Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin formed the American crew that landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969.

In that same spirit we at, Acton Academy, took on the challenge of applying our chemistry knowledge to execute 2 tasks as part of our final exhibition.

1.    Demonstrate a Rocket flight to the audience during final exhibition

 Let me explain our Journey towards a successful Rocket launch first. We started with the trial-and-error method at the beginning of our quest and as expected met with failure to launch. Sometimes the fuel was not right and sometimes the delay was not right however we didn’t give and keep improving day by day. We realized that adopting the more scientific method of measuring and calculating help us get better. The more precise we became the better the outcome. We tried different fuels and eventually used baking soda and citric acid.

On the day of our exhibition, we used our knowledge of stoichiometry, prepared all the ingredients and materials required for the launch. This included plastic bottler as rocket, cork to help close the lid and build pressure, Right before the lift off we were faced with a sudden challenge as our measuring funnel broke and we had to improvise. It all turned out well and our Rocket was propelled into the air and landed safely on ground with the help of a parachute. Mission successful…!

I learnt during this quest that chemistry is an interesting science, but one must be really accurate about measurements otherwise the result is not good. In addition, it takes a lot of perseverance as performing the same task repeatedly could be frustrating but obviously giving up is not an option.

2.    Design a space station and pitch to investors

 Our second task was to design a space station and present to our audience on how it will work. This was quite an ambitious project as it needed us to learn about how space stations are designed and how they operate. There were several issues to be addressed such as how to create gravity on the station, how will the food be sourced, how will oxygen be created, how the station will be fueled etc. We did plenty of research and developed a presentation showcasing effective ways to tackle each one of these challenges.

We did stumble a bit during our presentation as our team lead took longer than expected to bring the space station model and we had to start without him however we calmed our nerves and presented our case to the audience.

Our space station had a slightly different angle to it as we designed it to be a commercial venture as well. This means that half of our station was for research and half was commercially available to people who will be ready to pay for it. This idea of space tourism will help us fund the much-needed investment required to design and sustain the space station.

Additional lessons learned 

During this quest I learnt that goal setting and organizing things is extremely important if you want to put up a good show. While we made a great presentation and won the prize, I feel that our teamwork could’ve been better. Task delegation and early goal setting could’ve help us do an even better job. We were not really ready compared to the other team and I felt as if the preparation could have been better. From now on, I will keep these lessons in mind for the future.

 Overall the Chemistry quest was a good one, I learnt a lot about chemistry as well as non-chemistry stuff and I hope I can apply my knowledge in the real world someday.