11

Build your first rocket

FEATURE

e couldn’t turn up to the

event empty‑handed, so in

the week before, I set about

building my own rocket to

take to the event.

There are lots of ways to

build a rocket, but by far the best option for beginners

is to use a kit. This way, you don’t have to worry about

things like the centre of pressure or the structural

integrity. You just have to put the bits together and,

once you’ve gained the experience of getting this

working properly, you can progress to custom designs,

should you wish.

There’s a wide variety of model rocket kits available,

but almost all of them follow the same basic design

• cardboard tube for the body, balsa wood fins at the
  bottom, and a plastic nose cone on the top.
  We built and flew two kits: the Wizard and the Baby
  Bertha, both from Estes (estesrockets.com). While
  they aren’t hard to put together, they’re not completely
  trivial. The most complex part is attaching the fins to
  the body. Use the paper guide to mark the appropriate
  place on the tube, and then hold it in place while you
  glue the fins on. Once this is done, you attach a piece
  of elastic to the nose cone and the main rocket body.
  A parachute or streamer attaches to the nose cone
  and, once the main engine has finished burning, it
  ignites a second charge that pops the nose cone out,
  and this deploys the parachute. As the Wizard is a
  narrower rocket, there’s no space for a parachute –
  instead, it uses a streamer, which is enough to slow it
  down to a safe speed.
  We had both kits built, painted, and adorned with our
  logo in three hours, and most of that was waiting for
  the glue to dry so we could paint it.

READY FOR LAUNCH

Paul Carter, the Chairman of Midland Rocketry and

RSO of Midland Sky, gives my rockets a look-over.

The first test is to make sure the nose cones are held

in place. They friction-fit into the body tube – too tight

and they don’t pop out, too loose and they can slip

during flight. He determines that they’re too loose. A

couple of strips of electrical tape make the nose cone a

little wider and it then fits securely in the rocket.

The Wizard kit also doesn’t secure the motor, so

Paul suggests another strip of electrical tape to ensure

it doesn’t fall out once it’s finished burning.

W

Start simple and then develop your skills

ROCKET

Below

Setting Starship

HackSpace mag on

the launch platform

Our First