Aussie school attempts space launch
Chinchilla's pride
A group of rural Australian high school students is ready to launch a space ship they built themselves from plans downloaded from the internet.
Spokesperson for the students, Tony Ferris, said the moon was first on their list, and if they can get the maths right, they might beat NASA to Mars by next Christmas holidays.
The students, from Chinchilla High School in Central Queensland, came up with the idea during a metalwork class, and have been building and fundraising ever since.
"We surfed the net for rocket plans, and used whatever materials we could find. We had a bit of trouble getting hold of the deuterium, but then Jackie's mum found some left over from Shannon's 21st."
But deuterium and heat reflecting tiles don't come cheap, so when they weren't soldering Milo tins together, the students were busy raising money to see the project to completion.
"We've been baking lamingtons and selling Maltesers for two years now, ever since year 8," fellow student Erica Samuels said.
"The school's been really helpful, and Mrs Lewis at the P&C organised billets for the NASA engineers that we flew over with the proceeds from the aluminium can recycling drive", she added.
"We reckon any school could do this - it's all there on the net. All you really need to do is stay back after school or wag sport for a few terms, and get the teachers to help with the fundraising."
