00:00A small but extremely significant milestone was achieved by students in the UAE today
00:10as they gathered at the Skydive Desert Campus in Dubai to launch their first space rockets.
00:16Okay, so they aren't actually space rockets meant to escape Earth's atmosphere and reach
00:20space, but the mechanics involved with building these rockets are not too far off from the
00:24real thing, including the engines that are used to propel them.
00:27These skill-level rockets that we utilized are more advanced than normal beginner rockets,
00:34but the students are very inquisitive in the Gifted and Talented program and use some computer
00:39software to help design their rockets.
00:42So this is the rockets the students have built.
00:44This is a single-stage rocket that uses one solid rocket motor propellant engine, just
00:49like solid rocket motors that are used in space programs all over the world.
00:55They also use liquid-fuel rocket engines.
00:57We're using solid rocket engines here, and it has fins for guidance and stability.
01:02We'll install their video recording camera right here under this white.
01:06This will aerodynamically protect it, and when it launches, it will launch for about
01:11five to six seconds, and then after that, then a charge goes up inside the rocket that
01:17separates and a parachute will deploy.
01:19So it will float back down to the ground and the students can recover it.
01:23So this challenges the students and shows them real-world ways to do engineering design
01:28projects and do the hands-on aspect as well, so that when they get into a university, they're
01:34ready for projects such as this and can kind of contribute overall here in the UAE for
01:40science and technology programs, especially with the Mars mission coming up in 2020 that
01:46will orbit Mars in 2021 for the 50th anniversary of the UAE.
01:51The 20 students involved in the rocket design project were taught by a team of trainers
01:55from NASA, including an astronaut, to individually design, plan, and fabricate real single-stage
02:01or two-stage rockets.
02:02This is two stages, so the black stage will fire, and then it will ignite the second stage,
02:08shoot up, and there will be about a six-second delay, and then the parachute will deploy,
02:13we hope.
02:14If there could be some rockets that explode because something isn't built right.
02:19So it's just like real spacecraft, there are failures, but we're hoping for a lot of
02:23success today.
02:24Three, two, one, zero.
02:28Launch.
02:29Three, two, one, go.
02:48We had a few that may have misaligned fins that spiral, but most of them, I'd say more
02:52than 50 percent performed as we hoped for a student build.
02:56So it's a very productive, very good achievement for the students on their first rocket, model
03:02rockets ever built.
03:03It was a great feeling to see my first rocket launch into the sky, a tremendous feeling.
03:08How challenging was the project?
03:10It was actually like very challenging, but the good thing was that we worked together
03:14very hard, we cooperated with each other so we could achieve this.
03:17This small gathering of bright students interested in the idea of space travel and everything
03:21that goes on behind the scenes represents a small step for the space program here in
03:25the UAE, and a large leap for developing the next generation of space travelers in the
03:30region.
03:31Logan Fish for Gulf News.
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