Rocket Science Workshop
Workshop | 2017
Space, the final frontier, has fascinated humankind ever since we started to stare at the sky. Already half a century ago NASA's Apollo program brought people to the Moon and the next generation rocket scientists are eager to make space flight mainstream. Niklas and I also wanted to take part in the space race by building water rockets out of plastic bottles. Junior Lab's summer edition at the Werkraum Schöpflin provided the perfect setting for the Rocket Science Workshop, where we built with children such rockets powered by compressed air and H2O. During three days we built and launched altogether 12 rockets, which was a perfect activity for sunny days in Lörrach, Southern Germany.
Designing rockets
In the beginning of the workshop, before building the rockets, we looked into the achievements of the space pioneers. Everyone seemed to be familiar with Laika, the famous Soviet space dog who orbited the Earth and tragically sacrificed her life for science. The massive Saturn V rocket also provided insights to rocket architecture and propulsion mechanisms. It became clear that in addition to the 1.5 litres plastic bottles we needed a long body, a nose cone and sturdy fins. Styling the rockets was also essential for recognising into which suborbital program they belonged to. Saturn, USSR, Chaos 1 and Tuttifrutti Rainbow were some of the names chosen by the participants.
Countdown
Once the spacecrafts were ready, we headed to the meadow opposite to Werkraum and set up a control camp for the launches. In the extreme temperature circumstances of 30 degrees Celsius four teams worked seamlessly and persistently. Launch Team set up the bicycle pump and ensured H2O supply, two Altitude Measurement Teams prepared the barometric and optical equipment and Video Team made three cameras ready for multi-perspective recordings. With each countdown the hot air vibrated with excitement and the beautiful sight of a vertically shooting, self-built rocket made everyone scream woooooow!
See also:
Thank you!
Special thanks to Werkraum Schöpflin for helping us during the three sweaty days: for David and Tobi for helping with the workshops and for Vera and colleagues for providing us with plastic bottles, fresh drinks, food and a great space to work in.