Design, build and launch a one stage rocket to deploy and capture sample of air.

Blow Rocket

A blow rocket works by converting the force of your breath into thrust for the rocket. When you blow air through the straw, the fast-moving stream of air rushes out the hole at the bottom of the rocket, creating high pressure inside the body and pushing air downward. According to Newton’s Third Law, this downward push produces an equal and opposite reaction force that propels the rocket upward. As the rocket lifts off, it must overcome the gravity which is pulling it down and air resistance (drag) slowing it. From this experiment, we took away that directing airflow efficiently and minimizing weight are key to maximizing thrust and achieving higher launches, which we can apply to improve the design and performance of our final rocket.

Stomp Rocket

A stomp rocket is very similar to the blow rocket in regards to the energy source. However, the instead of the power from your mouth, the stomp rocket launches by turning the force of your foot into thrust. When you stomp on the air bladder, it forces a burst of air through the tube and into the rocket, creating high pressure that pushes air out the bottom. This downward blast produces an upward reaction force that propels the rocket into the air. From this, we see how strong, quick bursts of air and a super lightweight design help achieve higher launches. These are all insights we can use to improve our final rocket.

Understanding Center of Gravity

DATA COLLECTION

Foam Plane

Rubber band powered propeller planes with a balsa wood rod work by storing and converting energy in a simple yet complicated process. When you wind the propeller by hand, you twist the rubber band inside, storing potential energy. Releasing the propeller lets the rubber band quickly unwind, transforming that stored energy into kinetic energy which creates the mechanical motion that spins the propeller. The spinning blades push air backward, generating thrust that propels the plane forward. As the plane moves ahead, air flows over the wings to create lift, allowing the aircraft to take flight.

IQMOL/Global Warming

First Rocket Prototype

Our first rocket prototype was created from paper, tape, and different thicknesses of balse wood. For our nose, we sanded down a thick piece of balsa wood into a long, cone shape. Additionally, we wrapped a paper around the cylindrical engine and taped the outside of it to create our base. We really wanted to create a lightweight, but sturdy base by doing this. Our fins were constructed on a thin sheet of balsa wood as well as shaped by the sand machine we had access to to max out how aerodynamic our rocket was.

Final Rocket Prototype

Using all of the information we found out from our first launch, here were the key takeaways for our second and final version of our rocket:

1. Create a thicker base for our rocket so that it does not become bent and destroyed on impact.

2. Create a smaller parachute with a way smaller area so that it does not get stuck in the body of the rocket and not deploy on the way down.

As you can see, our rocket definitely held up way better after the launch and survived the impact of the ground. One flaw during our final launch was that it came up short and did not reach the same altitude as our first launch. We believe this is because we added more tape to the base of our rocket to make it more sturdy. However, by doing this we added to much weight and the rocket was not able to reach the same height as our first launch.

Video of Final launch

Reflection/Reason for Failure:

We were able to mechanically connect the robot to the controller which allowed us to pick up the testing strip. However, we were not able to code the VexIQ robot in time which is why we could not detect the color on our testing strip. The main reason for this being that we worked way to slow and did not divide up our tasks evenly and efficiently among team members. If we were to re-do this project again we would make this one of our top priorities and complete the code on time.

The Team

Rozzi, Andy, Jackie, Dionysis, Lennie

Summary