Rocket Builder

Build your own rocket by choosing from various engines, fuel tanks, and payloads. Then launch your rocket into space to complete your selected mission!

Rocket Builder Video

Educational Points

Learn about gravity, wind resistance and orbital dynamics.

  • Gravity: As you build your rocket, your weight increases. Learn how difficult it is to get heavy payloads into space
  • Wind Resistance: Our atmosphere is thick and provides a lot of drag on rockets. Learn about Maximum dynamic pressure and how it affects rockets.
  • Orbital Dynamics: Rockets just don't go up, they also orbit around our earth.

User Interaction

Visitors will build their rocket utilizing a intuitive touch screen controls. Then transistion to a Throttle and Joystick to launch their rocket.

Touch Screen
  • Misison Select: Select your mission, which increase in difficulty
  • Touch and Drag: Utilize the touch screen to build your very own custom rocket
Throttle and Joystick
  • Throttle: Control your rocket thrust amount
  • Joystick: Fight air resistance and control your rocket to space
  • Buttons: Seperate your stages with a quick press

User Experience

Rocket Builder has three available mission modes: Reach Space, Obtain Orbit, Mars Trasfer. Each is progressively harder and introduces more real world mechanics for users to learn.

  • Reach Space: A simple altituide test. Once visitors master building their rocket they can test its launch capabilities to see if they can reach the mission altituide.
  • Obtain Orbit: Having mastered flight, visitors are then taught that rockets need to orbit earth to stay in space.
  • Mars Trasfer: Once you have mastered orbits, learn what it takes to make a transfer burn to mars to leave earths gravitational influence.

Hold Time Data

Our leading digital interactives rank significantly higher than most average non-digital exhibits. Rocket Builder is our second-highest scoring exhibit in our entire museum. Rocket Builder is unique in that many visitors will stay for the average expected time, but there is a certain more experiment-minded type of person that will stay far longer, with some staying longer than 20 minutes!

Software Pricing

$10,000

Small Facility Pricing applies 50% reduction

Volume pricing also applies

Pricing Sheet

Hardware Provided

  • Keylook License Dongle
  • Arduino-Based Control Interface wired to Arcade Quality Buttons, Throttle and Joystick sourced from Suzo-Happ

Recommended Hardware

  • Touch Screen: A touch screen is used to build your rocket.
  • Display: Additonaly you may use a large display for users to then transition to rocket flight.
  • Audio: Speakers should be used plugged directly into the computer. Using TV speakers may not work if the computer is on before the TV has been turned on.

Required Computer Specs

  • Core i5 Quad Core (or better).
  • Motherboard that supports CPU socket.
  • Power Supply: 500 Watt (or better).
  • Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 1660 ti (or better).
  • RAM: 8 GB (or greater).
  • HDD/SSD: 60+ GB.
  • OS: Windows 10.