Three, Two, One... Student Rockets Launched
20 young Emirati students designed and launched self built model rockets in Dubai as part of a 10-day Go for Orbit! Mars workshop organized by Hamdan Bin Rashid Centre for Giftedness and Creativity.
According to UAE newspaper Khaleej Times students from various schools in Dubai, attended the workshop, where instructors from US-based National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) gave them insights on how to design a system for a safe launch and journey to Mars.
The pupils simulated an actual rocket launch. A video camera and electronics device were installed onto the rocket model to record its flight, and to measure its peak altitude.
Eight-year-old Alya Mohammed AlMarri, youngest in the group, said her hard work for two weeks paid off. She said she is more than inspired to become a rocket scientist and she wants to go to Mars in a rocket that she would build someday.
Some of the rockets measuring more than a metre in length and weighing less than three kilogramme, were propelled into the desert sky, reaching over 500 metres before parachuting back to Earth.
Not all launches were that successful however. Some spiralled out of control, and onto terra firma, shortly after launch as a result of 'technical' and other 'design glitches'.
