STEAM 3D Printed Air Rocket Challenge BLAST OFF

Posted on August 7, 2016 by Bill Macy

Alright, it’s the end of summer and your looking for one more really cool thing to tell your classmates about in your “What did you do this summer?” essay. If you like rockets and have access to a 3D printer, may we suggest a 3D Printed Rocket Challenge with a grand nationwide throw down in Chicago, IL during the IMTS Smartforce Student Summit, Sept 12-17. The STEAM Air Rocket Make It! Challenge will be looking for style and performance from 3D printed Rockets.

PS – You don’t have to come to Chicago to participate! Just build and send in your rocket before Sept. 7th to be entered! Contact Us to let us know that we should be expecting your submission!

To prepare, you might want to practice with some simpler air rockets to get a better understand of what makes rockets fly. Using the Rippl3D Air Rocket Challenge, you can quickly design and build rockets that you can test. Track your results and make notes on what worked and equally as important, what didn’t work. For more details see the attached pdf, Rocket Challenge – Overview.

Once you have mastered basic rocket flight, AMP it up and go for your own “googie” style design, see picture below. Use your favorite CAD package, like FUSION 360, to design your own 3D Printed Rocket. Remember, style and performance are important so do your best to Make It! Cool, but also Make It! Fly.

Googie Style Rockets

Here are the performance specifications:

Max of 10 psi launch pressure
Launch angle can be adjusted from 0-90 deg
Rockets must interface with the specified launch tube without any additional support
Challenge will be Max Points
- Scores will be based on points earned by hitting a specified target (stability is important)
Launcher will be ~25ft from the center of the target

Our friends at AirRocketWorks.com have an awesome air launcher that you can purchase and have delivered to your door. Make sure to let them know that you would also like the launch tube that is compatible with the Rippl3D 3D Printed Air Rockets. Or, for the MAKERS out there, their site also provides the DIY plans for an air launcher.

Helpful sites to learn before you design your own rockets!

Here is what our DIY launcher and 3D Printed Rocket looked like! Post a picture to your website and we will link to it. If you don’t have a site, send us your picture and we will post it for you! Contact Us