Are you one of those worried that our universities do not produce researchers and innovators anymore? Well, there is still hope, in the form of 20 year old Moses Chijioke Idoko, a student of the department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
He designed an amateur solid rocket propellant as his project defense to the amazement of the panel of assessors. The amateur rocket has a PVC-pipe as the motor casing, aluminum as the nose cone, ½ inch PVC-cover, aluminum and ½ inch diameter pipe as the nozzle. The propellant is made up of 325 grams of potassium nitrate (oxidizer) and 175 grams of sorbitol (sugar), making a total of 500 grams. The PVC-pipe is of ¾ inch diameter, and 65cm in length. The rocket motor igniter is a mixture of potassium nitrate and charcoal at 80/20 ratio, to form it into black powder (gun powder).
According to Chijioke “I came up with this project because of a childhood dream of being a rocket scientist. Some people around me thought this was not possible. But this made me determined to prove them wrong. The other challenges were normal in amateur rocketry as several trials were made and several failures recorded. But at last the design objective was obtained. I have dreams and tall ambitions. One of them is to be in space in one day. I only pray that my dreams will get support both from government and well meaning individuals so that they will be actualized.
Credit: Daily Post
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