Founder hopes Timmins is rocketry competition's forever home

An annual competition is competition is showing local students that the stars are the limit. 

Launch Canada's rocketry conference and competition is setting up in Timmins from Aug. 17-23. This weekend, teams will be at the Archie Dillon Sportsplex putting the finishing touches on their entries and hearing from industry experts before launching their rockets next week. 

The competition started three years ago in Cochrane and quickly outgrew the space.

Being back in Timmins for the second consecutive year, founder and president Adam Trumpour hopes they've found their forever home.

For the competition, teams from across the country enter a rocket in either the basic or advanced category. There is also a technology development challenge, which Trumpour says is a "science fair approach" that allows teams to showcase specific parts ot a rocket they've developed.

Next week, when the rockets are launched on a remote logging road on Highway 144, it will be the culmination of months of planning and building their entries.

"This is where they're going to be coming together and actually putting all of their work to the test," said Trumpour.

There are many reasons why Timmins is the perfect spot for Launch Canada. 

It's away from dense populations — so when a rocket comes down, it's not landing on someone's home.

"We also need to make sure that we're well clear of major air traffic routes, because pilots get unhappy when fast-moving things come flying at them,” he said. 

There's also amenities available that teams may need for last minute additions to their entries, and access to compressed gasses like liquid oxygen or nitrous oxide.

“We've got teams coming a long way, but Northern Ontario is relatively central for this, and we also see that the highest concentration of student teams tends to be in the Ontario and Quebec area. So it's actually pretty convenient for for many of the teams as well,” he said.

Timmins is on the traditional territory of Mattagami First Nation and the launches are happening just down the road from the community. 

As part of the outreach programs this year, volunteers were in Timmins and Mattagami last weekend for rocket-build days.

“The event is a great space to showcase to the youth of Mattagami and the people of Mattagami that there are so many more industries to explore out there. And it's great to get the youth up to show them that there's the stars are really the limit, not the sky. I's been a great way to showcase that to our students,” said Brandy DeBastos, who works with Mattagami AKI.

Once participants are at the launch site, she said the youth council is serving Indian tacos one day to participants. 

For students from big cities, Trumpour said there are limited opportunities to interact with northern and Indigenous communities. The event has become a chance to build connections, share passions and learn about each other, he said.

Final countdown

Abigail Lee's trip north will be the last with the Queen's Rocketry Team, which she's the president of. 

She just graduated from the Kingston university's mechanical engineering program. She's spent the summer working at Queen's and in September is heading to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to pursue her master's degree in aerospace engineering. 

This will be her third trip north for the competition, which she says is her favourite. 

“I'm excited to see how we do, and I just honestly want to have fun with it ... It's just the community that I want to end off on,” she said.

Until Launch Canada set up, students were heading south of the border to compete. 

At her first competition in the United States, Lee said she was lost and confused. Overall, it felt "cutthroat".

That summer, she went to Cochrane for Launch Canada's inaugural event.

"And immediately teams were helping each other, like, I'm having an antenna issue — does anyone know how to fix this? And it became about, can we launch everybody's rocket? (And it's) who designed theirs the best, because that's who should win, not who was able to scramble in five days and launch," she said.

"It was really the sense of camaraderie, where we were all in the same hotel ... and we were just helping each other, constantly celebrating each other's wins like we would clap when people are going out to the launch pad. And that just wasn't something, with a sense of community you didn't get at the other competition, and I think is because we're Canadian, and it's so amazing."

Taking in the events

The rocketry and STEAM conference run on Saturday, Aug. 17 and Sunday, Aug. 18 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Archie Dillon Sportsplex on Theriault Boulevard. 

To get there, you have to drive in from the south (the Vimy intersection at École secondaire catholique Theriault). The City of Timmins says to go past the no thru traffic signs to get to the arena parking lot.

Entrance to the family-friendly event is free and you can see the rockets up close and connect with engineers. There is also a hands-on opportunity to build and decorate your own rocket, which can be safely launched after the conference closes at 5:30 p.m. outside the venue.

For the launches, there will be a live steam on Launch Canada's YouTube channel.