SCIENCE BEHIND

ROCKET
NAME :- RACHANA BORDE
CLASS :- 11th SCIENCE
SUBJECT :- PHYSICS ASSIGNMENT
content
• Histroy of rocket
• Modern rocketry
• Rocket propulsion
• Chemical propulsion system
• Forces affecting rocket acceleration
• Newton’s third law
• Newton’s second law
• Putting all newton’s laws together
History of rockets
• Archytas, a Greek philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer, was said to
have constructed and flown a small bird-shaped device that was propelled by a
jet of steam or compressed air. The ‘bird’ may have been suspended by a wire or
mounted at the end of a bar that revolved around some sort of pivot.
• About three hundred years after the pigeon, another Greek, Hero of Alexandria, invented a
similar rocket-like device called an aeolipile. It, too, used steam as a propulsive gas.
• The aeolipile was an ancient device also known as Heron which was based on
the rocket principle of action and reaction, i.e. Newton's third law
• The Chinese began experimenting with the gunpowder-filled tubes. At some point, they
attached bamboo tubes to arrows and launched them with bows. Soon they discovered that
these gunpowder tubes could launch themselves just by the power produced from the
escaping gas. The true rocket was born.
• By the 16th century rockets fell into a time of disuse as weapons of war, though they were
still used for fireworks displays, and a German fireworks maker, Johann Schmidlap,
invented the "step rocket," a multi-staged vehicle for lifting fireworks to higher altitudes. A
large sky rocket (first stage) carried a smaller sky rocket (second stage). When the large
rocket burned out, the smaller
Modern Rocketry
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), proposed the idea of space exploration by rocket. Tsiolkovsky
published a report entitled Exploration of the Universe with Rocket Propelled Vehicles. he suggested
the use of liquid propellants for rockets in order to achieve greater range. Tsiolkovsky stated that the speed
and range of a rocket were limited only by the exhaust velocity of escaping gases. For his ideas, careful
research, and great vision, Tsiolkovsky has been called the Father of Modern Astronautics.
• Early in the 20th century, an American, Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), conducted a variety of practical
experiments in rocketry. He was interested in a way of achieving higher altitudes than were possible for
lighter-than-air balloons. He published a pamphlet in 1919 entitled A Method of Reaching Extreme
Altitudes, a mathematical analysis of what is today called the meteorological sounding rocket.
Goddard's earliest experiments were with solid-propellant rockets. In 1915, he began to try various types
of solid fuels and to measure the exhaust velocities of the burning gases. While working on solid-
propellant rockets, Goddard became convinced that rocket efficiency would be greatly improved by using
liquid fuel. No one had ever built a successful liquid-propellant rocket before. Doing so was much more
difficult than building solid-propellant rockets. Fuel and oxygen tanks, turbines, and combustion chambers
all would be needed.
• In spite of numerous difficulties, Goddard achieved the first successful flight with a liquid-
propellant rocket on March 16 Goddard's experiments in liquid-propellant rockets continued for many
years. His rockets became bigger and flew higher. He developed a gyroscope system for flight
control and a payload compartment for scientific instruments. Parachute recovery systems were
employed to return rockets and instruments safely. Goddard, for his achievements, has been called
the Father of Modern Rocketry
Rocket Propulsion
• The principle on which rocket propulsion works is based on
Newton’s third law of motion. Here, the fuel is forcibly ejected from the exit such
that an equal and opposite reaction occurs.
Types of Rocket Propulsion

• Liquid-fuel chemical propulsion

• Solid fuel chemical propulsion
• Cold-gas chemical propulsion
• Ion
Chemical Propulsion Systems

• Chemical Propulsion Systems, on the other hand, uses chemical

reactions to release energy and accelerate gases to generate
thrust. These systems produce relatively large thrusts in relatively
short periods of time. There are several kinds of chemical
propulsion, including liquid/gaseous propulsion, solid propulsion,
and hybrid propulsion.
 liquid-propellant
• A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket utilizes a rocket engine that uses
liquid propellants. Gaseous propellants may also be used but are not common because of
their low density and difficulty with common pumping methods. Liquids are desirable because
they have a reasonably high density and high specific impulse . This allows the volume of the
propellant tanks to be relatively low. The rocket propellants are usually pumped into the
combustion chamber with a lightweight centrifugal turbopump, although some aerospace
companies have found ways to use electric pumps with batteries, allowing the propellants to
be kept under low pressure. This permits the use of low-mass propellant tanks that do not
need to resist the high pressures needed to store significant amounts of gasses, resulting in a
low mass ratio for the rocket.
Solid-propellant

