Extra credit reflection by ALEX C.
Original TED page w/ speaker bio, links, comments, etc:
Steve Jurvetson: Model Rocketry
Steve Jurvetson presents a talk about the wild adventure of weekends. His weekends involve flying home made model rockets that can reach up to 100,000 thousand feet. He hopes to encourage kids to enter he field of rocketry when they grow up, so he gives them a little taste.
His rockets range from backing soda and vinegar to rockets with on board computers to measure speed.
Sure you can fly rockets at a local park, but he goes to Black Rock Desert to fly the big boys.
In the desert they use engines that are the used on cruise missile boosters. Many people use experimental propellants like nitrous oxide. Some of the rockets are huge, if you watch the talk you will know what I mean.
One of these rockets went up to 100,000 feet and came down so fast that it buried itself 11 feet in clay. They called it the bunker buster.
Everything happens to the rockets in the desert. They spiral out of control, they explode or they break car windshields.
He almost had a close encounter with a rocket. It landed about 50 feet away from him. He says that many people come to see the rockets explode or come falling down in pieces.
What motivates them is when they can get a rocket into space and see the top of Earth.
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