Amateur Rocketry
A largely experimental hobby, amateur rocketry involves the creation and production of miniature rockets. Amateur rocketry enthusiasts largely focus on experimenting with new varieties of rocket motors and fuels and have contributed toward significant advances in the scientific field of rocketry.
The hobby of rocketry has many different levels of involvement among its devotees. Amateur rocketry falls somewhere in the middle of all these levels, a few steps after the basics of model rocketry and a few leaps before the world of professional rocketry. It differs from professional rocketry in that it is done largely on a not for profit basis. Amateur rocketry hobbyists are in it for the fun and build their rockets simply because they love doing it. Amateur rockets are also often considerably smaller than professional rockets made by governments or corporations.
Amateur rocketry can be distinguished from model rocketry in that it is largely built around constructing your own rocket, motor, and fuel type. Whereas in amateur rocketry the hobby begins from the ground up, in model rocketry the rockets are usually purchased as a complete unit which the hobbyist then simply launches.
The decade immediately following the launch of Sputnik was when amateur rocketry really took off as a hobby. The eyes of bright, young boys and girls around the world were being opened to the vast possibilities of exploring the earth’s inner atmosphere with their toys, and amateur rockets began to spring up in basements, barns, and sheds.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, a string of articles describing the hobby of amateur rocketry were published in various American scientific journals. Combined with the 1960 publishing of a detailed amateur rocketry manual that described rocket design, launching methods, and rocket fuel formulas, these articles helped to shoot this hobby into worldwide fame. Model rocketry was separated from amateur rocketry by the creation of a National Association of Rocketry, which adhered to a strict model rocketry safety code and launched only professionally-made, commercial rocket prototypes. Amateur rocketeers, wanting to continue to make their own flavors of rocket and to experiment on the edge of rocket science, quickly distinguished themselves from this new association and the hobby of amateur rocketry took its official first steps.
A hobby that is challenging and exciting as well as educational, amateur rocketry focuses on the self-making of the majority of the components. Rocket motors are fabricated from a mixture of tried and proven specifications thrown in with the hobbyist’s own personal tweaks and twists. The body of the rockets must be fitted out with a properly balanced nosecone and stabilizing fins that correctly perform their tasks. Rocket propellant is, if not a closely guarded secret, at least one that is taken very seriously by these amateur hobbyists. There have been many injuries resulting from the boy next door throwing together, without proper planning and precautions, a recipe that he heard about somewhere. Unfortunately for him, the ingredients, being hazardous chemicals, turned out, predictably enough, to be a hazard to his health.
One of the most challenging parts of building a rocket, besides, of course the fuel itself, is making a successful recovery system. Often this recovery system is a parachute deployment mechanism of some sort and is essential to the rocket’s repeat performance. If it fails to function correctly, all the hard work and effort of the amateur rocketeer could be lost after a single launch.
Amateur rocketry can be an involving and ingenious pastime that can stimulate you intellectually, provide you with experiences that are both intense and fun, and bring you closer to the intriguing and out of this world scene of rocket science.