Rocket
A rocket (from Italian: rocchetto, lit. 'bobbin/spool')[nb 1][1] is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed.[2] Rocket engines work entirely from propellant carried within the vehicle; therefore a rocket can fly in the vacuum of space. Rockets work more efficiently in a vacuum and incur a loss of thrust due to the opposing pressure of the atmosphere.
Rockets for military and recreational uses date back to at least 13th-century
History
Medieval and early modern rockets were used militarily as incendiary weapons in sieges. Between 1270 and 1280, Hasan al-Rammah wrote al-furusiyyah wa al-manasib al-harbiyya (The Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices), which included 107 gunpowder recipes, 22 of them for rockets.[7][8] In Europe, Roger Bacon mentioned firecrackers made in various parts of the world in the Opus Majus of 1267. Between 1280 and 1300, the Liber Ignium gave instructions for constructing devices that are similar to firecrackers based on second hand accounts.[9] Konrad Kyeser described rockets in his military treatise Bellifortis around 1405.[10] Giovanni Fontana, a Paduan engineer in 1420, created rocket-propelled animal figures.[11][12]
The name "rocket" comes from the Italian rocchetta, meaning "bobbin" or "little spindle", given due to the similarity in shape to the bobbin or spool used to hold the thread from a spinning wheel. Leonhard Fronsperger and Conrad Haas adopted the Italian term into German in the mid-16th century; "rocket" appears in English by the early 17th century.[1] Artis Magnae Artilleriae pars prima, an important early modern work on
The Mysorean rockets were the first successful iron-cased rockets, developed in the late 18th century in the Kingdom of Mysore (part of present-day India) under the rule of Hyder Ali.[13]
The Congreve rocket was a British weapon designed and developed by Sir William Congreve in 1804. This rocket was based directly on the Mysorean rockets, used compressed powder and was fielded in the Napoleonic Wars. It was Congreve rockets to which Francis Scott Key was referring, when he wrote of the "rockets' red glare" while held captive on a British ship that was laying siege to Fort McHenry in 1814.[14] Together, the Mysorean and British innovations increased the effective range of military rockets from 100 to 2,000 yards (91 to 1,829 m).
The first mathematical treatment of the dynamics of rocket propulsion is due to
William Leitch first proposed the concept of using rockets to enable human spaceflight in 1861. Leitch's rocket spaceflight description was first provided in his 1861 essay "A Journey Through Space", which was later published in his book God's Glory in the Heavens (1862).[17] Konstantin Tsiolkovsky later (in 1903) also conceived this idea, and extensively developed a body of theory that has provided the foundation for subsequent spaceflight development.
The British Royal Flying Corps designed a guided rocket during World War I. Archibald Low stated "...in 1917 the Experimental Works designed an electrically steered rocket… Rocket experiments were conducted under my own patents with the help of Cdr. Brock."[18] The patent "Improvements in Rockets" was raised in July 1918 but not published until February 1923 for security reasons. Firing and guidance controls could be either wire or wireless. The propulsion and guidance rocket eflux emerged from the deflecting cowl at the nose.
In 1920, Professor
In 1921, the
In 1929,
In 1943 production of the
The Americans captured a large number of German
During the
Types
- Vehicle configurations
Rocket vehicles are often constructed in the archetypal tall thin "rocket" shape that takes off vertically, but there are actually many different types of rockets including:[30]
- tiny models such as hobby store
- missiles
- space rockets such as the enormous Saturn V used for the Apollo program
- rocket cars
- rocket bike[31]
- rocket-powered aircraft (including rocket assisted takeoff of conventional aircraft – RATO)
- rocket sleds
- rocket trains
- rocket torpedoes[32][33]
- rocket-powered jet packs[34]
- rapid escape systems such as ejection seats and launch escape systems
- space probes
Design
A rocket design can be as simple as a cardboard tube filled with
Components
Rockets consist of a
As well as these components, rockets can have any number of other components, such as wings (
Engines
Rocket engines employ the principle of
Propellant
Rocket propellant is mass that is stored, usually in some form of propellant tank or casing, prior to being used as the propulsive mass that is ejected from a rocket engine in the form of a fluid jet to produce thrust.[2] For chemical rockets often the propellants are a fuel such as liquid hydrogen or kerosene burned with an oxidizer such as liquid oxygen or nitric acid to produce large volumes of very hot gas. The oxidiser is either kept separate and mixed in the combustion chamber, or comes premixed, as with solid rockets.
