn and Apollo launches and the lunar landings on TV with my family when I was a young boy, so it was very special to be reminded of those times and the amazing accomplishments that were achieved.

It's interesting to look at the progression in the rockets on display from the start of the space race until the moon landings and the shuttle missions. The most impressive thing on display though, was the huge Saturn V rocket. They have two full-sized Saturn V rockets on display here. One is a non-functioning full-scale model, but the other one was built identically to the rockets that actually flew into space. It was used for ground testing, and would have flown on the Apollo 19 mission if the Apollo program had continued. The five Rocketdyne F-1 rocket engines on the Saturn V each produced over 1.5 million pounds of thrust when they were fired. Total peak thrust from all five engines together was almost 8 million pounds. Hard to imagine!

Sam (one of the other robot team mentors) and I spent over two hours at the Space Center before going to get some supper and then meeting up with the rest of the robot team. Robot competition starts in the morning. Stay tuned!

Blue skies!
Model Citizen - Zero Discipline

Before this geocoin heads out to travel from cache to cache again, I had to take it to the Gold Coast Skydivers drop zone in Lumberton, Mississippi to initiate it into the world of skydiving. The winds were blowing really hard today so we only got one jump (a wingsuit skydive) before the plane got shut down and put on a weather hold. Now this geocoin has experienced the thrill, beauty, and joy of flight and knows why the birds sing. Next stop, the FIRST Robotics Competition in Huntsville, AL.

Blue skies!
Model Citizen - Zero Discipline