• A simple solid rocket motor consists of a casing, nozzle, grain (propellant charge), and
igniter.
• The solid grain mass burns in a predictable fashion to produce exhaust gases, the flow of
which is described by Taylor–Culick flow. The nozzle dimensions are calculated to
maintain a design chamber pressure, while producing thrust from the exhaust gases.
• Once ignited, a simple solid rocket motor cannot be shut off, because it contains all the
ingredients necessary for combustion within the chamber in which they are burned. More
advanced solid rocket motors can be throttled, and also be extinguished,[4] and then re-
ignited by control of the nozzle geometry, or through the use of vent ports. Further,
pulsed rocket motors that burn in segments, and that can be ignited upon command are
available.
• Modern designs may also include a steerable nozzle for guidance, avionics, recovery
hardware (parachutes), self-destruct mechanisms, APUs, controllable tactical motors,
controllable divert and attitude control motors, and thermal management materials.
Factors Affecting Rocket’s Acceleration

• The acceleration will be greater when the exhaust velocity ve of the

gases is greater with respect to the rocket.
• The acceleration is greater when the fuel in the rocket is burned
faster.
• As the mass of the rocket decreases, greater will the acceleration.
Newton's Third Law

• Sir Isaac Newton first presented his three laws of motion in the
"Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis" in 1686. His third
law states that for every action (force) in nature there is an equal
and opposite reaction. In other words, if object A exerts a force on
object B, then object B also exerts an equal and opposite force on
object A. Notice that the forces are exerted on different objects.
• In aerospace engineering, the principal of action and reaction is
very important. Newton's third law explains the generation of
thrust by a rocket engine. In a rocket engine, hot exhaust gas is
produced through the combustion of a fuel with an oxidizer. The
hot exhaust gas flows through the rocket nozzle and is
accelerated to the rear of the rocket. In re-action, a thrusting force
is produced on the engine mount. The thrust accelerates the
rocket as described by Newton's second law of motion.
Newton's Second Law
• This law of motion is essentially a statement of a mathematical equation. The three parts of the equation are mass (m),
acceleration (a), and force (f). Using letters to symbolize each part, the equation can be written as follows: f = ma
• By using simple algebra, we can also write the equation two other ways:
• a = f/m
• m = f/a
• The first version of the equation is the one most commonly referred to when talking about Newton's second law. It
reads: force equals mass times acceleration. To explain this law, we will use an old style cannon as an example.
• When the cannon is fired, an explosion propels a cannon ball out the open end of the barrel. It flies a kilometer or two to
its target. At the same time the cannon itself is pushed backward a meter or two. This is action and reaction at work
(third law). The force acting on the cannon and the ball is the same. What happens to the cannon and the ball is
determined by the second law. Look at the two equations below.
• f = m(cannon) * a(cannon)
• f = m(ball) * a(ball)
• the equations can be combined and rewritten below.
• m(cannon) * a(cannon) = m(ball) * a(ball)

• In order to keep the two sides of the equations equal, the accelerations vary with mass.
In other words, the cannon has a large mass and a small acceleration. The cannon ball
has a small mass and a large acceleration.
• Let's apply this principle to a rocket. Replace the mass of the cannon ball with the mass of
the gases being ejected out of the rocket engine. Replace the mass of the cannon with the
mass of the rocket moving in the other direction. Force is the pressure created by the
controlled explosion taking place inside the rocket's engines. That pressure accelerates the
gas one way and the rocket the other.
• Newton's second law of motion is especiaily useful when designing efficient rockets. To enable a
rocket to climb into low Earth orbit, it is necessary to achieve a speed, in excess of 28,000 km per
hour. A speed of over 40,250 km per hour, called escape velocity, enables a rocket to leave Earth
and travel out into deep space. Attaining space flight speeds requires the rocket engine to achieve
the greatest action force possible in the shortest time. In other words, the engine must burn a large
mass of fuel and push the resulting gas out of the engine as rapidly as possible .
Putting Newton's Laws of Motion Together

• Anunbalanced force must be exerted for a rocket to lift off from a launch
pad or for a craft in space to change speed or direction (first law). The
amount of thrust (force) produced by a rocket engine will be determined by
the mass of rocket fuel that is burned and how fast the gas escapes the
rocket (second law). The reaction, or motion, of the rocket is equal to and in
the opposite direction of the action, or thrust, from the engine (third law).