Egg-O-Naut

General Rocket Construction
For information on general bottle rocket design, go to Bottle Rocket. Egg-O-Naut specific things will be posted below.

NASA Rocket Basics

NASA Rocket Simulators

Bottles to Use
Depending on the rules, either 1 liter and/or 2 liter bottles may be used. The must be from a Carbonated drink, and if you remove the lables you must have them to present at checking. For stability attaching fins is a good idea, 3 is better than 4 because it is just as stable but lighter.

The scoring system for 2010 puts great emphasis on the condition of the egg. The recovery system was extremely important because with these rules, a well-built rocket with a broken egg will almost definitely be beaten by a poorly-built rocket with an intact egg.
 * 1 point for every second that the egg is airborne.
 * 15 points for the recovery of the egg in an intact state.
 * 3 points if the egg or egg capsule Completely detaches from the rocket.

Parachute
It seems like the best safety device would be a parachute, with padding around the egg in case of the parachute failing, or to prevent it from breaking upon impulse or upon hitting the ground. A larger parachute is usually better, unless of course you build it too large. A 2 to 4 foot diameter should be large enough, although if you can use a bigger parachute you are more likely to catch up drafts but are going to have a harder time fitting it in the nose cone. I would suggest using a thin plastic, such as thin drop cloth, but Mylar or even plastic/garbage bags will also work. By attaching the parachute to the egg but not the rocket itself, when it deploys it should separate the egg from the bottle, which the current scoring gives several bonus points for.

Cushioning
For cushioning around the egg, from what I’ve built so far, bubble wrap works well, and a foam or cardboard flap to cover one end of the bottle. You could also use layered paper, a liquid (probably harder and will reduce time due to added weight, but its an idea), or you could suspend the egg using strings or bungee cords (the strings would have to be pretty tight). Another Idea is to place the egg in a padded capsule.

Separating The Egg From the Rocket
From what the rules say having the egg capsule leave the rocket is almost a must, it reduces weight you have to get safely to the ground, and it adds 3 seconds to your time. A good way to achieve this would be a cone that falls off and pulls the parachute and egg chamber with it, or just having the egg chamber fall off on its own.

Other Ideas
You could also use a backslider, but a well built parachute will almost always beat a backslider.

Links
Bottle Rocket

North Carolina 2007 Results-