3 Challenges in 1 Week Pt 1

What a week, it saw our future scientists/engineers given 3 challenges, On Target and Boat Challenges 4 & 5.
On Target saw the teams given the task of remotely delivering a payload to a target.  For this challenge each team was provided with 3 m of fishing line, a plastic cup, 2 pieces of cardboard (150 mm x 95 mm), sticky tape, scissors and a marble as the payload.  Build/design time was 30 minutes with a 5 minute post build time for finishing touches.  Each team was then given 2 minutes attachment time and given 2 runs to determine success of their design.

For success the:
The delivery vehicle must travel down a 2 m zip line and the payload must be deployed before the delivery vehicle hits the end of the zip line.  Payload must land in the target area which was a 300 mm x 300 mm zone with an ideal landing zone within the overall target area.
The challenge was a slightly modified one first designed by NASA as part of their engineering challenge and it represents the problems involved with delivering a scientific probe onto a planet.

It was extremely pleasing to see all teams rise to the task and build a variety delivery vehicles, each one had strengths and weakness which would be revealed during their runs.

Team Mike1, Alpha1, Romeo (M1A1R) was launched first:
The boys first run saw a successful deployment of the payload and it over-shot the target area by 20 mm.  The second run again experienced successful deployment and the payload over-shot the inner target area but bounced through the trailing edge of the main target area.  The mother-ship on both runs went into successful orbit (did not hit the end) to deliver its payload.

Team November, Charlie1, Lima1 (NC11L)  launched next:
The first deployment saw the payload deploy up and then straight down clipping the mother-ship as the probe clipped the leading edge of the main target area. The second run saw the payload fail to deploy and remained in the mother-ship.  Neither run saw the mother-ship hit the end of the zip-line.

Team Charlie2, Alpha2, Tango, Mike2 (C2A2TM2) was next down the line:
The girls first run saw their probe over-shoot the target area though it did clip the tailing edge of the main target zone.  The second run saw the probe successfully deployed though this time it hit the leading edge and went off to the left of the primary target area.  The mother-ship on both runs achieved successful orbit (did not hit the end).

Team Delta, Bravo, Mike3, Lima2 (DBM2L2) was the final mission launched:
The first run saw the mother-ship achieve a parking orbit and then subsequent delivery of the probe, the landing of the probe under-shot the target area, however it did bounce onto and off the zone.  The second run saw another successful parking orbit, however a fault in the probe release mechanism saw it fail to open and deploy.

The results for On Target:
Tied 1st - M1A1R & C2A2TM2
Tied 2nd - DBM2L2 & NC1L1