Every since I was a little kid I have been fascinated by Space and Space Engineering. For some reason more Rockets and Spacecraft than planes. I’m not sure if its fascination for Science or Engineering or that I fall victim for both either Western or Eastern propaganda. This fascination has definitely changed and evolved over time. As my career as an Engineer has evolved I found more and more aspects of Simulations, Reliability, Radio Communication, Satellite design fascinating as I guess I’m able to understand more in depth things that before as a kid were a mystery to me.
One of the perks of living currently in the Netherlands is having access to more science and hobbies that was ever possible back in Costa Rica at the time. Model Rocket Engines were expensive to ship and “dangerous” so they were not readily available causing the hobby to be close to non existing. Certification flights are certainly not possible, and Radio Licenses harder to obtain.
In the Netherlands the outlook is different, several Rocket clubs launching regularly during Summer and building Rockets during Winter. Tripoli Certification Flights possible to be made in the Netherlands or Germany very nearby. A small but active community of Amateur Radio aficionados. Students in Delft and other universities actively building research rockets. A new fire in me was sparked. Living outside of your home country is definitely a mixed bag of experiences but small things like this help carry you through the though times.
I started reading the Book on High Power Rockets earlier this year and I have decided to purse my High Power Rocket certification. Back a couple years ago I read a news in Costa Rica about two University Professors from UCR that flew to United States to get certified for High Power rockets. It made me realize given my fascination for the topic and how at “hand” it was an almost moral obligation to pursue this.
I contacted the Tripoli organization and they referred me to the Dutch Rocket Research Association, a nice friendly rocket club that do regular launches when the weather allows. They had an info session earlier this year to which I attended and took a nice onset of Picture and had quite some interesting conversations. Its interesting to see how the Hobby can be so diverse: Models Made from Scratch, Historically accurate Rockets and Missiles models, High Power rockets, on board computers, even backyard homemade spectrometers.
Besides the more traditional rockets models you would expect to find at a regular rocket expo, there were some interesting data gather experiments from a static fire stand, and some backyard home made spectrometer analyzes of the gases produced by the plume, fascinating.
I will be joining the DRRA for launches this summer and hopefully many more. I expect to do some smaller launches which I will also picture and document, to get more familiarized with building and rocket operations before attempting a L1 and L2 certification, in the look for more ambitioned goals in the future.
The event was quite fun, and I invite any lost Internet surfer that stumble upon this post to join the DRRA and have some fun with Rockets and Beer.
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