Greetings from Venezuela.

[Q]

Hello everybody!
My name is Carlos, I'm from Caracas, Venezuela and I work as a Professor of Astronomy at the Humboldt Planetarium in Caracas. I also belong to a non-profit organization -the Star Trek Club Venezuela- which has been doing some work regarding education and popularization of science and technology by means of cooperation with other institutions such as the local Science Museum, National Cinematheque, 2 universities and of course, the planetarium. The answer from the people, specially children, has been very stimulating and we hope to continue with this kind of activities.
Now that we are boldly going were no venezuelan trekker has gone before, this new (for us) field of water rocketry will be as fun as brain and heart touching. I (and we) hope to contribute and to compete to take water rockets as high as possible.
There is another member of WRA2 from Venezuela, Vicente Toledo, and his nick is vichito3. I hope he reads this message or if you know something about him, please let him know that I want to contact him. Thanks.

For Tim Chen (Team Enterprise): Is the name to remember Star Trek? ;-)

"The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever."
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935)

Best regards,
Carlos Quintana.

[Mark Chen]

Hello everybody!
My name is Carlos, I'm from Caracas, Venezuela and I work as a Professor of Astronomy at the Humboldt Planetarium in Caracas. I also belong to a non-profit organization -the Star Trek Club Venezuela- which has been doing some work regarding education and popularization of science and technology by means of cooperation with other institutions such as the local Science Museum, National Cinematheque, 2 universities and of course, the planetarium. The answer from the people, specially children, has been very stimulating and we hope to continue with this kind of activities.
Now that we are boldly going were no venezuelan trekker has gone before, this new (for us) field of water rocketry will be as fun as brain and heart touching. I (and we) hope to contribute and to compete to take water rockets as high as possible.
There is another member of WRA2 from Venezuela, Vicente Toledo, and his nick is vichito3. I hope he reads this message or if you know something about him, please let him know that I want to contact him. Thanks.

For Tim Chen (Team Enterprise): Is the name to remember Star Trek? ;-)

"The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever."
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935)

Best regards,
Carlos Quintana.

Hey Carlos!

I'm Tim's brother Mark. Yes, we are huge Star Trek fans! Very nice to meet a fellow Trekker from Venezuela!

It's awesome that you are using Water Rockets to get kids involved in science and technology. I love showing my rockets to children because it gets them to ask questions and start using their brains to figure out how they work. I love to see them understand the ideas of rockets for the first time.

Welcome to the forum!

[Q]

Hi Mark! I knew it! Enterprise is the name! And just not a fictional starship but a word that inspires so many people to explore and seek out knowledge!
We have so many things to do for people to understand sci and tech the right way, and to appreciate them as the best tools mankind have to live a better life.
It's good to focus on children because the could do better than we are doing right now. I hope that this new activity for us in our club here in Venezuela helps to build a better future, at least little by litlle... And I hope you can fulfill your goals as well.

Live long and prosper!
Carlos.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Greetings, Carlos! Glad you could join us! I must admit to being a big Star Trek fan myself. I can't wait for the new movie to come out. They are still casting the actors so I have to be patient for a long wait!

I am looking forward to talking about Water Rockets or Star Trek or Science or Science Fiction with you!

[Cloud Dancers]

Welcome to the forum Carlos,

This is a really cool forum.

[Q]

Thanks Spaceman Spiff and Team Cloud Dancers. I think it's going to be a really cool experience flying water rockets. Next saturday we are going to have a practice prior to the november 10th contest celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Scouts Association of Venezuela. We are working on the launcher and fin desing for our rockets. Last saturday we did a test on a first version of the launcher (without a proper base to fit) and some rockets with cones and fins. Our very first try was 3 week ago with just the bottles (no cones, no fins). I wasn't there that time but they (the guys of the club) told me that they went wet due to the pression of air. Anyway that was so fun. As you can see we are quite rookies but we are going to try hard.

Star Trek: I hope that the new movie be ready for the Christmas 2008 release as they have planned it. I think that the only two main characters that still don't have actors are Kirk and McCoy. Some have mention Matt Damon (Kirk) and Gary Sinise (McCoy). I think Sinise looks like "Bones" for a time closer to his mission on the Enterprise, not for the Academy days. Anyway, digital make up do wonderful things ;-)
The Star Trek Club Venezuela (STCV for short) have been busy, specially last year due to the 40th anniversary of the original series (TOS). We did video forums, interviews, special activities with general public and children relating sci-fi, even a special participation as advisors to an aid campaing for Toyota on the launch of a new car model. Also a special screening of 4 episodes of TOS on the National Cinematheque with forums for each one. But now... Let's go with water rockets!

Qapla! (Succeed! in Klingon language for non trekkers).

Carlos.

