3, 2, 1… With a short, sharp, boom, the ignition begins. To accomplish our desire to reach the new world, we are making more and more advancements to go beyond what our hands can reach – somewhere we have never been before. To do that, we need rockets. From the launch of Sputnik to Explorer I, Neil Armstrong’s huge leap for mankind to Change 4 mission, a burst of fierce and dazzling red flame then immediately take off.
["Antares Rocket Test Launch (201304210006HQ)" by NASA HQ PHOTO is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.]
Author: Siyeong Park Editor: Haryeong Eo, Yunjin Jung
3, 2, 1… With a short, sharp, boom, the ignition begins. To accomplish our desire to reach the new world, we are making more and more advancements to go beyond our hands can reach - somewhere we have never been before. To do that, we need rockets. From the launch of Sputnik to Explorer I, Neil Armstrong’s huge leap for the mankind to Chang’e 4 mission, burst of fierce and dazzling red flame then immediate take off. Rocket is a spacecraft and a vehicle that takes various machineries or astronauts to space. Rockets has been used for our scientific research, to conquer the new world, answer to the question to our curiosity, and for terraforming as well. We always imagined rockets as vehicles to take us to somewhere cool, but they are more than that. Today, innumerable number of rockets are being designed and planned to be launched.
So how does Rocket perform the take off? To take off rocket needs to overcome these forces: which is weight, thrust, aerodynamic forces, lift and drag. Weight is created by the gravitational force, and the amount varies on rocket’s designs and on different planets. Thrust is used to overcome weight. Aerodynamic force is an important force that can affect the direction of the rocket. Lift is simply the force that lets the rocket take off and drag is the force that pulls the rocket down. Overall, thrust and lift is used to overcome weight, whereas weight and drag prevents from it.
To overcome the weight, engineers have tried various ways, starting from minor factors that can influence the rocket’s ability to overcome the weight. Starting with air temperature, the scientists learnt that when air is heated, the air molecules move further apart to create a dense air which helps rocket to accelerate faster. Therefore, rocket goes higher on a hotter day. Next, they also analyzed the geological factors as well. This is a geologic factor that can only be altered by launching at a different location. The air density decreases as the elevation rises, and that is the reason we feel sickness when we go up to high mountains or high places. But once again lower air density is good for launching rockets and means higher altitudes can be attained. Engineers also have investigated the best angle to launch a rocket. If a rocket is launched straight up, (Which is 90 degrees) the projectile goes very high but comes back to earth quite near the launching pad. If you launch it almost horizontally, gravity brings it down to the ground before it can travel far. In between is an angle, which is 45 degrees, will let the rocket travel horizontally as far as possible before gravity brings it back to Earth. Therefore, the best angle for rocket launching is 45 degrees. After engineers experimenting all these factors, they now started using advanced technology to upgrade the function of the components of the rocket. A lot of rocket engineers have devoted their time on designing and constructing a better engine and using the best engine. Engine and fuels are crucial for a successful rocket mission because engine is the primary art of the rocket, and fuel is something that powers up the engine. Today, two main types of fuels used for rockets, and they are solid fuels and liquid fuels. The engines in the space shuttle orbiter (the upper part of the rocket which is used after the disassembly with other propulsion system components) primarily uses liquid fuel. The rocket boosters (two columns at the side of a rocket when being launched) uses solid fuels. Like the engines we can see in a car, rocket engines burn fuel to accelerate its speed. These fuels are transferred into hot gas. The engine releases the gas at the bottom. This gas lets the rocket shoot off. The recent idea about how the rocket will escape the Earth is: while the rocket is on Earth, the friction between the rocket and the atmosphere will be slowing the rocket down. Also, the rocket cannot ignore the gravitational force pulling down the rocket as well. But the faster the take-off, the more it will travel before falling. From the calculations, the speed of the rocket should be about 11.2km/s. The rocket needs to travel 11.2km in a second to cancel and ignore the gravity and the atmospheric friction acting upon the rocket. The solution for this is very simple: release burning fuel to produce high speed and acceleration. When the fuel is burnt, the gas product is extremely, which lets the rocket escape the Earth’s atmosphere with great amount of force. Even though this is the most recent and the accurate idea, more and more engineers are researching and investigating more to bring another creative and innovative idea to overcome the weight as easily and efficient as possible.
