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Old 06-03-2011, 05:28 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
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Teleflite's books ("Building Your Own Rocket Motors" and "Amateur Rocket Motor Construction") are concerned with black powder motors. David Sleeter, the owner of the Teleflite Corporation, wrote both books. His sugar rocket pamphlet was called "The Incredible Five Cent Sugar Rocket," and the Microsond 1 rocket plans and instructions were provided with it. "The Incredible Five Cent Sugar Rocket" pamphlet is online here (see: http://balloons.space.edu/ndra/nickle.html and http://www.alphalink.com.au/~brucej/nickle.htm ). Also, speaking of sugar rockets:

An amateur rocketry project group called "Sugar Shot to Space" ("SS2S," see: http://sugarshot.org/ ) is developing a space-capable sounding rocket that is powered by sugar propellant (as they refer to it, "The first amateur rocket with amateur propellant to reach space"), and they have test-flown a large sub-scale test vehicle. The relatively low ISP (specific impulse) of the sugar propellant (which has the advantages of being cheap and relatively safe to prepare and handle) is evidenced by the large size of the space-capable rocket, as is shown in the comparative sizes drawing on their web site.

At the risk of being excommunicated from the NAR and one day finding myself pulling coal wagons in a very warm place, I think building small, home-made sugar rockets of the type covered in "The Incredible Five Cent Sugar Rocket" is a safe and educational activity for individual children and youth groups such as Scout troops, 4-H Clubs, and Industrial Arts classes, as long as it is done under adult supervision. Such an activity teaches children about chemistry, materials, making & using tools, following detailed directions, factory mass production techniques (making multiple motors at one time is covered in the pamphlet), how to organize a workshop for efficient utilization of space and materials, and safety procedures. Equally important (especially in this instant-gratification, short-attention span "twittering-and-texting age"), children who make and use sugar propellant rockets learn patience, the joys of delayed gratification, and the satisfaction of making and flying something that they made from scratch, using their own hands and minds.
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