It Is Rocket Science - A Camping Theme

So what is Rocket Science? A very fine balance between explosion and propulsion? Lots of action under pressure?

During Camping with the Cubs we got 3 type of Rocket activities to play with. The theme of the camp is War of the Worlds, a Martian invasion described only too well by H.G Wells and manipulated so that we can stick in some space stuff and some good old down to Earth science, like good ol' scouts do.

So here are the 3 types of Rockets we have prepared for the young Martians to invade or escape Earth with.

Space Race

This is the activity found in the Instant Scouting magazine (supplement of the scouting magazine) in which balloon rockets are threaded on lines and delivery a payload.

Scouting magazine can be found at http://magazine.scouts.org.uk/ and you can see the relevant issue online here, just pop to page 10!

We will adapt this to have 4 lanes and get some racing competition game going on!

Fizz Rockets

This is the activity we found at the NASA JPL Website [Link to resource]

First I had to find a bunch of old fashioned film canisters. Ask politely at your local independent photographer or developer studio, mention the good cause Scouts use them for and chances are you'll go home with a bag of the stuff.

Then I had a look around our local pharmacy and found some good offers on effervescent Vit-C tubes, orange flavour, each has 20 disks in it! I bough two but one proved to be more than enough!

I made a simple rocket shape as per the instructions, no diagrams, just roll some paper and stick tape to make the fins and the cone nose.

First effort was a comedy flop! Filled up the canister with water and popped a full Vit-C orange drink disk in the canister. A few seconds later it went off with a weak and sad plop. I thought it was funny if not miserable! Then I thought, less water more expansion chamber. So I tried that and it really exploded!

I lost the rocket as it flew somewhere up on the roof, it might be in the chimney! What remained on the floor was the rest of the Vit-C pill still fizzing. So I made another one this time using 1/4 of the pill and it still worked just like the second attempt.

I think a tube of 20 orange effervescent disks should give us 80 goes! What I will prepare is a rocket kit, printed on not too heavy card! Cubs can decorate that before they cut it and make their own rockets.

The rocket engine (film canister), the fuel (fizz disk) and the propellent (water) will be given to them with instructions, see what they make of it!

Water Rocket

I followed one of the many instructions available on the internet but mainly i adapted them to my resources and material. There are literally dozens of instructions out there, but I will describe the one I put together.

The full assembly

I used only 1 length (about 1 meter) of PVC pipe tubing, heated up to make a bulge where the bottle needs to sit water-sealed on the pipe.

The lock and release mechanism

Launch mechanism is based on an arrangement of zip lock ties.

Pump valve from an old bicycle tyre, threaded through a cork at the end of the PVC Pipe.

I added a water stop valve at the top of the tube to stop water entering the system.

This single pipe of a launcher is mounted on a wooden frame for vertical launches.

Lift Off

I tested the launcher many times and it works. I don't have a pump with a pressure gauge on so I went by guess.

For the program, all we need are a few 2lt bottles and some sturdy light material for the fins, I used the polystyrene round base Tesco Pizza comes with, good packaging material excellent fin making material... We also have some old plastic boards that are light, sturdy and easy to cut.

I got a video of the launch and it looks great but I lost the rocket at school next door, I have put an "If Found" note on it I hope they return it.

This is not a problem during Camp as we have a huge field to land on!