Rocket engine

“ This represents an increase of several orders of magnitude over chemical rockets and nuclear rocket models which can be implemented using only present technology. To achieve the required levels of impulse, a pulsed fusion reactor based rocket engine is proposed. ”

“ After World War II, captured V-2 rockets were used to train American technicians in missile launch procedures and to carry the first payloads of scientific instruments into the upper atmosphere in the United States.
The operational V-2 rocket structure consisted of three sections. The nose housed the warhead and control mechanisms. The fuel tanks carried liquid oxygen and alcohol propellants. The rocket engine, turbopumps, and control surfaces were contained in the tail section. ”

“ Although this engine is a liquid-propellant rocket, it substitutes a series of small combustion chambers and nozzles for the traditional single large chamber and nozzle to achieve additional thrust. This innovative combustion system features chambers and nozzles mounted on an annular ring at the base of the engine. Thrust is derived from the expansion of the exhaust gases against a large segmented plug in the center of the engine. Flight control is achieved by varying the amount of propellant introduced into the individual chamber sections. ”

“ This retro-rocket engine used a type of liquid propellant known as anhydrous hydrazine and it was so delicately controlled that it could burn for as little as 2/10 of a second and increase the velocity of the spacecraft from as little as 7/10 of a foot per second to as much as 200 feet per second. ”

“ Equipment will also be required aboard to get the payload through the atmosphere and safely back to earth, To land a man on the moon and get him home safely again will require a very big rocket engine indeed—one with a thrust in the neighborhood of one or two million pounds, While nuclear power may prove superior to chemical fuels in engines of multi-million-pound thrust, even the atom will provide no short cut to space exploration. ”

“ Progress in the rocket engine field offers a high degree of confidence that multiple-barrel booster of one to one and a half million pounds total thrust could be ready for flight test in two to three years. ”

“ Gas pressure generators are used to open Stage I and Stage II propellant storage valves, release staging nuts and terminate vernier rocket thrust. Two solid propellant vernier rocket motors are mounted inside the Stage II engine compartment. The pitch rockets are two solid propellant rockets mounted in the between-tanks area of Stage II, equidistant from one another. Pitch rocket nozzles are protected by external fairings which are ejected by the rocket blast at ignition. Initiators are used to start the vernier rocket motors and activate engine gas pressure generators. ”

“ Thrust chambers of the F-1 rocket engine on the manufacturing line.
Five F-1 engines powered the first stage of the Saturn 5 launch vehicle that launched the manned Apollo spacecraft to the Moon. These engines developed a total thrust of 3.5 million kilograms (7.6 million pounds) . They burn liquid oxygen and a form of kerosene at a rate of 13,475 liters (3560 gallons) per second.
The propellants are supplied to the thrust chambers by turbopumps driven by gas generators that use a fuel-rich mixture ratio of the same propellants used in the engine. ”

“ The magnitude of the surface exposed to radiation should be as great as is consistent with the whole magnitude of the machine. The comparative advantage which the Rocket possessed in these respects over the other engines will be evident on inspection. In the next place, it is necessary that the heat, which is absorbed by the air passing through the fuel, and keeping it in a state of combustion, should be transferred to the water before the air escapes into the chimney. ”

“ Rocket engines able to supply this thrust have been under development for some time. For launching a satellite, or other space vehicle, the rocket engineer divides his rockets into two, three, or more stages, which can be dropped one after the other in flight, thus reducing the total weight that must be accelerated to the final velocity desired. (In other words, it is a great waste of energy to lift one huge fuel tank into orbit when the tank can be divided into smaller tanks—each packaged in its own stage with its own rocket motor—that can be left behind as they become empty.) ”

“ Further, some of the work this winter has indicated that the rocket, used as an engine, has possibilities for great horsepower with small weight, and will, I believe, have important applications in aviation. ”

“ To boost the engine power and give us more Gs, we'd either have to carry more fuel or coast part of the way on momentum, like an ordinary rocket. This way's more efficient, and our 63-day margin over the Marsward each way is more than enough for unloading and loading more cargo and fuel. ”

“ The fin-stabilized rocket was powered by a liquid-propellant engine that burned a self-igniting fuel and oxidizer combination. Use of these propellants eliminated the need for an ignition system. By March 1946, these rockets had attained altitudes of over 72.4 kilometers (45 miles) with a booster. The WAC Corporal was later used as a second stage on a German V-2 rocket. This U.S. program, code-named “Bumper,” tested techniques for ignition and separation of stages at high altitudes. ”

“ The Rocket possessed the three elements of efficiency of the modern locomotive—the internal water-surrounded fire-box and the multitubular flue in the boiler; the blast-pipe, by which the steam after doing its work in the cylinders was exhausted up the chimney, and thus served to increase the draught and promote the rapid combustion of the fuel; and the direct connexion of the steam cylinders, one on each side of the engine, with the two driving wheels mounted on one axle. ”

“ Nearly every person favored some other engine, so that there was nothing for the "Rocket" but the practical test. The first trip made by it was quite successful. It ran about twelve miles, without interruption, in about fifty-three minutes.
The "Novelty" was next called out. It was a light engine, very compact in appearance, carrying the water and fuel upon the same wheels as the engine. The weight of the whole was only three tons and one hundred-weight. A peculiarity of this engine was that the air was driven or forced through the fire by means of bellows. ”

“ The Integrated Powerhead Demonstrator is a corner-stone of the Integrated High Payoff Rocket Propulsion Technologies program, which seeks to double the performance and capability of today’s state-of-the-art rocket propulsion systems while decreasing costs associated with military and commercial access to space. The intended full-flow engine cycle is a key component in achieving this goal. ”

