Water rocket could be a new thing for Indonesian. On the other hand, a water rocket has been a way to introduce a basic principle of rocket and its scienctific application to be applied in daily life in some countries. A water rocket is a flying rocket using high pressure of air & water. By using a reclycled plastic drink bottle and some other additional equipments, we can make a water rocket.

The International Water Rocket Making and Launching Competition took place at the city of IT in India, Bangalore on 24 November 2007. Supported by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) together with ISRO (India Space & Research Organization), this competition was joined by 24 participants from 11 countries (Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Phillipine, Sri Lanka, Cambodhia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and Indonesia).

Indonesia was represented by Al Martin Nainggolan (Gr. 7 of Santa Laurensia’s student) who had to compete with the other participants aged 12 – 18 years old. The  competition was divided into two sessions. The first one was the making of the water rocket by the participants themselves in three hours using 2 litre capacity PET bottles.
The participants were allowed to create & design the cone and the fin of their water rocket, in which those would be affecting the stabilizer of the rocket when it was launched.

 
In the second session, each participant got two chances to launch their handmade water rocket. Those rockets had to achieve the highest points in certain distance. To launch and achieve the longest distance, all the participants were freely to decide the volume of the water in the rocket as well as the air pressure and the best elevation angle.

The one who reached the highest accumulation points would be the winner.

As a result, Al Martin Nainggolan achieved 100 points for 57.43 metres or only 0.07 metres less than the bench distance and he took 3rd place, after participants from Japan & the Philiphines. (Irene & Ms. Rinda)