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

Thanks Spaceman Spiff and Team Cloud Dancers. I think it's going to be a really cool experience flying water rockets. Next saturday we are going to have a practice prior to the november 10th contest celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Scouts Association of Venezuela. We are working on the launcher and fin desing for our rockets. Last saturday we did a test on a first version of the launcher (without a proper base to fit) and some rockets with cones and fins. Our very first try was 3 week ago with just the bottles (no cones, no fins). I wasn't there that time but they (the guys of the club) told me that they went wet due to the pression of air. Anyway that was so fun. As you can see we are quite rookies but we are going to try hard.

Star Trek: I hope that the new movie be ready for the Christmas 2008 release as they have planned it. I think that the only two main characters that still don't have actors are Kirk and McCoy. Some have mention Matt Damon (Kirk) and Gary Sinise (McCoy). I think Sinise looks like "Bones" for a time closer to his mission on the Enterprise, not for the Academy days. Anyway, digital make up do wonderful things ;-)
The Star Trek Club Venezuela (STCV for short) have been busy, specially last year due to the 40th anniversary of the original series (TOS). We did video forums, interviews, special activities with general public and children relating sci-fi, even a special participation as advisors to an aid campaing for Toyota on the launch of a new car model. Also a special screening of 4 episodes of TOS on the National Cinematheque with forums for each one. But now... Let's go with water rockets!

Qapla! (Succeed! in Klingon language for non trekkers).

Carlos.

Hello Carlos and welcome to the forum. This weekend we had our own "practice" too. We were going to launch yesterday and the wind picked up before we were able to launch, so we had to abort while the rocket was pressurizing and pack up. How did your prectice session go?

It was not a total waste of time because we did note some issues with some of our new equipment which we can now fix.

The weather forecast does not look promising for sevweal days.

We hope your launches went better.

[Cloud Dancers]

Hey Carlos,

How did the launch go? Or is it this Saturday?

[Q]

Thanks U.S. Water Rockets1 Team for your welcome.
Yes, we made our practice last Saturday and it was very fun. The maximun altitude was about 70 meters. We use water, water and salt and soda, also, a mix of the 3, but we got no significative difference regarding the altitude. The maximum pressure was about 80 psi and we use just botlles and bottles with 4 fins.
I think there was a better performance of the last ones but, again, no significative difference. This Saturday we will have another practice but perhaps I will not attend it. Anyway, we think we are ready for the Scout kids on Novembre 10th and sure we will have a lot of fun all together.

Technical inquiry: Does the size of the tube (the part inside the bottle) matters for thrust purposes? I read some information on this, but still I'm not certain. We are using a tube that has about half the longitude of the bottle and I suggested a longer one. Have you test this?

Thanks!
Q.

[U.S. Water Rockets1]

Technical inquiry: Does the size of the tube (the part inside the bottle) matters for thrust purposes? I read some information on this, but still I'm not certain. We are using a tube that has about half the longitude of the bottle and I suggested a longer one. Have you test this?

Thanks!
Q.

Length of the tube does matter. The ideal situation is to have the tube as long as possible running right to the top of the inside of the rocket. The tube helps flight stability and also gets it moving without expending much of the stored energy inside the rocket.

[Q]

Thank you for the information. We will try it next time.

Q.

[Mark Chen]

Hi Mark! I knew it! Enterprise is the name! And just not a fictional starship but a word that inspires so many people to explore and seek out knowledge!
We have so many things to do for people to understand sci and tech the right way, and to appreciate them as the best tools mankind have to live a better life.
It's good to focus on children because the could do better than we are doing right now. I hope that this new activity for us in our club here in Venezuela helps to build a better future, at least little by litlle... And I hope you can fulfill your goals as well.

Live long and prosper!
Carlos.

Hey Carlos thanks for the words of wisdom and the kind wishes. I am very busy with other things in life right now but my brother Tim and me are still making time for water rockets because we feel the same way you do!

[Q]

Hello everybody! I hope you had a very nice Christmas.
The Star Trek Club Venezuela finally did the educational-recreational activity with the Scouts. It was on december 15. There are some images at this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/startrekvenezuela/ (in spanish, sorry).

We gave some explanations regarding how to fly a water rocket and some about astronomy. This last was included for the groups with ages between 6 and 9 years old. The activity was a "ginkana" in which they were "cadets of the Starfleet" in a mission to rescue a probe (water rocket) that carries a message of peace between the Romulans and the Federation. They were wearing masks in order to represent some of the races members of the United Federation of Planets and to show the kids the advantages of team working no matter how differences you have.
First they receive a brief at the "Science Academy" (planetarium) by getting an explanation of the 8 planets of the Solar System, specially their distances from the Sun; then the kids had to go to the next station to face the Operativo del Dominio (Dominion Operations Agent) who would try to stop them to complete the mission. They had to place each of the planets correctly as they go from the Sun and fighting the agent with the help of Federation members to open a portal where the probe was held by the evil agent. Once they accomplished this the kids had to go to a place where they launch it safely with the help of Federation members.
This activity was very funny for both the children and us and it is supposed to be repeated next year.
The older kids groups also got fun and knowledge when getting ready and launching their rockets.

Best Regards and the best for 2008 for all of us.
Q.