Now you may wonder: how can scientists and engineers make rockets every time with limited resources while they don’t know what’s out there in the space? Well, engineers continue to develop the space – related technology with the essential and basic physics law. They continue to develop their design by developing to Newton’s laws. These are some of the most well-used ones: If an object is at rest or moving a constant speed it will remain at rest or keep moving at constant speed unless it is acted upon a force. The time rate of change of the momentum of a body is equal in both magnitude and direction to the force imposed on it. When two objects interact, they apply forces to one another that are equal in magnitude and opposite direction. Engineers are further investing on new and different elements or compounds to let the most combustion happen. Combustion is a chemical process that generates heat by combining elements. Combustion is primarily used for accelerating the rocket with heat to result in great speed of takeoff. From combustion, the oxygen is the main element that will be combined with others to create a solution. This solution will generate the heat to support the acceleration at last. New ideas and formulas are continuously made by scientists to make the most acceleration.
Even though a lot of ideas and concepts were introduced here, scientists and engineers are continuing to develop on the basic ideas they will produce and construct a successful mission. Scientists are continuing to find more and more planets that we will be able to live at – one of them is Mars, and there are innumerable of planets that is thousands and millions of light years away from us waiting for our arrival. Hope our motivation to continue the space travel will never cease, and hope there can be more successful missions from the upcoming ones.
References
Katz.george@gmail.com. “Air Command Water Rockets.” Air Command Water Rockets Home, http://www.aircommandrockets.com/flying_higher.htm.
Google. (n.d.). Bottle Rocket Lab Report. Google Docs. Retrieved April 24, 2022, from https://docs.google.com/document/preview?hgd=1&id=1FRxNyWGOD3SrUjnJlSPy7azilnlPFQcyUSXnKg9ebzM
https://www.npl.co.uk/skills-learning/outreach/water-rockets/wr_booklet_print
“Bottle Rocket Lab Report.” Google Docs, Google, https://docs.google.com/document/preview?hgd=1&id=1FRxNyWGOD3SrUjnJlSPy7azilnlPFQcyUSXnKg9ebzM.
It Is Rocket Science - STANSW Young Scientist Awards. http://www.youngscientist.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/186-report.pdf.
“Water Rockets.” NASA, NASA, https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/rocket/rktbot.html#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20first%20and%20simplest%20type%20of,a%20base%20to%20support%20the%20rocket%20during%20launch.
Teacher Information Bottle Rocket Launcher - NASA. https://er.jsc.nasa.gov/SEH/Bottle_Rocket_Launcher.pdf.
“Bottle Rocket Simulations.” NASA, NASA, https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/TRC/Rockets/liquid_bottle_rocket.html.
Sparrow, Giles, and All About Space magazine. “How Rockets Work: A Complete Guide.” Space.com, Space, 30 June 2021, https://www.space.com/how-rockets-work#:~:text=Rockets%20must%20delicately%20balance%20and%20control%20powerful%20forces,the%20back%20of%20the%20rocket%20through%20a%20nozzle.
“Rocket Physics.” Real World Physics Problems, https://www.real-world-physics-problems.com/rocket-physics.html.
Conversationofmomentum. “Optimal Launch Angle.” Conversation of Momentum, 12 July 2020, https://conversationofmomentum.wordpress.com/2014/07/31/optimal-launch-angle/.
Dunbar, Brian. “What Is a Rocket?” NASA, NASA, 20 May 2015, https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-a-rocket-k4.html.
“Structural System.” NASA, NASA, https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/rocket/structure.html.
“Payload Systems.” NASA, NASA, https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/rocket/payload.html.
“Guidance System.” NASA, NASA, https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/rocket/guidance.html.
“Propulsion System.” NASA, NASA, https://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/rocket/rocket.html.
“Rocket.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/technology/rocket-jet-propulsion-device-and-vehicle.
Comments