Stomp Rocket

Creating a Paper Stomp Rocket

Background

The mighty space rockets of today are the result of more than 2,000 years of invention, experimentation and discovery. Rockets have launched spacecraft to every planet in the solar system and even sent humans to the moon. Soon, they will take humans even farther to places such as Mars and beyond.

NASA’s Space Launch System will be the most powerful rocket the agency has ever built. When completed, SLS will enable astronauts to begin their journey to explore destinations far into the solar system. Credit: NASA

Early rocket pioneers created what at the time seemed impossible – rocket-propelled devices for land, sea, air and space. When the scientific principles governing motion were discovered, rockets graduated from toys and novelties to serious devices for commerce, war, travel and research, and made some of the most amazing discoveries of our time possible.

Every space rocket ever built was constructed with a specific mission in mind. The Bumper Project in the 1950s combined a small WAC Corporal rocket with a V2 to test rocket staging, achieve altitude records and carry small payloads for investigating the space environment. The Redstone missile was designed for explosive warheads but later adapted to carrying the first American astronaut into space. The Saturn V was designed to carry astronauts and landing-craft to the moon. It, too, was modified and used to launch the first U.S. space station, Skylab. The space shuttle, perhaps the most versatile rocket ever designed, was nevertheless a payload and laboratory carrier for low-orbit missions and was used in assembly flights to the International Space Station . The myriad potential uses for NASA's future Space Launch System remain to be seen, but plans include carrying robotic spacecraft to places in our solar system that might harbor life, such as Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Titan, and eventually carrying crew in the Orion spacecraft farther into the solar system than ever before – to an asteroid or even Mars.

Learn more about the history of rocketry and the inspirations that ultimately led to humankind's first journeys into outer space here.

Each rocket has a unique design that's dependent on the mission at hand, but they all have a few essential parts: the fuselage, the fins and the nose cone. The fuselage is the main body of the rocket. The fins provide stabilization and are placed symmetrically around the circumference of the fuselage near the tail. And the nose cone is secured to the top of the rocket to aid in aerodynamics by piercing the air.

The stomp rockets in this activity, while simple, can have a surprising amount of variability in the altitude they achieve. By eliminating drag and streamlining their designs, students can make their rockets fly higher. The rockets won't reach Mars, but if designed properly, they can reach more than 50 meters!


Procedures

Build the Rocket:

  1. Roll a piece of 8.5 x 11-inch paper snugly (but not too tightly) around a 24-inch length of 1/2-inch PVC pipe. Optionally, use one of the custom skins.

  2. Tape the paper to itself (but not to the PVC pipe). Use enough tape to completely seal the seam, making the seam airtight. This will be the body, or fuselage, of your rocket.

  3. Slide the fuselage off the PVC form. Verify that the fuselage slips easily from the PVC form so that it will fit on the launch tube later.

  4. Make a nose cone either by pinching one end of the fuselage, folding it over and taping it to the rocket body; or by cutting out a 3/4 circle, rolling it into a cone shape and taping it to the fuselage. Optionally, use the custom nose-cone template. Secure the nose cone using plenty of tape to make the rocket airtight. (Blow through the rocket from the bottom to check for leaks.)

  5. Cut out fins (of any shape) and attach them symmetrically to the lower part of the fuselage (opposite the nose cone), leaving the opening at the bottom of the fuselage open and clear of tape.

  6. Allow students to experiment with the size and shape of their rocket fins. Through repeated flights, students will discover that proportional, firm fins will provide the most stabilization to their rocket and eliminate drag.

  7. Have students color and name their rockets to differentiate them from other rockets in the group.