The $5 Rocket challenge

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...

Have you'all heard about a new video challenge that's sweeping the hobby?  It seems like a natural for the Thrifty Rocketeer to jump on.  But let's talk about this a little.

The video was shared on Facebook but is posted on YouTube as the 5-Dollar Rocket Challenge.



The basic idea is that you and your friends each put up five dollars and make a run to the nearest dollar store.    You're building a rocket from scratch, using only the cheap supplies that you can find at the Dollar Store. You each can buy anything you like, but the total must be under five dollars.

Now, there are no restrictions on how many fins, launch lugs, recovery system or tubes are involved.



A pre-package of Estes Motors (C's or D's) is provided along with a working rocket pad and launch controller. Various glues are provided, but the catch is you must build and complete within one hour.

In a sense, this is a party game among equally matched rocket friends... and though the rockets should be safe, the intent is to have them fly...and so, there may be a few NAR Safety rules that are stretched.

In the video I have seen, one built a traditional rocket with four fins and a nosecone.  One did a short, squat fat boy with over-sized fins and bubble nosecone.  And one enterprising soul used two plastic rulers to make a pop-out copter recovery.

Needless to say, none of the three had a perfect flight, and one was basically unstable, while two others had difficulties with their recovery systems.

But the creativity and novel approaches were impressive.  They even attempted to sim their rockets via Open Rocket.... (something that I've never done)... determining that their CG and CP were appropriately spaced.

Now, this challenge has sparked a fair amount of discussion among the rocketeer community... from outright condemnation on one end, to praise for creative thinking on the other.  But a number of people have pointed out the Safety Code violations inherent, and criticized it for giving Rocketry a bad image.

Really?  Like Rocketry hasn't ALWAYS had a bad PR image from the first failed Redstone rockets that exploded on the pad?

I'd like to think that I'm somewhere in the middle, and look at the positive side of the challenge.  It exposes the hobby, shows that you CAN get into it for cheap, and points out some of the concerns and risks involved.  And the use of Estes motors indicates that these guys knew what they were doing. They knew about Open Rocket and CG/CP and what they needed to accomplish.

So I don't really see a down side to this challenge.  

In fact, a number of guys in my high power rocket club are interested in trying their hand at this challenge.  Except for the fact that we may not be able to all get together to watch the hour-long build session (minus any glue drying),  this sounds like a nice bonding activity (no pun intended).

What are your thoughts on this challenge?  Fun or foolish?  Leave your comment below.

https://youtu.be/voHQ0a1q_JE


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