“ Rocket propulsion, of course, is not a new thing; the basic idea is centuries old. As applied to aerial warfare it was employed on a crude basis even in World War I. The Italians made public an experimental flight of a propellerless jet-type plane several years ago. Long before that, automobiles were driven by rocket engines, and special rockets for making meteorological soundings in the substratosphere were in use.... ”

“ THE THRUST INTO SPACE
Rocket engineers rate rockets not in horsepower, but in thrust, Thrust is just another name for push, and it is expressed in pounds of force. The rocket gets its thrust or push by exhausting material backward. It is this thrust that lifts the rocket off the earth and accelerates it, making it move faster and faster. As everyone knows, it is more difficult to accelerate an automobile than a baby carriage. ”

“ L3 continues powered descent using its own main or backup rocket motor. 9. L3 touchdown on Moon. 10. Expended Block D rocket stage crashes on Moon. 11. L3 liftoff using same engines used for final descent. Legs are left on Moon. 12. L2 rendezvous and docking with L3. 13. Cosmonaut transfers from L3 to L2 by EVA. L3 discarded. 14. Trans-Earth insertion burn using L2 main engine. 15. Midcourse correction using L2 main engine. 16. Orbital module and service module discarded. 17. Descent module reentry. 18. Parachute descent and touchdown on land. ”

“ Thus it happens that, though the principle of the rocket has been known for an age, it is only comparatively recently that it has been applied to the propulsion of cars. An invention, too, always presents itself to an inventor at first in the most complicated form, and frequently many years are passed in attempts at simplification. What a wide interval is there between the steam locomotive with all its complex mechanism, and the magnificently simple rocket car! A century of ceaseless invention is comprehended between the two! ”

“ The mouths of the rockets being rubbed with wet meal powder, lay them in the grooves, head to tail, and tie them fast; from the tail of the first rocket, carry a leader to the mouth of the second, and from the second to the third, and so on to as many as there are on the swivel, making every leader very secure, but in fixing these pipes take care, that the quick-match does not enter the bores of the rockets ”

“ The self-propelled rockets have not been altered in essential features since the remote centuries when the Chinese first used them in celebrations. A cylindrical shell is mounted on a wooden stick and when the powder in the shell burns the hot gases are ejected so violently downward that the reaction drives the shell upward. At a certain point in the air, various signals burst forth, which vary in character and color. One of the advantages of the rocket is that it contains within itself the force of propulsion ”

“ It is evident, therefore, that however extended the magnitude of Rockets may be, and I am now endeavouring to construct some, the falling mass of which will be considerably more than that of the 13-inch shell or carcass, and whose powers, therefore, either of explosion or conflagration, will rise even in a higher ratio, still, although the first cost may exceed that of any projectile at present thrown, on a comparison of effects, there will be a great saving in favour of the Rocket System. ”

“ The system here shewn is the use of the Rockets by infantry—one man in ten, or any greater proportion, carrying a frame, of very simple construction, from which the Rockets may be discharged either for ground ranges, or at high angles, and the rest carrying each three rounds of ammunition, which, for this service, is proposed to be either the 12-pounder Shell Rockets, or the 12-pounder Rocket case shot, each round equal to the 6-pounder case, and ranging 2,500 yards. ”

“ The rocket lay huddled in the belly of the launching tower, her needle-like body quiet, waiting, her control panels flashing signals and instructions to her masters, her circuits buzzing with the tenseness of the seconds before blast off. ”

“ It is just as the resistance of the air to the downward stroke of the bird’s wings raises the bird. It is also just as, in jumping up off the ground, the resistance of the ground to your feet makes you go up. You press with your feet on the ground, and so the rocket presses with its gas on the air; and so long as gas keeps coming out of its tail to press on the air, the rocket keeps going up. When the gas is exhausted the rocket comes down.
You have sometimes seen whirling wheels in fire-works. ”

“ You may observe that the head is made to terminate in a point, which greatly facilitates its passage through the air. The whole is affixed to a straight stick, which, like the rudder of a ship, makes it turn to that side towards which it is inclined, and consequently causes the rocket to ascend in a straight line.”
“But, papa,” observed Louisa, “all the rockets have not straight rods; see, there is one, with a crooked stick.” ”

“ The advantages claimed for rockets over cannon are, unlimited size of projectile, portability, freedom from recoil, rapidity of discharge, and the terror which their noise and fiery trail produce on mounted troops.
Structure.—A rocket is essentially composed of a strong case of paper or wrought iron, inclosing a composition of nitre, charcoal, and sulphur,—the same as gunpowder, except that the ingredients are proportioned for a slower rate of combustion. If penetration and range be required, its head is surmounted by a solid shot ”

“ But the baffles themselves crumbled and were flung astern, so that the solid-fuel rockets had always [Pg 21] the efficiency of gas-throated rocket motors; and yet every bit of refractory was reaction-mass to be hurled astern, and even the steel tubes melted and were hurled away with a gain in acceleration to the ship. Every fraction of every ounce of rocket mass was used for drive. No tanks or pumps or burners rode deadhead after they ceased to be useful. ”

“ These large Rockets have from their weight, combined with less diameter, even more penetration than the heaviest shells, and are therefore equally efficient for the destruction of bomb proofs, or the demolition of strong buildings; and their construction having now been realized, it is proved that the facilities of the Rocket system are not its only excellence, but that it actually will propel heavier masses than can be done by any other means ”

“ They had a terrible time with their rockets because the heat of one set off the next. The result was a disastrous explosion—and they had a whole ocean of air to cool them! What would a rocket do in free space? Also remember the principle of a rocket is that you shoot particles out of the rear at a very high speed and thus impart the kick to the ship. The electronic rocket does the same thing—but instead of shooting molecules of hot gas, it shoots electrons, a giant cathode ray tube such as Coolidge had in 1927, but his was so small that the kick was immeasurable. ”