Rocket Star
Channel: OskarPuzzle
Date: 2019-08-16

More OskarPuzzle at https://www.youtube.com/OskarPuzzle?sub_confirmation=1. Buy at https://i.materialise.com/en/shop/item/rocket-star-v2 or at https://www.shapeways.com/product/7M6SPG6JP/rocket-star. Rocket Star is related to the Rocket Twist puzzle. However, instead of threefold symmetry, Rocket Star has five-fold rotational symmetry. The puzzle has six corners, five edges, twenty triangles and five semi-hidden centers. In its solved state, the puzzle has five active rotation axes, each 9 degrees "north of the equator" (Jaap's Sphere modelling) and equally spread out around the north-south axis.

What makes this puzzle special is the same as for Rocket Twist. After two, three or more turns, the puzzle is back to its original shape, but in a different orientation. As a result, some rotation axes have disappeared and some new one have reappeared. The puzzle jumbles and it can be considered quasi-doctrinaire. It is undecided whether the puzzle is deeper-than-origin-cut or not.

The puzzle has three canonical states: "rocket", "left" and "right". There are five possible turns from rocket to left or to right, two possible turns from left to rocket or right, and two possible turns from right to rocket or left. When starting and ending as rocket, one can make the following sequences.
rocket - left - rocket
rocket - right - rocket
rocket - left - right - rocket
rocket - right - left - rocket
rocket - left - right - left - rocket
rocket - right - left - right - rocket
etcetera.

Of course, if one repeats left-right-left-right enough times, one returns to the start state. Quiz question: how many moves would that be?

Copyright (c) 2019, M. Oskar van Deventer.

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