Water rocket
First year project : English resume


        This project was established by our professors at the beginning of the second semester, just like every first-year in GMP.

We were presented with a document which displayed the project, its overall objectives, the rocket's specifications and the procedures for evaluations.
Later, we received technical documentation which aimed to help us in conceiving the rocket.

We began by designing the rocket prototype, drawing the different outlines of the 1.5L bottles we could find and use – this part was all about aerodynamism, and thinking about the shape of the fins.
Soon enough our very first rocket was ready, with fins made out of cardboard. We were already thinking about making them in aluminium instead, so they would be more robust and water-resistant.

The first launches were successful, but our rocket needed to be improved so it would be more stable, and we would be able to define its trajectory with greater precision.

Our group missed the second launch session because of a lesson we all had to catch up on.
Meanwhile, Lila Lacoste thought about mathematically modeling the rocket trajectory with Scilab, which could also solve all of our differential equations.

Quite some time after this, Nicolas Chanfreau made his own launcher so he could launch the rocket "at home" and gain some time. He also improved the rocket design, and made a second prototype of sorts.
This one was a lot heavier, the fins were attached to a PVC tube, and the weight was homogeneously distributed with steel rings screwed onto the "nose" of the rocket.

The problem was that this rocket was too heavy, and even if it was very stable it couldn't go farther than 8 to 10 meters in distance.
On the second-to-last week, Jean Taverne made a third rocket which weighed about 200g and was the right balance between our different models. With this one we could reach the different distances imposed by the specifications of the project.