Introduction: Paper Air Rocket - With NASA Space Shuttle

By Francisco Dominguez
About: I'm an Electrical Engineer and I have build some robots and microcontroller based systems. I also like building things that fly like planes, rockets and more. I started with 14 years old controlling an arm wit…

A paper rocket powered by your lungs? With nice NASA Space Shuttle?

Yes! It's easy, cheap and lots of fun!

You can have a reusable space shuttle for a bit more effort, like the official NASA paper space shuttle glider.

It's mechanical (no electronics or chemical products involved), and shows how staged rockets work for real.

Supplies

For this instructable you just need some materials from home:

  • Paper, coloured better.
  • Paper tape.
  • A pen.
  • A ruler.
  • A tube of cardboard, even some more paper is fine.
  • A piece of string of 3-4 metres.
  • A printer to print out the shuttle model.

Step 1: Create the Rocket Launcher

The rocket launcher can be a cardboard tube, or a roll of paper well tight together.

You can add a handle to it with a smaller piece of cardboard.

Decorate it as you want with some colour paper.

Step 2: Create the Main Rocket Body

Roll the paper to make the rocket body:

  1. First roll one piece of paper on the cardboard roll, or over another paper roll that will serve as a laucher. This first paper will create a temporary thin gap between the rocket launcher and the rocket body.
  2. Second roll another piece of paper over the first one: this is the body for the rocket. Secure this body with paper tape.
  3. Release the rocket body you just made form the other parts.
  4. Remove the intermediate paper from the rocket launcher.

Step 3: Add a Nose Cone to the Rocket

Create a cone with another piece of paper and secure it with more paper tape.

Cut it to secure it to the rocket body. This will give better aerodynamics to your rocket.

Try with different rocket nose cones, so you can see the difference in performance.

Step 4: Add Fins to the Rocket Body

This rocket has not any active device, so to make it stable it needs fins.

  1. Draw four pieces like the one in the picture, they will be the fins.
  2. Then cut them, and attach as stright as you can to the rocket body, at the bottom of it.

You have now the rocket and the launcher completed. If you sit the rocket to the launcher and blow very strong, the rocket will fly.

Do you want a space shuttle to be launch from it?

Step 5: Create the Space Shuttle

You can use the official NASA paper space shuttle glider, or any other one from Internet that is lightweight, like this one.

Step 6: Install the Ancor and Supports for the Space Shuttle

You space shuttle will fly alone from the rocket only when it's ready. And it will be all done mechanically: no electrical parts involved.

Rocket holder preparation:

  1. First create a little spike holder with paper as shown in this picture for this step. There is a picture of the different parts attached that you can print in a A4 paper to get the exact parts, if you use one of the two space shuttles I linked in the previous step.
  2. Then add four little strips of paper to hold the space shuttle:
  3. a pair goes below the wings. These help to keep the shuttle stable while flying.
  4. Another pair goes just behind the shuttle, they will push it during the launch, to keep the shuttle on the rocket.


Space shuttle holder preparation:

To prepare the space shuttle, you need something to keep it with the rocket while launch, but release it easily later.

  1. First, prepare a little paper strip for the space shuttle as shown in the picture.
  2. Add that paper strip at the bottom (wing) front part, with a little gap, so the rocket's little spike fits on it comfortably. It must be a bit loosy, so the space shuttle can fly off.

Step 7: Install the Release Mechanism From the Rocket Launcher

After some meters of flying, the rocket will brake a bit due to a temporary string, then the space shuttle will fly off forward alone, while the rocket will fall down.

Friction is the key here:

  1. a small paper tube at the bottom of the rocket launcher will hold a piece of paper,
  2. that can easily go off,
  3. but before it will pull the rocket a bit via a string attached to the space shuttle, so it will fly off from the rocket. (See picture attached).
  4. Then the rocket itself will continue to fly and land.
  5. The space shuttle will also continue now gliding until it touches down.

Step 8: How Else You Can Expand This Project

As you see this project is as small or big as you want.

The limit is your imagination.

You can add a second string, from the space shuttle to the rocket nose cone. So when the shuttle flies for a moment, it pulls the nose cone and a parachute is deployed. Note that the shuttle needs some mass to pull the nose cone. And the nose cone must allow movement only forward but ont lateral. I have added some pictures here about that.

Another option is a little mass in the rocket that detects when the rocket is falling down, so it gets two pins onto the rocket, allowing the nose cone to go away and getting out the parachute. The concept is not easy, and the actual execution is complex. I added some pictures of what I have tried so far, even it didn't work.

Anyway, I hope you liked this project, and more important, that you try it. If you do so, please leave me a comment in twitter or Instagram. Thanks and enjoy!

Note: I'm preparing a video showing how it works. Stay tunned for it in my main channels, including Youtube.


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