Self-Taught 11-Year-Old Coder From China Is Now Building His 2nd Rocket
Yan Hongsen from China has been dubbed 'Rocket Boy'.
By Sukhbir Cheema — 26 Jul 2024, 04:09 PM
Yan Hongsen is just 11 years old, but his deep understanding of physics, chemistry and programming far surpasses that of many peers his age
According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the Primary Five student from China's Zhejiang province taught himself these subjects to one day travel to space with his rockets.
His relentlessness earned him the nickname 'Rocket Boy', with Chinese social media users expressing awe at his determination.
Yan has also been regularly updating his rocket-building journey on Douyin, amassing a whopping 440,000 followers.
Yan recently wrote 600 lines of code to build his second rocket, after the first one he built in June 2023 crashed midway during launch
He named his first rocket, Sen Xing, which means "moving forward".
Shortly after the launch, the rocket's booster failed to deploy its parachute, causing it to crash and scatter its part.
In a video, Yan can be seen calmly assessing the damage and analysing the factors that contributed to the crash.
"The nitrocellulose didn’t explode as expected, the spring and lithium battery were also damaged. Maybe there is still an issue with the rocket’s body connection," Yan said.
Yan's father said the boy first fell in love with rockets and astronomy after watching the Long March-2 liftoff when he was four years old
During kindergarten, as his peers learned the basics of language and math, Yan busied himself taking online programming courses and poring over books, videos, and forums on physics, chemistry, and astronomy.
But of course, Yan's parents played a supportive role by turning their living room into a rocket research studio, allowing Yan to learn aerospace comfortably and conveniently.
Thanks to their support, he began work on his first homemade solid-fuel rocket in August 2022, a project that took him 10 months to complete.
Yan aims to study in either one of China's seven prestigious civilian defence universities and his life's goal is to build a rocket for his country to explore space when he grows up
Yan's father, who is in the tourism industry, explained that he doesn't understand aerospace as much as his son does.
"I don’t understand aerospace, but I will always accompany my son. As parents, we fully support our child’s dreams. If he encounters technical difficulties that he can’t solve, he always contacts me, and I try my best to reach out to experts for help," he told SCMP.
He added that although the first rocket failed, he was still proud of his son.
Let's hope Yan succeeds in his second launch. All the best, Yan!
