Rocket Activity: Heavy Lifting

Students construct balloon-powered rockets to launch the greatest payload possible to the classroom ceiling. Student teams receive identical parts with which they construct their rockets. Drinking straws guide balloon rockets up strings suspended from the ceiling. Teams compete to launch the greatest number of paper clips to "space" (the ceiling).

• Prepare your classroom by setting up “launch pads” consisting of pieces of fishing line or string suspended from the ceiling (one line per team of students). If your classroom has a suspended ceiling, use binder clips or clothespins and attach them to the metal frame supporting the ceiling tiles. Tie the fishing line to the clip or pins. Make sure the line is long enough to reach the floor. Provide open working space around each launch pad.
• Explain how the straw is used for guiding the rockets. The fishing line or string is fed through the straw and one or more balloons are attached to it with masking tape. When the balloon is released, the straw will ride up the line. Stress that it is very important for students to hold the lower end of the line to the floor. If there is slack in the line or if the lower end of the line is free, the rocket will waffle about and not reach the ceiling.
• If you have balloon pumps, demonstrate how they are used to inflate the balloons.
• Avoid providing too much information for the students. This is an exercise in creativity, skill, and problem solving. Simply explain the activity, how to use the straws for stability, and tell them that they can use any or all of the parts in their supply kits to build and fly their rockets.The supply kits contain three balloons. Remind students that they only get three balloons.

NASA’s Artemis program will return humans to the Moon by sending the first woman and the first person of color to the lunar surface. A foundational piece of the program is NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, a rocket that will allow for human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit. SLS will be used in the Artemis program for a series of uncrewed and crewed missions, eventually carrying astronauts to the Moon during the Artemis III mission. NASA plans to continue sending missions to the Moon about once a year after that while also using SLS to launch robotic scientific missions to places like the Moon, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter.

For more information about the SLS program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html

• Why is NASA supportive of commercial space companies? NASA’s space efforts are aimed at expanding our horizons in space. Although their space rockets are easily capable of launching communications, weather, and Earth resources satellites, NASA continually looks beyond. NASA explores, and when it pioneers a new technology, it seeks to turn over continued development to U.S.commercial interests. That way, NASA can focus on and advance to the next new horizon. NASA’s current new horizons include the first permanent bases on the moon and the first human expeditions to Mars. These are demanding challenges. When they are met, commercial space companies will follow, permitting NASA to move on to even greater challenges.
• Why is it important to construct efficient heavy-lift vehicles? Traveling into space is a very difficult and expensive endeavor. Huge rockets and tremendous amounts of propellants are required to accomplish the job. With some rockets, launch costs were approximately $20,000 per kilogram of payload delivered into Earth orbit. If that cost were to continue, imagine staying at a space hotel where it would cost about $10,000 for a half liter bottle of drinking water! Improving heavy-lift rockets(lighter rocket structures, more propellant efficient engines, etc.) will enable us to accomplish much more in space at far more reasonable costs!

• Have each team describe their design to the class:
• How many balloons did they use?
• How many paper clips did their rocket carry to the ceiling?
• How did they attach the paperclips to the balloon?
• What problems did they encounter?
• How did they solve those problems?
• Write a summary of your launch vehicle using correct science and technology terms (e.g.,lift, payload, mass, thrust).
• Refer to the engineering rubric.

• Challenge students to design a two-stage rocket. The lower balloon “fires” before the upper balloon. The upper balloon carries the payload to the ceiling.