Poll of the Week: Steely-eyed Rocket Persons

By Jim Gerard, NASA INSPIRE Education Specialist, KSC, FL

Ask people what NASA does and you're sure to get an answer like "launch rockets" (or some variant).  Indeed, launching rockets allows NASA to send people and payloads to space - it is a means rather than the end.  This weeks Poll asked Online Learning Community members whether they have built and launched a rocket.  Specifically a model rocket.  Being a model does not make them less a technological device than the boosters used by NASA and the military - they are models in size, but not in function.  As a matter of fact, the typical model rocket has the exact same launch profile as the NASA rockets.  Compare these sketches of a model rocket and NASA's first manned spaceflight:

Model Rocket Flight Profile

Mercury-Redstone Flight Profile

It appears the majority of OLC has had a chance to build an launch a rocket.  Rockets of every kind, as well.  Here is what some had to say on the Discussion Board:

I've launched many a rocket. I have used nice cardboard one tht I made at USSRC and it almost landed on the roof of my brother's school when I used a C Estes engine (I was launching in the parking lot of his school. It was great.) When I lauched  Two-stage rocket, its nose got buried in the ground (launched at USSRC). :/

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I launch rockets every chance I get. Most I design myself, but I also have launched common bottle rockets and store bought make it yourself rocket kits, though those aren't as much fun. My favorite rocket launch though was last summer when I launched a water rocket. (My design). It flew through my brother's open window and exploded, splashing water all over him and his cat at about 7 AM. :D

I also designed and launched an underwater rocket by using an air pump, (above the water surface), to pressurize the air tank and launch the rocket from the bottom of the swimming pool. It got about 15 ft. or so, pretty good for an underwater launch.

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I don't get to do much during the year but every Christmas my uncles, dad, and I all build our own rocket and we go out to the local baseball field and launch them until we either lose them or run out of engines/fuses/batteries for the spark generator.

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I launched a store-bought rocket in 6th grade science class, but my group put the tail fins on backward, so it never flew in the right direction.  We launched it twice before it got stuck in a tree.  I've also launched bottle rockets and paper "air-rockets."

 This week, we look at NASA's new vision statement: "To reach for new heights and reveal the unknown so that what we do and learn will benefit all humankind.".  What do you think of it?  Answer the poll on the home page, then support your decision on the Discussion Board.