Sometimes the propellant is not burned but still undergoes a chemical reaction, and can be a 'monopropellant' such as
Alternatively, an inert propellant can be used that can be externally heated, such as in steam rocket, solar thermal rocket or nuclear thermal rockets.[2]
For smaller, low performance rockets such as
Pendulum rocket fallacy
The first
Uses
Rockets or other similar reaction devices carrying their own propellant must be used when there is no other substance (land, water, or air) or force (gravity, magnetism, light) that a vehicle may usefully employ for propulsion, such as in space. In these circumstances, it is necessary to carry all the propellant to be used.
However, they are also useful in other situations:
Military
Some military weapons use rockets to propel
Science and research
Sounding rockets are commonly used to carry instruments that take readings from 50 kilometers (31 mi) to 1,500 kilometers (930 mi) above the surface of the Earth.[42] The
Rocket engines are also used to propel rocket sleds along a rail at extremely high speed. The world record for this is Mach 8.5.[44]
Spaceflight
Larger rockets are normally launched from a
Rescue
Rockets were used to propel a line to a stricken ship so that a Breeches buoy can be used to rescue those on board. Rockets are also used to launch emergency flares.
Some crewed rockets, notably the Saturn V[46] and Soyuz,[47] have launch escape systems. This is a small, usually solid rocket that is capable of pulling the crewed capsule away from the main vehicle towards safety at a moments notice. These types of systems have been operated several times, both in testing and in flight, and operated correctly each time.
This was the case when the Safety Assurance System (Soviet nomenclature) successfully pulled away the L3 capsule during three of the four failed launches of the Soviet Moon rocket, N1 vehicles 3L, 5L and 7L. In all three cases the capsule, albeit uncrewed, was saved from destruction. Only the three aforementioned N1 rockets had functional Safety Assurance Systems. The outstanding vehicle, 6L, had dummy upper stages and therefore no escape system giving the N1 booster a 100% success rate for egress from a failed launch.[48][49][50][51]
A successful escape of a crewed capsule occurred when
Solid rocket propelled ejection seats are used in many military aircraft to propel crew away to safety from a vehicle when flight control is lost.[53]
Hobby, sport, and entertainment
A model rocket is a small rocket designed to reach low altitudes (e.g., 100–500 m (330–1,640 ft) for 30 g (1.1 oz) model) and be recovered by a variety of means.
According to the United States National Association of Rocketry (nar) Safety Code,[54] model rockets are constructed of paper, wood, plastic and other lightweight materials. The code also provides guidelines for motor use, launch site selection, launch methods, launcher placement, recovery system design and deployment and more. Since the early 1960s, a copy of the Model Rocket Safety Code has been provided with most model rocket kits and motors. Despite its inherent association with extremely flammable substances and objects with a pointed tip traveling at high speeds, model rocketry historically has proven[55][56] to be a very safe hobby and has been credited as a significant source of inspiration for children who eventually become scientists and engineers.[57]
Hobbyists build and fly a wide variety of model rockets. Many companies produce model rocket kits and parts but due to their inherent simplicity some hobbyists have been known to make rockets out of almost anything. Rockets are also used in some types of consumer and professional fireworks. A water rocket is a type of model rocket using water as its reaction mass. The pressure vessel (the engine of the rocket) is usually a used plastic soft drink bottle. The water is forced out by a pressurized gas, typically compressed air. It is an example of Newton's third law of motion.
