Court E Rossman
Rockets are very general. Anything that squirts or blasts some exhaust out the back is a rocket, typically with its own fuel and oxidizer. 1.Water bottles can easily be made into high air pressure air or water rockets, using bicycle pumps and corks. 2.Toy chemical rockets are faster and there are many kits, with a parachute. 3.Huge space chemical rockets are remarkably similar to toy chemical rockets, except liquid fuels are used like very cold hydrogen. Solid fuel is also sometimes used as a first stage booster, when just want large thrust and do not need to throttle. Rockets are in an exciting era, with many launches of astronauts, satellites, and robots for planets. Commercial, not NASA, rockets are supplying the International Space Station and launching many satellites. Commercial rockets are experimenting with cost saving designs, like self landing re-usable boosters, hybrid-fuel engines, and piggy backing on an airplane before igniting the rockets. Large aeronautic companies are focusing on going to the Moon and Mars. NASA is free to focus on running missions in the Space Station, building robots to explore Mars, and developing plans to have people live on Mars and the Moon. Part 1: Rocket typesCompares the three different types of rockets - water bottle, toy chemical, and real space rockets - with their different speeds and altitudes, different fuels and energy sources (pressurized air, solid fuel, and liquid fuel). Part 2: Details of Rocket types 1.Toy chemical rockets provide a direct comparison to larger space rockets. They accelerate too fast, and typically use only solid fuels and one stage. 2.Space chemical rockets have multiple stages to enable the orbital velocity and escape from earth. Liquid and solid fuels, multi-stage rocket sections, and flight trajectory are explained. Part 3: Future Rocket typesCompare Rockets to futuristic cascaded engines that use oxygen in the atmosphere to get a rocket moving in the first stage. Nuclear power would be convenient to get to other planets more quickly. Also compare rockets to rail-gun cannons and space elevators. This book is one of two versions. This version is lighter and talks about general ideas, and is more fun and appropriate for someone who is not interested in engineering equations. If you want the engineering analysis, then read the heavier version ’Gamut of Speedy Rockets, for Parents and Kids’.
