PUBLIC ATTITUDE: Rocketry = crazy people using explosives and creating a public hazard. Many rocketeers' attitude: those who make propellant = crazy people using explosives and creating a public hazard.

Neither attitude is true. Both are based on misconceptions. Both may be modified by education. I am disturbed that some portion of the model rocketry community appears to want to educate the public about model rocketry, gets angry when the public doesn't understand, but refuses to educate itself about amateur rocketry.

Common attitude: "I don't need to know anything more about it! I *know* it's dangerous! Jeez, it's obvious! Any fool can see that! Mixing incompatible chemicals! Packing that stuff into a tube with a hammer! Drilling it! Somebody's gonna get killed!"

Another common attitude: "I don't need to know anything more about it! I *know* it's dangerous! Jeez, it's obvious! Any fool can see that! Gunpowder! Explosives! Pointy rockets that fly at hundreds of miles an hour! Somebody's gonna get killed!"

If we cannot educate ourselves as to the validity or lack thereof of the first attitude, how can we expect to educate the public as to the validity or lack thereof of the second?

I'm not saying that experimental rocketry is safe. It is not. And it should not be undertaken by those unwilling to minimize appropriately the hazard to themselves and to others.

I am saying that as the hobby rocket community attempts to educate the public on the nature of hobby rocketry, that community must in turn educate itself about propulsion and the nature of the work done by those who experiment with propulsion. Certainly such education should take place before making opinionated statements about the work.

To those who would say that experimental rocketry is dangerous: again, I agree. But do you know HOW it is dangerous? Do you know the specific hazards to avoid? Do you know that one professional reference says that ammonium perchlorate is "handled in quantity safely, with common-sense attention being given to..." ...what?

Education. Understanding. Not dogma.

See "Propellants Manufacture, Hazards, and Testing" ACS; "Chemical Rockets"; R. T. Holzmann; "Safety Manual for Experimental & Amateur Rocket Scientists, 3rd ed." L.E. Jones; "Military and Civilian Pyrotechnics", H. Ellern.