The scale of amateur rocketry can range from a small rocket launched in one's own backyard to a rocket that reached space.[58] Amateur rocketry is split into three categories according to total engine impulse: low-power, mid-power, and high-power.
Corpulent Stump is the most powerful non-commercial rocket ever launched on an Aerotech engine in the United Kingdom.[61][62][63]
Flight
Launches for
Rocket launch technologies include the entire set of systems needed to successfully launch a vehicle, not just the vehicle itself, but also the
Orbital launch vehicles commonly take off vertically, and then begin to progressively lean over, usually following a gravity turn trajectory.
Once above the majority of the atmosphere, the vehicle then angles the rocket jet, pointing it largely horizontally but somewhat downwards, which permits the vehicle to gain and then maintain altitude while increasing horizontal speed. As the speed grows, the vehicle will become more and more horizontal until at orbital speed, the engine will cut off.
All current vehicles stage, that is, jettison hardware on the way to orbit. Although vehicles have been proposed which would be able to reach orbit without staging, none have ever been constructed, and, if powered only by rockets, the exponentially increasing fuel requirements of such a vehicle would make its useful payload tiny or nonexistent. Most current and historical launch vehicles "expend" their jettisoned hardware, typically by allowing it to crash into the ocean, but some have recovered and reused jettisoned hardware, either by parachute or by propulsive landing.
When launching a spacecraft to orbit, a "dogleg" is a guided, powered turn during ascent phase that causes a rocket's flight path to deviate from a "straight" path. A dogleg is necessary if the desired launch azimuth, to reach a desired orbital inclination, would take the ground track over land (or over a populated area, e.g. Russia usually does launch over land, but over unpopulated areas), or if the rocket is trying to reach an orbital plane that does not reach the latitude of the launch site. Doglegs are undesirable due to extra onboard fuel required, causing heavier load, and a reduction of vehicle performance.[64][65]
Noise
Rocket exhaust generates a significant amount of acoustic energy. As the
The Space Shuttle generated 180 dB of noise around its base.[67] To combat this, NASA developed a sound suppression system which can flow water at rates up to 900,000 gallons per minute (57 m3/s) onto the launch pad. The water reduces the noise level from 180 dB down to 142 dB (the design requirement is 145 dB).[68] Without the sound suppression system, acoustic waves would reflect off of the launch pad towards the rocket, vibrating the sensitive payload and crew. These acoustic waves can be so severe as to damage or destroy the rocket.
Noise is generally most intense when a rocket is close to the ground, since the noise from the engines radiates up away from the jet, as well as reflecting off the ground. This noise can be reduced somewhat by flame trenches with roofs, by water injection around the jet and by deflecting the jet at an angle.[66]
For crewed rockets various methods are used to reduce the sound intensity for the passengers, and typically the placement of the astronauts far away from the rocket engines helps significantly. For the passengers and crew, when a vehicle goes
Physics
Operation
The
In a closed chamber, the pressures are equal in each direction and no acceleration occurs. If an opening is provided in the bottom of the chamber then the pressure is no longer acting on the missing section. This opening permits the exhaust to escape. The remaining pressures give a resultant thrust on the side opposite the opening, and these pressures are what push the rocket along.
The shape of the nozzle is important. Consider a balloon propelled by air coming out of a tapering nozzle. In such a case the combination of air pressure and viscous friction is such that the nozzle does not push the balloon but is pulled by it.[71] Using a convergent/divergent nozzle gives more force since the exhaust also presses on it as it expands outwards, roughly doubling the total force. If propellant gas is continuously added to the chamber then these pressures can be maintained for as long as propellant remains. Note that in the case of liquid propellant engines, the pumps moving the propellant into the combustion chamber must maintain a pressure larger than the combustion chamber—typically on the order of 100 atmospheres.[2]
As a side effect, these pressures on the rocket also act on the exhaust in the opposite direction and accelerate this exhaust to very high speeds (according to
Forces on a rocket in flight
The general study of the
Flying rockets are primarily affected by the following:[72]
- Thrust from the engine(s)
- celestial bodies
- Drag if moving in atmosphere
- Lift; usually relatively small effect except for rocket-powered aircraft
In addition, the
These forces, with a stabilizing tail (the
Drag
Drag is a force opposite to the direction of the rocket's motion relative to any air it is moving through. This slows the speed of the vehicle and produces structural loads. The deceleration forces for fast-moving rockets are calculated using the drag equation.
