Mission: Design Stabilizing Fins

Rocket stability is an important issue for rocket engineers. All rocket components are tested in a variety of ways before they are verified for flight. Scale models of rockets are tested in wind tunnels, which allow engineers to visualize and gather data on how air moves around the nose, body, and fins of the rocket. The nose, body, and fins of a rocket are designed
to minimize drag and provide stability and control. Rocket fin shapes vary; they can be triangular, rectangular, elliptical, and trapezoidal, to name a few. The fin shape contributes to the rocket’s center of mass and how much drag it faces during flight.
Learning Objective: Participants will understand that fins affect a rocket’s stability during flight.
Outcomes: Participants will create a fin that keeps their rocket stable.
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[@kh40yr]

In your initial design, Make sure the fins are swept back. Moves the center of pressure behind the Center of gravity, 8 times out of 10. It's a cheat, but it works most of the time. Also, you can extend the length of your rocket to keep the center of pressure behind the CG, or to correct a problem with that. Adding more weight to the nosecone can push the CP behind the CG, if needed(last resort). ALOT more to take into consideration when designing, but those are "cheat codes" that can help you get unstuck, if so.

[@KyokosBiggestFan]

epic