When I was a kid, I was obsessed with control panels. I dreamed of making a spaceship capsule out of my room, covered with toggles and panel lights that I could used to launch countless astronaut and sci-fi fantasies. The closest I ever came to this was a six-pad rocketry launch controller my friends (and our dads) made.
One can only imagine what sorts of dreams this amazing backyard rocketship fuels within the kids who play in it. There are tons of cool details in this build, and that build is well-documented enough on the website that you can build your own. They call it the the Ravenna Ultra-Low-Altitude Vehicle (RULAV), Ravenna being the Seattle neighborhood they live in. “Ultra-Low-Altitude Vehicle.” Cute. [Thanks, Jon Johns!]
The Ravenna Ultra-Low-Altitude Vehicle
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6 thoughts on “Build Your Own Backyard Rocketship”
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Back in my day we just used cardboard boxes to get to space.
This makes my carboard box sitting on top of a washing machine while running a spin cycle with an unbalanced load and a paint stick for a control stick look like a booger.
I must say that this is a testament to a great love. I am very moved.
I also liked the attitude controls a lot.
I appreciate the old-school hardware. If you’re not averse to a little PC action, though, why not put in a small desktop computer running the Celestia software (which is awesome) and a connected joystick so your son can fly around a little in space? Just a thought.
[…] 自分だけの裏庭のホントに機能する宇宙船で育つ気持ちってどんなんだろう。 […]
I don’t want a rocket-like treehouse. I want to build my own rocket.