Drag can be minimised by an aerodynamic nose cone and by using a shape with a high ballistic coefficient (the "classic" rocket shape—long and thin), and by keeping the rocket's angle of attack as low as possible.
During a launch, as the vehicle speed increases, and the atmosphere thins, there is a point of maximum aerodynamic drag called
Net thrust
A typical rocket engine can handle a significant fraction of its own mass in propellant each second, with the propellant leaving the nozzle at several kilometres per second. This means that the thrust-to-weight ratio of a rocket engine, and often the entire vehicle can be very high, in extreme cases over 100. This compares with other jet propulsion engines that can exceed 5 for some of the better[76] engines.[77]
It can be shown that the net thrust of a rocket is:
where:
The effective exhaust velocity is more or less the speed the exhaust leaves the vehicle, and in the vacuum of space, the effective exhaust velocity is often equal to the actual average exhaust speed along the thrust axis. However, the effective exhaust velocity allows for various losses, and notably, is reduced when operated within an atmosphere.
The rate of propellant flow through a rocket engine is often deliberately varied over a flight, to provide a way to control the thrust and thus the airspeed of the vehicle. This, for example, allows minimization of aerodynamic losses[75] and can limit the increase of g-forces due to the reduction in propellant load.
Total impulse
Impulse is defined as a force acting on an object over time, which in the absence of opposing forces (gravity and aerodynamic drag), changes the momentum (integral of mass and velocity) of the object. As such, it is the best performance class (payload mass and terminal velocity capability) indicator of a rocket, rather than takeoff thrust, mass, or "power". The total impulse of a rocket (stage) burning its propellant is:[2]: 27
When there is fixed thrust, this is simply:
The total impulse of a multi-stage rocket is the sum of the impulses of the individual stages.
Specific impulse
Rocket | Propellants | Isp, vacuum (s) |
---|---|---|
Space Shuttle
liquid engines |
LOX/LH2 | 453[78] |
Space Shuttle solid motors |
APCP | 268[78] |
Space Shuttle
OMS |
NTO/MMH
|
313[78] |
Saturn V stage 1 |
RP-1
|
304[78] |
As can be seen from the thrust equation, the effective speed of the exhaust controls the amount of thrust produced from a particular quantity of fuel burnt per second.
An equivalent measure, the net impulse per weight unit of propellant expelled, is called specific Impulse, , and this is one of the most important figures that describes a rocket's performance. It is defined such that it is related to the effective exhaust velocity by:
where:
Thus, the greater the specific impulse, the greater the net thrust and performance of the engine. is determined by measurement while testing the engine. In practice the effective exhaust velocities of rockets varies but can be extremely high, ~4500 m/s, about 15 times the sea level speed of sound in air.
Delta-v (rocket equation)
The delta-v capacity of a rocket is the theoretical total change in velocity that a rocket can achieve without any external interference (without air drag or gravity or other forces).
When is constant, the delta-v that a rocket vehicle can provide can be calculated from the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation:[81]
where:
When launched from the Earth practical delta-vs for a single rockets carrying payloads can be a few km/s. Some theoretical designs have rockets with delta-vs over 9 km/s.
The required delta-v can also be calculated for a particular manoeuvre; for example the delta-v to launch from the surface of the Earth to
The ratio is sometimes called the mass ratio.
