NSA Logo
  About Rockets
  Install the Simulator
  Start Your Journey
  Educator Section
 


Aeronautics Guides

Aerodynamics
Propulsion
Model Rockets
Kites


  Rocket Safety
  The Simulator
  Home

Beginner's Guide to Model Rockets

 

Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Model Rockets

Image of model rocket and link to RocketModelerThe Beginner's Guide to Model Rockets will show you the basic math and physics that govern the design and flight of model rockets. Unlike full size rockets, aerodynamics plays a major role in the flight characteristics of a model rocket.

At this Web site you can study how model rockets operate at your own pace and to your own level of interest. Because the flight of the rocket involves the interaction of forces on the rocket, we have included several pages on the fundamentals of forces. Because aerodynamics is involved with the motion of the rocket, there are several pages devoted to basic gas properties and aerodynamic forces. There is a short index of topics that you can access from any page, so you are never more than two clicks away from any other Web page at this site.

This site was prepared at NASA Glenn by the Learning Technologies Project (LTP) (http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12) to provide background information on model rockets as teaching aids for math and science teachers. Some of the slides were prepared to support RocketModeler, an interactive educational computer program that allows students to design and test rocket designs on a personal computer. Other slides were prepared to support LTP videoconferencing workshops for teachers and students.

RocketModeler is available as a JAVA Applet that runs in your browser. This program can also be downloaded to your machine.

We have intentionally organized this site to mirror the unstructured nature of the world wide web. There are many pages here connected to one another through hyperlinks. You can then navigate through the links based on your own interest and inquiry. However, if you prefer a more structured approach, you can also take one of our Guided Tours through the site. Each tour provides a sequence of pages dealing with some aspect of model rockets.

NOTICE --- The site has recently been modified to support Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Many of the pages contain mathematical equations that have been produced graphically and are too long or complex to provide in an "ALT" tag. For these pages, we have retained the (non-compliant) graphical page and have provided a separate, (compliant) text-only page that contains all of the information of the original page. The two pages are connected through hyperlinks.


Navigation..

Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics
Beginner's Guide to Propulsion
Beginner's Guide to Model Rockets
Beginner's Guide to Kites
Beginner's Guide to Aeronautics

Button to Display Aerodynamics Index Button to Display Propulsion Index Button to Display Model Rocket Index Button to Display Kite Index


Back to top

Go to...

Beginner's Guide Home Page

byTom Benson
Please send suggestions/corrections to: benson@grc.nasa.gov

 

 
LTP Logo
+ LT Project Office    + NASA Glenn LTP     +NASA SITE