Micro-rocket workshops

Micro-rocket activities are organised by the Space Museum and run by specially trained personnel, who also tour French Guiana where they are invited to stage these entertaining educational workshops in schools.  Around a dozen of these are organised each year, in communities both on the coast and in the interior of the territory.

Based on an experimental approach, these workshops cover both theory and practice.  The theoretical part teaches the students about aeronautics and physics, providing them with the means to understand the basic principles of rocket construction.  They then build and decorate their micro-rockets in class.  The practical part involves the students launching them either in their local communities or at the Space Museum.

It is not the result which counts here, but the experiment itself.  It does not matter if a rocket did not take off, or if it followed an unplanned trajectory.  The important thing is to understand why it worked or did not work.  Obviously some constraints have to be imposed to prevent the rocket flying out of control in all directions, so criteria such as tube length, number of ailerons and the position of the ailerons on the rocket's central body are carefully checked. The preparation of a 'flight sheet' marks the beginning of the launch campaign.  At this time, the security and range safety problems are spelled out to the children, because as an actual booster is inserted into the rocket tube, together with solid propellant, the students must be in no doubt about the safety precautions.  After the launch, just like their equivalents at the Space Centre, the temporary DDOs (Directors of Operations) carry out a debriefing, where they analyse what worked and what did not.  This enables them to revise the theoretical concepts they acquired at the beginning of the workshop. 

This attempt to increase familiarity with Space activities is the practical outcome of an educational experiment conducted in partnership with teaching staff.  It is increasingly popular, stimulating growing interest among teachers.

Each year, an average of 500 young people participate in the various construction and launch operation workshops, from Maripasoula to Saint-Georges de l’Oyapock.