Rocketry Planet

The Maker Faire is "a two-day, family-friendly event to MAKE, create, learn, invent, CRAFT, recycle, think, play and be inspired by celebrating arts, crafts, engineering, food, music, science and technology."  In other words, Maker Faire is a big show for people who like to make things.

Rocketeers know about making things, so it was natural for the Maker Faire to again invite two San Francisco Bay Area rocket clubs, LUNAR (NAR section) and AeroPac (TRA prefecture), to the 4th annual Bay Area event. 

The clubs will set up together in the Rocket Room, as usual.  AeroPac's display focuses on high power rocketry and launching rockets at Mecca for rocketeers, Black Rock, Nevada. LUNAR continues our hugely popular build-it-fly-it program.  This year, we have 400 Quest Cyclones to build and fly on A6-4 motors, and paper flying saucers that will launch on B and C motors.  Every launch puts a smile on a new rocketeer's face. 

Smiling faces are a common scene at Maker Faire events. Photo: Craig Saunders, LUNAR.

A busy build session at a Maker Faire event.

But that is not all: Both LUNAR and AeroPac display a huge assortment of rockets, books, motors, and other rocketry items; the continuous rocket launch movies and pictures catch every visitor's eye.

We find Maker Faire is the perfect place for outreach and education about our great hobby.  At the regular club launches following the Maker Faire, we always see some new, familiar faces, enthusiastically flying the rocket they built at the Faire.

Maker Faire expects 60,000 to 80,000 visitors this coming weekend, May 30th and 31st.  Although the slogan on the radio commercial was "Rockets, Robots, and Crafts," and rockets come first in my book, there will be a huge variety of fun things to see and do at the Maker Faire. 

Everyone nearby in California, please come to the Maker Faire Bay Area 2009 and say hello to your LUNAR and AeroPac rocketeer friends, check out the rest of the Faire and get your creative juices pumped!

Websites:
Maker Faire: http://makerfaire.com/
LUNAR (NAR section): http://www.lunar.org/
AeroPac (TRA prefecture): http://www.aeropac.org/