Model Rockets are essentially
cardboard tubes stylized after the larger, space-faring
rockets. You can either build your own or purchase fairly inexpensive
model building kits, such as the
ALPHA III.
The model has several basic
parts: the body is a cylinder usually made of cardboard or plastic. At the base it has
fins (usually three, pointing out at even intervals from the body), and it has a nosecone (usually styrofoam or plastic) at the other (top) end. There is also a device to attach it to the launch rod, like a piece of drinking straw or some fancy plastic
loops, on the outside.
Inside the body is a parachute, a space for the
rocket engine, and some kind of
buffer between them.
To
launch the rocket, you take the launch pad (basicaly a stand of some kind with a metal
blast plate at the base and a guidance rod sticking upward), and insert a rocket engine into the tail of your model rocket. You insert an ignition wire into the rocket engine, and slide the rocket down the guidance
rod. Then you stand back, and press a
button that completes a circuit with the ignition wire. It rapidly heats up and ignites the
solid fuel in your rocket, hurling it skyward.
Once the fuel is expended, a small
blast in the top of the engine explodes, forcing the nosecone off and the parachute out. The
parachute then expands and brings your rocket
slowly back to earth.
In
theory, this all works very well. However, a lot of
things can go wrong. Ignition wires frequently don't work properly, but this is a fairly minor concern. More often you have problems like the parachute
ripping off, your rocket being carried
thousands of feet away by
high altitude winds, slight imperfections in the
tail fins causing it to take a sharply curving trajectory and
smash into the ground, the parachute not deploying, the whole rocket blowing up because the parachute deployment blast went wrong somehow, etc., etc.
That's the whole
fun of them, though.
Nodeshell Rescue