Their story, in their words…
We initially set out to get all the required materials for the rocket. We started with thePVC pipe by trimming it about 13 inches with a tenon saw and filed it even. We then proceeded to make our parachute. The first one we made was too small for the sizeof the rocket so we adjusted it to be larger. Once we made our second parachute, we realised it was too large to fit within the rocket tip. Our final parachute was 16 x 16inches and was able to fit within our rocket tip.
We made two rocket tips after making our second parachute to keep options open in case we needed a bigger tip.We cut out the tips and stuck them at the base of the pipe. We attached the elastic band to the strings wrapped at the corners of the parachute and then connected it to the base of the tip. We even painted the rocket to make it look more proper. We overcame many challenges such as getting the right type of material for the rocket tip as the previous one we bought was too fragile and cracked easily when we shaped it. We even had to make a separate prototype for the rocket tip due to the size of the parachute.
In the original plan, we were supposed to use cardboard for the fins but we used styrofoam as it was easily accessible. Our first rocket take-off did not go as planned. One of our rocket motors did not ignite causing it to tilt whilst in air and landing sideways. We came up with a way to prevent this from happening again and that was to reduce weight on the tip by removing the parachute and shortening the actual rocket tip. This will result the rocket shooting upwards, perpendicular to the ground
At the start, we struggled with all the steps but as we went along, we came up with easy and attainable solutions that worked out well. We gained the experience of independently working by ourselves yet helping one another to construct something practical. Overall, we believe we achieved valuable skills such as communication, and even learnt to come up with solutions that were much more innovative compared to our plan.
