Exploring Rocket Science: The Working of Rockets

1. Welcome

2. Rockets How do things work

3. Title ` How things work Working of rockets Done by: Abdul Wadood Anurag.s Devanarayanan Mohammed safeer X.B,S.M.V.H.S.S

4. Objectives 1.Pictures of rockets. 2. A brief history about rocket. 3.Explanation about the working of rocket.

5. Why did we take this project For learning more about rockets To understand the working of rockets

6. Introduction Space travel is an amazing and complicated thing. It is complicated because there are so many problems and obstacles to overcome. You have things like the vacuum of space, heat management problems, the difficulty of re-entry, meteorites and other space debris, cosmic and solar radiation, and going to the bathroom in space.

7. History of rockets Rockets came to the New World during the War of 1812. During the Battle of Bladensburg, August 24, 1814, the British 85th Light Infantry used rockets against an American rifle battalion commanded by U.S. Attorney General William Pickney. British Lieutenant George R. Gleig witnessed the Americans' response to the new threat -- "Never did men with arms in their hands make better use of their legs," he wrote. On December 4, 1846, a brigade of rocketeers was authorized to accompany Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott's expedition against Mexico. The Army's first battalion of rocketeers -- consisting of about 150 men and armed with about 50 rockets -- was placed under the command of First Lieutenant George H. Talcott. The rocket battery was used March 24, 1847 against Mexican forces at the siege of Veracruz. On April 8 the rocketeers moved inland, being placed in their firing position by Captain Robert E. Lee (later to command the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the War Between the States). About 30 rockets were fired during the battle for Telegraph Hill. Later, the rockets were used in the capture of the fortress of Chapultepec, which forced the surrender of Mexico City. With typical foresight, as soon as the fighting in Mexico was over, the rocketeer battalion was disbanded and the remaining rockets were placed in storage. They remained in mothballs for about 13 years -- until 1861 when they were hauled out for use in the Civil War. The rockets were found to have deteriorated, however, so new ones were made.

8. Working of rockets Rocket engines are reaction engines. Remember the famous Isaac Newton principle that "to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." A rocket engine is generally throwing mass in the form of a high-pressure gas. The engine throws the mass of gas out in one direction in order to get a reaction in the opposite direction. The mass comes from the fuel that the rocket engine burns. The power of a rocket engine is called its thrust. Thrust is measured in "pounds of thrust". A pound of thrust is the amount of power it would take to keep a 1-pound object stationary against the force of gravity on Earth. So on Earth, the acceleration of gravity is 32 feet per second per second (21 mph per second). If you have ever seen the Space Shuttle launch, you know that there are three parts, the Orbiter, the big external tank and the two solid rocket boosters. The whole vehicle, shuttle, external tank, solid rocket booster casings and all the fuel has a total weight of 4.4 million pounds at launch.All of that fuel is being thrown out the back of the Space Shuttle at a speed of about 6,000 mph. The solid rocket booster burn for about two minutes and generate about 3.3 million pounds of thrust each at launch. The three main engines burn for about eight minutes, generating 375,000 pounds of thrust each during the burn. The idea behind a simple solid-fuel rocket is simple. What you want to do is create something that burns very quickly but does not explode. As you are probably aware, gunpowder explodes. In a rocket engine you don't want an explosion. You want the power released more evenly over a period of time. When you light the fuel, it burns along the wall of the tube. As it burns, it burns outward toward the casing until all the fuel has burned. In a small model rocket engine the burn might last a second or less. In a Space Shuttle solid rocket booster containing over a million pounds of fuel, the burn lasts about two minutes. Robert Goddard created the first liquid propelled rocket engine in 1926.

9. Parts of Rockets