Local child’s science experiment collects flight data

Alden Finlott, 12, did something that not many people people can say they have done.

He collected flight data from a model rocket flight.

“We made a little circuitry board thing with the battery and a microcontroller, and those sorts of things and we put that in a foam canister and then put that on top of the rocket and just launched it,” Alden said.

Using an Arduino microcomputer and a 3-axis accelerometer to record flight data on an SD card, the system took 2,500 measurements in less than 10 seconds.

But like any good science experiment, it took trial and error to get just right. In one attempt, weakened glue caused the rocket to break up into two pieces when the parachute was supposed to be deployed.

“Both ends came in at like the highest speed they could and one of them fell in a field where we launched and the other one fell into the parking lot,” Alden said. “Sadly, the one that fell in the parking lot was the one with the circuitry inside but luckily none of it was broken.”

After replacing the SD card that got damaged, Alden was right back to work. He learned how to solder and even taught himself how to program in C. Vince Gutschick, his teacher who led the rocketry class at Las Cruces Academy, where Alden is a student, said that Alden has had an interest in rockets for quite some time.

“He and I launched a rocket when he was in kindergarten and then he came in with his parents, who watched the launch, and he went up to the black board and started explaining rockets,” Gutschick said. “He’s really bright.”

Gutschick said that he helped guide Alden in building this data recording system as Alden bounced ideas off him but said Alden did most of the work.

“He built it all himself,” Gutschick said. “He knew how to debug the whole program so he would test it right here on the desk or something like that. Then finally, it was ready to go.”

On the third flight, everything worked according to the plan. When asked what he felt when the launch worked, Alden kept it simple:

“Euphoria.”

“You should have seen him running,” Gutschick said.

Once collecting the intact rocket and SD card, Alden and Gutschick plugged it into the computer to read the data on one of the school’s Chromebooks.

“He sees the data and oh, it’s beautiful,” Gutschick said. “Three axis accelerometer so you can tell which way everything’s going. Every millisecond.”

Although, the flight did have its tense moments.

It was really, really fun,” Alden recalled. “The rocket launched, it went up and there was a building, and I aimed it out into the field but the wind was blowing it back as it was going down I was terrified that it would land on the roof of that building but it didn’t and I was just super pleased about that.”

After looking through the data, Alden found out the rocket went 102 feet in the air and recorded 2 g’s. Alden said that the accelerometer only recorded up to 2 g’s so he thinks the g’s were much higher than that.

As for any future plans, Alden said that he is not exactly sure of what he wants to do for a career but he wants to keep exploring his passion for rockets and electronics.

“What I usually say when people ask me that, because that’s what parents do all the time, I just say ‘I don’t really know,’” Alden said. “I definitely want to do stuff related to technology and science.”

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misspelled Alden’s last name. It has been corrected.