Mass ratios
Almost all of a launch vehicle's mass consists of propellant.[82] Mass ratio is, for any 'burn', the ratio between the rocket's initial mass and its final mass.[83] Everything else being equal, a high mass ratio is desirable for good performance, since it indicates that the rocket is lightweight and hence performs better, for essentially the same reasons that low weight is desirable in sports cars.
Rockets as a group have the highest thrust-to-weight ratio of any type of engine; and this helps vehicles achieve high mass ratios, which improves the performance of flights. The higher the ratio, the less engine mass is needed to be carried. This permits the carrying of even more propellant, enormously improving the delta-v. Alternatively, some rockets such as for rescue scenarios or racing carry relatively little propellant and payload and thus need only a lightweight structure and instead achieve high accelerations. For example, the Soyuz escape system can produce 20 g.[47]
Achievable mass ratios are highly dependent on many factors such as propellant type, the design of engine the vehicle uses, structural safety margins and construction techniques.
The highest mass ratios are generally achieved with liquid rockets, and these types are usually used for
Some notable mass fractions are found in the following table (some aircraft are included for comparison purposes):
Vehicle | Takeoff mass | Final mass | Mass ratio | Mass fraction |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ariane 5 (vehicle + payload) | 746,000 kg [84] (~1,645,000 lb) | 2,700 kg + 16,000 kg[84] (~6,000 lb + ~35,300 lb) | 39.9 | 0.975 |
Titan 23G first stage | 117,020 kg (258,000 lb) | 4,760 kg (10,500 lb) | 24.6 | 0.959 |
Saturn V | 3,038,500 kg[85] (~6,700,000 lb) | 13,300 kg + 118,000 kg[85] (~29,320 lb + ~260,150 lb) | 23.1 | 0.957 |
Space Shuttle (vehicle + payload) | 2,040,000 kg (~4,500,000 lb) | 104,000 kg + 28,800 kg (~230,000 lb + ~63,500 lb) | 15.4 | 0.935 |
Saturn 1B (stage only)
|
448,648 kg[86] (989,100 lb) | 41,594 kg[86] (91,700 lb) | 10.7 | 0.907 |
Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer | 10,024.39 kg (22,100 lb) | 1,678.3 kg (3,700 lb) | 6.0 | 0.83 |
V-2 | 13,000 kg (~28,660 lb) (12.8 ton) | 3.85 | 0.74 [87] | |
X-15
|
15,420 kg (34,000 lb) | 6,620 kg (14,600 lb) | 2.3 | 0.57[88] |
Concorde | ~181,000 kg (400,000 lb [88]) | 2 | 0.5[88] | |
Boeing 747 | ~363,000 kg (800,000 lb[88]) | 2 | 0.5[88] |
Staging
Thus far, the required velocity (delta-v) to achieve orbit has been unattained by any single rocket because the propellant, tankage, structure, guidance, valves and engines and so on, take a particular minimum percentage of take-off mass that is too great for the propellant it carries to achieve that delta-v carrying reasonable payloads. Since Single-stage-to-orbit has so far not been achievable, orbital rockets always have more than one stage.
For example, the first stage of the Saturn V, carrying the weight of the upper stages, was able to achieve a mass ratio of about 10, and achieved a specific impulse of 263 seconds. This gives a delta-v of around 5.9 km/s whereas around 9.4 km/s delta-v is needed to achieve orbit with all losses allowed for.
This problem is frequently solved by
The maximum speeds that can be achieved with staging is theoretically limited only by the speed of light. However the payload that can be carried goes down geometrically with each extra stage needed, while the additional delta-v for each stage is simply additive.
Acceleration and thrust-to-weight ratio
From Newton's second law, the acceleration, , of a vehicle is simply:
where m is the instantaneous mass of the vehicle and is the net force acting on the rocket (mostly thrust, but air drag and other forces can play a part).
