Designing a LPR rocketry program

Hey guys!

I am the president of the Science Club at my school and on my agenda for election I promised a rocketry program. We currently are building the Estes Viking kits and are looking at launching next week.

I am interested in seeing what you all think would be a good way to help my members progress through the building and design part of the sport. I plan on using the fact that Viking kits could have any number of fins and fin arrangement as an introduction into CP and CG properties of rockets, and move on to building a larger kit. Before the end of the year, I would like the members to design their own rockets and have the opportunity to build them. The goal is to have a TARC team for next year so I am trying to move as quickly as possible, but safety and knowledge is much more important to me than rushing them into something negative.

What path would you recommend me to take here? I plan on locating an adviser for next year, but until then I feel fairly confident I can handle our LPR ventures safely.(We do have adult supervision on all activities however) Budget wise we have plenty of money to work with, but are looking at about 15 members and personally I'd like to leave enough money behind after my senior year for clubs in the future to work with.

We only have until June 15th, what should I try to do with the members by then? This year is more of getting your feet wet type of deal, and we would shift over to MPR next year.

Also- I always feel kinda worried coming on here and asking questions because I feel like it makes me look incompetent and I do not want any one to get the sense that I am not doing everything to keep what we do safe and right. You all really make my research take half the time with your experience and knowledge, so thank you so much for that! I just don't want to come across as some teenager who is going to teach people how to build pipe bombs haha

For safety, follow the NAR safety code and require all your club members to follow it too.

It is better to ask questions and feel foolish than to do something the wrong way and someone gets hurt or something gets damaged. And remember, the real fool is the person who makes fun of you for asking a question when you don't know and you are trying to learn.

YOU INCOMPETENT TEENAGED MAD BOMBER!!!

Okay, now that that's out of the way :tongue: , I have been tinkering with the idea of teaching some kind of rocketry class, myself; although I really don't know if it will ever materialize. But here are my thoughts.

I. Parts of a rocket.
II. Basic stability, demonstrating how CG and CP work together to stabilize the flight.
III. Parts of a rocket motor.
IV. Recovery methods (chutes, streamers, tumble, helicopter, etc.).
V. Intro to launch pads, controllers, and ign-- starters!
VI. Safety code.

OpenRocket could be used to demonstrate I and II, and then once they are familiar with that, they could also use it to design a scratch rocket.

Hope this helps, or at least sparks some ideas.

Safety Code should be Zero and Six ; cover it at least twice.