Over the summer, a group of pupils from Oundle School attended space camp in Orlando.
On the first morning, sporting their newly acquired Camp KSC t-shirts, pupils were divided into groups and allocated their tasks for the week.
Pupil, Alexander Asif (14) commented, “Our task for the week was to build a rocket that would carry a payload to a height of 250ft and deliver it back to ground safely. We had a strict budget we had to work to and our rockets had to be carefully designed so that they would fly properly and not destroy the payload of paintballs.”
The pupils eagerly set about designing their rockets using a simulator to map flights. In a small lab they then decided what materials would be needed to build them. They also had to come up with a pitch for their rocket and make a creative design whilst adhering to the financial limitations.
Alexander added, “While we spent most of our time planning and building our rockets we also took part in several other activities, including a simulator that created the feelings of re-entry into the atmosphere, an anti-gravity wall that showed what it was like to be on the outside of the International Space Centre and a large scale simulation of a space shuttle mission. We also received a talk from an astronaut and took part in physical activities outside the hanger we were based in.
Towards the end of the week we launched our rockets and while most were successful my group’s rocket failed to deploy its parachute and nose-dived into the ground! Fortunately our payload survived! At the end of the week we went to Cape Canaveral to receive our graduation from Space Camp awards.”