As the remaining propellant decreases, rocket vehicles become lighter and their acceleration tends to increase until the propellant is exhausted. This means that much of the speed change occurs towards the end of the burn when the vehicle is much lighter.[2] However, the thrust can be throttled to offset or vary this if needed. Discontinuities in acceleration also occur when stages burn out, often starting at a lower acceleration with each new stage firing.
Peak accelerations can be increased by designing the vehicle with a reduced mass, usually achieved by a reduction in the fuel load and tankage and associated structures, but obviously this reduces range, delta-v and burn time. Still, for some applications that rockets are used for, a high peak acceleration applied for just a short time is highly desirable.
The minimal mass of vehicle consists of a rocket engine with minimal fuel and structure to carry it. In that case the thrust-to-weight ratio[nb 3] of the rocket engine limits the maximum acceleration that can be designed. It turns out that rocket engines generally have truly excellent thrust to weight ratios (137 for the NK-33 engine;[90] some solid rockets are over 1000[2]: 442 ), and nearly all really high-g vehicles employ or have employed rockets.
The high accelerations that rockets naturally possess means that rocket vehicles are often capable of
Energy
Energy efficiency
The energy density of a typical rocket propellant is often around one-third that of conventional hydrocarbon fuels; the bulk of the mass is (often relatively inexpensive) oxidizer. Nevertheless, at take-off the rocket has a great deal of energy in the fuel and oxidizer stored within the vehicle. It is of course desirable that as much of the energy of the propellant end up as kinetic or potential energy of the body of the rocket as possible.
Energy from the fuel is lost in air drag and
In a chemical propulsion device, the engine efficiency is simply the ratio of the kinetic power of the exhaust gases and the power available from the chemical reaction:[2]: 37–38
100% efficiency within the engine (engine efficiency ) would mean that all the heat energy of the combustion products is converted into kinetic energy of the jet. This is not possible, but the near-adiabatic
However, engine efficiency is not the whole story. In common with the other jet-based engines, but particularly in rockets due to their high and typically fixed exhaust speeds, rocket vehicles are extremely inefficient at low speeds irrespective of the engine efficiency. The problem is that at low speeds, the exhaust carries away a huge amount of kinetic energy rearward. This phenomenon is termed propulsive efficiency ().[2]: 37–38
However, as speeds rise, the resultant exhaust speed goes down, and the overall vehicle energetic efficiency rises, reaching a peak of around 100% of the engine efficiency when the vehicle is travelling exactly at the same speed that the exhaust is emitted. In this case the exhaust would ideally stop dead in space behind the moving vehicle, taking away zero energy, and from conservation of energy, all the energy would end up in the vehicle. The efficiency then drops off again at even higher speeds as the exhaust ends up traveling forwards – trailing behind the vehicle.
From these principles it can be shown that the propulsive efficiency for a rocket moving at speed with an exhaust velocity is:
And the overall (instantaneous) energy efficiency is:
For example, from the equation, with an of 0.7, a rocket flying at Mach 0.85 (which most aircraft cruise at) with an exhaust velocity of Mach 10, would have a predicted overall energy efficiency of 5.9%, whereas a conventional, modern, air-breathing jet engine achieves closer to 35% efficiency. Thus a rocket would need about 6x more energy; and allowing for the specific energy of rocket propellant being around one third that of conventional air fuel, roughly 18x more mass of propellant would need to be carried for the same journey. This is why rockets are rarely if ever used for general aviation.
Since the energy ultimately comes from fuel, these considerations mean that rockets are mainly useful when a very high speed is required, such as
Thus jet engines, with a better match between speed and jet exhaust speed (such as
Oberth effect
One subtle feature of rockets relates to energy. A rocket stage, while carrying a given load, is capable of giving a particular
This fact is used in interplanetary travel. It means that the amount of delta-v to reach other planets, over and above that to reach escape velocity can be much less if the delta-v is applied when the rocket is travelling at high speeds, close to the Earth or other planetary surface; whereas waiting until the rocket has slowed at altitude multiplies up the effort required to achieve the desired trajectory.
