Bottle rocket designs full#

Therefore we just left the bottle whole and decided to only glue and tape things onto it and make incisions into the other parts instead. The final choice for us was Irn Bru’s two-litre bottles.įor the pressure chamber, we decided to keep the bottle as intact as possible, without any cuts or holes in it, since this could compromise the stability of the design. The bottles used were meant to be straight-edged, with a large volume and made from fairly solid plastic. Next, we decided to construct the pressure chamber of the rocket to get an idea of scale for the rocket and test some of our theories about the rocket stand. We were thinking about adding stabilizers to the top of the launch platform, but this ended up being unnecessary as the fins on the rocket acted as stabilizers. This also ensured the legs were long enough to fit the head of the bottle and the head of the pump underneath the launch pad surface. We aimed to keep construction simple and produced the stand out of a single plank of wood. It is worth investing in some screws and some L-brackets to make sure the legs of the stand stay at a 90-degree angle and do not cave in under the pressure of the starting rocket. As a material, we decided on wood and initially glued the wood, but I can already say that that was a mistake. Both of these areas can still be improved upon, but the basics have been working well so far.ĭue to the materials we already had on hand we decided to start the build with the construction of the launch pad. And we attempted to include data-collecting sensors. We attempted to make the rocket recoverable by including an electronic parachute release mechanism. The cork sealing the pressure chamber will fly out and the water pressure will propel the rocket forward. The launch itself occurs by pumping air into the sealed, water-filled pressure chamber with a bike pump. The rocket is composed of two bottles, one being the pressure chamber and one the payload chamber. This article is going to be useful for anyone attempting to create their own water bottle rocket, at the end I will compile what has worked and what can be improved upon as a quick overview. The aim is to create a toolkit that makes this type of water bottle rocket build that anyone can recreate anywhere.

Bottle rocket designs full#

A project with full instructions will follow.

In the following, this article will walk through the development and building of the prototype. The aim was to include these aspects by making the rocket both recoverable and using it to measure data. We tried to combine ideas of sustainability and data science in the rocket. There is already a lot of content on water bottle rockets out there, so it was important to us to find a unique take on the concept. The building of the prototype began with planning and compiling ideas from different sources to create our own version of an advanced water bottle rocket with a payload. There are still improvements to be made, but we wanted to share the process and maybe the community on DesignSpark even has ideas in the comments for further improvements. The following article will summarise the build of a prototype for the water bottle rocket. This is happening in collaboration with RS. The Endeavour rocketry society of the University of Edinburgh is working on developing a water bottle rocket for an Outreach project.