Astroblog: Fly me to the Moon

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Fly me to the Moon

You may ask, why, since I got back on Friday, have I not been posting about all the fabulous things that have been happening in space? Well, first there was sleep, and then more sleep (that was one heck of a conference), then finishing of Southern Skywatch and the ABC stuff.

And playing with the kids. First I had to change the batteries on the Ai2 (this is not as eay as it sounds, as you have to dissasemble some sensors to get to the battery compartment). And then we had to build and lauch a rocket.

This is rocket 3 from the DK Ultimate Rocket Kit. It's a three stager, made of foam and paper and powered by air. The top section (with the upper pair of fins) detaches from the middle section (the tube all the way down to the cross hatch), to release a satellite. The top section has a sticky bit on it, so it is supposed to stick to a cardboard Moon you put on the ceiling. Unfortunately, the sticky bit is elastic, and just slides through the prepared hole. Despite this small flaw, these rockets are seriously cool, and not particularly difficult to make.

If you want to keep 4 boys (three small, one big) happy for an afternoon, launching paper rockets is the thing.

# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 8:59 pm