Safety, reliability and accidents
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2016) |
The reliability of rockets, as for all physical systems, is dependent on the quality of engineering design and construction.
Because of the enormous chemical energy in
In May 2003 the astronaut office made clear its position on the need and feasibility of improving crew safety for future NASA crewed missions indicating their "consensus that an order of magnitude reduction in the risk of human life during ascent, compared to the Space Shuttle, is both achievable with current technology and consistent with NASA's focus on steadily improving rocket reliability".[95]
Costs and economics
The costs of rockets can be roughly divided into propellant costs, the costs of obtaining and/or producing the 'dry mass' of the rocket, and the costs of any required support equipment and facilities.[96]
Most of the takeoff mass of a rocket is normally propellant. However propellant is seldom more than a few times more expensive than gasoline per kilogram (as of 2009 gasoline was about $1/kg [$0.45/lb] or less), and although substantial amounts are needed, for all but the very cheapest rockets, it turns out that the propellant costs are usually comparatively small, although not completely negligible.
Even though a rocket's non-propellant, dry mass is often only between 5–20% of total mass, For most rockets except reusable ones (shuttle engines) the engines need not function more than a few minutes, which simplifies design.
Extreme performance requirements for rockets reaching orbit correlate with high cost, including intensive quality control to ensure reliability despite the limited
To change the preceding factors for orbital launch vehicles, proposed methods have included mass-producing simple rockets in large quantities or on large scale,
The costs of support equipment, range costs and launch pads generally scale up with the size of the rocket, but vary less with launch rate, and so may be considered to be approximately a fixed cost.[96]
Rockets in applications other than launch to orbit (such as military rockets and rocket-assisted take off), commonly not needing comparable performance and sometimes mass-produced, are often relatively inexpensive.
2010s emerging private competition
Since the early 2010s, new
See also
Lists
General rocketry
- Aerospace engineering – Branch of engineering
- Rocket garden – display of missiles, sounding rockets, or space launch vehicles usually in an outdoor setting
- Service structure – Structure built on a rocket launch pad to service launch vehicles
- Spaceport – Location used to launch and receive spacecraft
- Variable-mass system – Collection of matter whose mass varies with time
Rocket propulsion
- Ammonium perchlorate composite propellant – Solid-rocket propellant
- Pulsed rocket motor
- Steam rocket – Thermal rocket that uses superheated water held in a pressure vessel
- Tripropellant rocket – Rocket that burns 3 propellants at once or 2 fuels with an oxidizer, sequentially
- Nuclear thermal rocket
Recreational rocketry
- High-power rocketry – Hobby
- National Association of Rocketry – U.S. nonprofit organization
- Tripoli Rocketry Association – U.S. model rocketry association
- Skyrocket – Type of firework
Weaponry
- Fire Arrow– Chinese gunpowder projectile
- Katyusha rocket launcher – Soviet/Russian multiple launch rocket system
- Rocket-propelled grenade – Shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon
- Singijeon – Korean fire arrow rocket
- VA-111 Shkval – Soviet supercavitating torpedo
Rockets for research
- Rocket sled – Test platform pushed by rockets along a track
- Sounding rocket – Rocket designed to take measurements during its flight
Miscellaneous
- Aircraft – Vehicle or machine that is able to fly by gaining support from the air
- Equivalence principle – The hypothesis that inertial and gravitational masses are equivalent
- Launch Pad (card game) – strategy card game
- Rocket Festival – Traditional festival of Laos and Thailand
- Rocket mail – Mail delivery by rockets or missiles
Notes
- ^ English rocket, first attested in 1566 (OED), adopted from the Italian term, given due to the similarity in shape to the bobbin or spool used to hold the thread from a spinning wheel. The modern Italian term is razzo.
