Prototype 1:
Items needed –
- 2 bottles (2L bottles of coke were used)
- a sheet of corrugated plastic (roughly half a metre in area 0.5m^2)
- Hot glue
- 1 tub of play-doh (113g in one tub)
The initial prototype we had made was one without the nose cone just to test how the rocket would fly without one whilst the fins were simply cut in order to hold the rocket up right. We found that using this design the rocket did not travel as far as we wanted and it had leaked on many occasions due to it not being securely sealed. We had enjoyed using this rocket but found it was very unreliable and not efficient. We did find that filling the tip with heavy play-doh gave the rocket a more accurate ascent though it landed cap first everytime.
Prototype 2:
Items needed:
- 1 Water bottle ( 2L Coke bottle was used)
- White card (roughly A4 piece was used)
- 1 piece of A4 paper
- Sticky tape (around 40cm)
This prototype design was alot more simplistic but had incorporated the nose cone meaning it travelled further however, due to it’s smaller size it did not fly as long as we wanted though it seemed reliable and easy to make. As the fins were made from card they felt more sturdy however, the nose cone had to be bent so we used plain paper and that made it more weak. We upgraded from the previous one by making the rocket smaller and more mobile losing the force the previous one had for the control and accuracy of this one.
Prototype 3:
Items needed:
- 1 water bottle (2L Coke bottle was used)
- Cardboard (roughly an A4 amount)
- Sticky tape ( Around 20cm)
The third prototype had the most successful launch but was not durable and had broken after the second launch meaning it was not reliable due to the pointy nose cone. This design was put together with sticky tape and if we were to make it again we would probably use hot glue on the rocket to keep it sturdy. The third prototype was an attempt to make the cone stronger but it failed and we were left with a great rocket which had a weak nose cone and we knew that the rocket was perfect we just had to make the nose cone out of PVC.