Technical and educational improvements of the Student Rocket Program at NAROM and Andøya Rocket Range

Norwegian Centre for Space-Related Education (NAROM) is co-located with Andøya Rocket Range (ARR) and was established in 2000 as a field station for space-related education. The Student Rocket Program (SRP) was introduced to give the students hands-on experience and a comprehensive introduction to an ordinary scientific rocket launch. NAROM and ARR have since 1998 developed and launched more than 30 student rockets. Since summer 2005 the SRP has been significantly improved with a more powerful rocket motor and a new telemetry system. With these technical improvements, NAROM can introduce new challenges for the students concerning rocket technique, instrumentation, telemetry and data processing. It has also opened possibilities for new pedagogical improvements in terms of a larger curriculum, more use of the ARR infrastructure and making the SRP more adapted to the different participants' qualifications and background. But even though the SRP has been significantly improved during the last years, the program still is in continuously development, making the SRP at NAROM and ARR a unique educational activity for students at different levels of education.