- ^ "If you have ever seen a big fire hose spraying water, you may have noticed that it takes a lot of strength to hold the hose (sometimes you will see two or three firefighters holding the hose). The hose is acting like a rocket engine. The hose is throwing water in one direction, and the firefighters are using their strength and weight to counteract the reaction. If they were to let go of the hose, it would thrash around with tremendous force. If the firefighters were all standing on skateboards, the hose would propel them backward at great speed!"[70]
- ^ "thrust-to-weight ratio F/Wg is a dimensionless parameter that is identical to the acceleration of the rocket propulsion system (expressed in multiples of g0) ... in a gravity-free vacuum"[2]: 442
- ^ The energy density is 31MJ per kg for aluminum and 143 MJ/kg for liquid hydrogen, this means that the vehicle consumed around 5 TJ of solid propellant and 15 TJ of hydrogen fuel.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8262-6601-9. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-471-32642-7. Archivedfrom the original on 12 January 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
- ^ MSFC History Office. "Rockets in Ancient Times (100 B.C. to 17th Century)". A Timeline of Rocket History. NASA. Archived from the original on 2009-07-09. Retrieved 2009-06-28.
- ^ "A brief history of rocketry". NASA Spacelink. Archived from the original on 2006-08-05. Retrieved 2006-08-19.
Rockets appear in Arab literature in 1258 A.D., describing Mongol invaders' use of them on February 15 to capture the city of Baghdad
- ISBN 978-0-521-79158-8.
- ^ Needham, Volume 5, Part 7, 510.
- Hassan, Ahmad Y. "Gunpowder Composition for Rockets and Cannon in Arabic Military Treatises In Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries". History of Science and Technology in Islam. Archived from the originalon February 26, 2008. Retrieved March 29, 2008.
- Hassan, Ahmad Y. "Transfer Of Islamic Technology To The West, Part III: Technology Transfer in the Chemical Industries". History of Science and Technology in Islam. Archived from the originalon March 9, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
- JSTOR 44230626.
- ISBN 978-0-313-32795-7.
- ISBN 978-0-226-72081-4, retrieved 2024-02-18
- ISBN 978-88-85684-06-5.
- ^ "rocket and missile system | weapons system". Encyclopædia Britannica (Online ed.). Archived from the original on 2017-10-31. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
- ^ Winter, Frank (September 2014). "The Rockets That Inspired Francis Scott Key". Air & Space Magazine. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- ^ Morris, Charles W. "MLRS and Maneuver Warfare". Marine Corps Association. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
- ^ Congreve, William (2018) [1814]. The Details of the Rocket System. Project Gutenberg.
- ^ Leitch, William (1862). God's Glory in the Heavens.
- ^ 'Flight 3 October 1952, A. M. Low, "'The First Guided Missile' p. 436
- ^ OCLC 3430998
- ^ Zak, Anatoly. "Gas Dynamics Laboratory". Russian Space Web. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
- ^ Glushko, Valentin (1973). Developments of Rocketry and Space Technology in the USSR. Novosti Press Pub. House. p. 7.
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The aerospace giants [Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.] shared almost $500 million in equity profits from the rocket-making venture last year, when it still had a monopoly on the business of blasting the Pentagon's most important satellites into orbit. But since then, 'They've had us on a very short leash,' Tory Bruno, United Launch's chief executive, said.
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the government's monopoly on space travel is over
External links
Governing agencies
- FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- National Association of Rocketry (US)
- Tripoli Rocketry Association
- Asoc. Coheteria Experimental y Modelista de Argentina Archived 2020-10-27 at the Wayback Machine
- United Kingdom Rocketry Association
- IMR – German/Austrian/Swiss Rocketry Association
- Canadian Association of Rocketry
- Indian Space Research Organisation
Information sites
- Encyclopedia Astronautica – Rocket and Missile Alphabetical Index
- Rocket and Space Technology
- Gunter's Space Page – Complete Rocket and Missile Lists
- Rocketdyne Technical Articles
- Relativity Calculator – Learn Tsiolkovsky's rocket equations
- Robert Goddard – America's Space Pioneer Archived 2009-02-05 at the Wayback Machine