Could the rocket from the film Over the Moon really fly?

For all our younger fans with their heads in the clouds, ArianeGroup asked a space engineer if it’s possible to make your own moon rocket.

In Over the Moon, the new animated film from Netflix, Fei Fei, the young heroine who loves astronomy and engineering, builds her own rocket in the shape of a rabbit. Why? She wants to go to the moon to prove that the legend of Chang’e, the moon goddess of Chinese myths, is really true!

As we said, Fei Fei is really good with mechanical things, so she starts by building a whole lot of experimental rockets powered by fireworks. Will attaching the fireworks to a long tube be able to fly her the moon?

Fei Fei’s first attempts don’t succeed. You have to be very patient if you want to explore space!

So then she decides to use the power of magnets to give her rocket enough speed to break away from the Earth’s gravity. Her launch track would have many magnets carefully positioned on it and, like a roller-coaster, would sling her rabbit rocket into space. But could that work in real life?

So, young space fans, you shouldn’t think of Over the Moon as a film that could really come true, but just let it inspire you to get super-interested in space.

And if you’d like to build your own rocket, why don’t you start with the paper version on this website? If you’ve a real passion for science and space travel, one day you may be dealing with real rockets!