Re: Help with rockets for an 11 yo kid?

[Anthony Cooper]

Being 11 years old, I'm assuming he is building a small rocket. D power or less. I've added the General group to this thread. Perhaps someone lives nearby and can help out. Our general group is a good place to ask questions and so is our Facebook group. https://facebook.com/groups/LUNAR.Rocketry

________________________________________________________

Anthony M. Cooper
31120 Chicoine Ave.
Hayward, CA 94544-7432
VP for http://lunar.org

Cell: 510-589-5292

On Fri, Apr 18, 2025 at 5:11 PM Erika Ekiel <erbe...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi. 

I'm hoping rocket experts such as yourselves might be able to point me in the right direction. 

My son, Dash, age 11, is looking for some help with rockets. He has been working with a student mentor from the aeronautics and astronautics program at Stanford to build and launch rockets, but his mentor had to abruptly leave the program for health reasons. 

They were much of the way through designing a custom rocket using OpenRocket software and planned to build it and then launch it, along with another they had built from a kit, sometime this summer. 

Any chance you know of a student or adult who is experienced in this area and would be able to work on this with Dash? This person would need to be able to sanity check Dash's design, assist with a plan to procure materials, work alongside him to build the rocket and supervise the launch at a licensed launch facility. 

We are based in Los Altos, CA, which is equidistant from Stanford University and Google.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for considering. 

Kind regards,

Erika Ekiel

[srkendal]

Maybe not, if he had a mentor... But I'm sure someone on the list can help out! If I was still close, I'd certainly volunteer!

-Steve

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[Erika Ekiel]

Thank you for the reply!

Yes -- very simple rockets. 
He built and flew the Apprentice and is nearly finished building the Goblin, which he and his mentor were planning to fly later this summer. 

In parallel, they started on a custom design using Open Rocket software. Lots of discussion about tradeoffs in design and what changes have what impacts. This is the type of thing where an experienced person would be so important to work with, as my husband and I have literally zero experience in rockets and wouldn't have the first clue where to begin or how to advise him, let alone procuring the materials and knowing in what order to build it.

We aren't on Facebook, so that might be a barrier.

I would be grateful for any advice!

[Erika Ekiel]

*I should also add that we are assuming this would be a paid mentorship relationship similar to a tutor. Maybe that helps? :))