Not really sure where to post this, but here seemed as good a place as any:

In craftsmanship events, there's almost always a set of points designated as "mission points," for performing various scale-like operations/staging/clustering/etc on the competitor's model. I was wondering how exactly the judges determine how many points a rocket will get for performing various tasks; is there a set table of guidelines for certain things (+XX for electronic payload/RC, +XX for separable payloads/landers/gliders, +XX per motor in a cluster, +XX per extra staging, etc.), or is it entirely up to the judges. In the latter case, how then would one design a rocket to maximize mission points if they didn't know the criteria they would be evaluated on?

I'm currently trying to work out exactly how much I can (and should) cram into my peanut model for NARAM this year.

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David Hash
NAR#77967
http://www.Semroc.com

And if I may add, on a not-entirely-completely-unrelated note:

Does anyone know where to find the event list for the 2010 World Spacemodeling Championships? I was snooping around on the FAI's website a few weeks ago and could find no mention of it, a quick Google search didn't seem to turn up anything (but I only scanned over the first page), and the pages on the NARAM website concerning tryouts and events are still under construction.

Thanks.

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David Hash
NAR#77967
http://www.Semroc.com

David, great question! Go to:

http://www.nar.org/pinkbook/53_SPSC.html

Scroll down to Rule 53.13 Flight Characteristics and you'll see how "mission points" are given. Hope this helps.

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Dave, NAR # 21853 SR.

Let me add something here, and I'm sure Bob will jump in here too since he's a BTC.....

Although not specifically listed in section 53.13, I believe a lot of times points are awarded using the criteria in section 54.6.1 which adds points based upon stages and clusters.


Your question is a very relevant one and one similar to something being debated currently on the yahoo group contestroc. The argument there is over what constitutes Scale and SciFi/Future scale. The key word seems to be the word "built". If it has been seriously proposed but unbuilt, it is SciFi/Future scale (as worded in section 56, Science Fiction and Future Scale Competition). Some are arguing that it can be built but not flown and still be SciFi/Future scale. Me, I look at it as some one new to competition and too ignorant to read anything into it. Simply, what the rules say is how it is. How is someone new to competition going to know any better?

Now with that said, obviously, a model that clusters and has stages should recieve more points than one that doesn't because it's harder to successfully stage and cluster a model than to just fly a single stager, single engine. But again, it's hard to build for an event if you don't know how it's going to be judged. The criteria in section 54 (bonus points for stages and clusters), if used in the other scale events, should be listed for those events also. And, the scale judging sheet listed on the NAR site doesn't mention awarding points for staging or clusters. Now, Bob, provide us your wisdom please.

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Don
NAR 53455
"Carpe Diem"

I have a copy of the judging sheet somewhere (not in front of me) but I do recall this sheet has specific set of "mission points" as it relates to whatever "extras" the presented model
has or demonstrates, as spelled out by the model's builder in his/her data packet. If I can find my copy, I'll put the details here (unless someone "beats" me to it).

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Dave, NAR # 21853 SR.

Thanks,
Yep, I had been going my the Pink book sheet originally, but just the general "200 points awarded for ___, ___, ___, etc." wasn't quite giving me enough to plan by. If you could find that scoring sheet, that would be really nice; things like whether it'd be more effective to plan for a 2 stage rocket, or instead devote internal space to having a giant cluster arrangement, or a chaff bay.

Again, thank you very much for the help.

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David Hash
NAR#77967
http://www.Semroc.com