Rocket fuel

“ 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.) ”

“ Well, they were loaded with Plutonium, the stuff we now use for rocket fuel.
"But Plutonium furnishes just enough power to lift a ship, its pilot, one or two passengers, and a few pounds of pay load from Venus or Mars to the Earth. A ship escaping from the stronger gravity of Earth can only limp as far as Moon Station without refueling. ”

“ RL-10 engines used to power Centaur launch vehicle.
The RL-10 is an upper stage propulsion system that can be stopped and restarted in space. It is a regeneratively cooled engine which burns liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to produce 6800 kilograms (15,000 pounds) of thrust. RL-10s pioneered the use of liquid hydrogen as a rocket fuel. They powered the Centaur launch vehicles that boosted such craft as Surveyor and Viking into space. A six-engine cluster of RL-10s was also used to propel the S4 stage of the Saturn 1. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Since the exhaust of the rockets must rely on some material of a sort, or rather some sort of resistance to push the ship along, how does it push on nothing? Of course, near Earth it has the ground and then the atmosphere to push from, but out in the void, why not cut off and save fuel, therefore saving an extra heavy load of explosives, if rocket-ships were really practical in space flying? ”

“ Oxidizer flow is directly through the injector into the combustion chamber. The propellants ignite hypergolically and the flow of expanding gases from the nozzle produces thrust. Rocket engine sustained operation is dependent upon bootstrap operation involving the turbo- pump assembly and the gas generator. Simultaneously with the flow of propellants to the thrust chamber, a small amount of fuel and oxidizer is drawn off below the thrust chamber valves into gas generator fuel and oxidizer lines. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The fuel is untested and unpredictable. If this trick fuel fails to work, the whole thing will go up maybe six miles and then drop. If the atomic stuff turns into a bomb they'll hear the bang in Las Vegas. If it works as they expect, it might go up several hundred miles, maybe even more. It could make a better satellite rocket than the ones we've got up already. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It's so much easier the way we do it here, on earth. It sounds screwy."
Olinski smiled, but could give no explanation. "Now, this rocket," he went on, "is constructed of aluminum, and its cone-shaped nose contains a tiny bulbous chamber, in which the liquid fuel, which appears to be a mixture of highly volatile gasoline and liquid oxygen, burns to form the propulsion gases which shoot downward, like the gases from gunpowder in the ordinary fire-works rocket. ”

“ He saw a man in the red overalls of a fuel technician climb the gantry alongside the center rocket and push something into a valve on the side of the booster stage, near its juncture with the main part of the ship.
"Do you see that mechanic on the center rocket?" Roger asked.
"Let's see," the officer replied and looked toward that rocket. "Yes, I see him now. A mechanic shouldn't be pushing anything into that valve. That particular valve is used to jettison fuel in an emergency. A blast of compressed air will usually clear anything out of it. ”

“ Only used three of them, but that was sufficient for the take-off."
"But I thought this rocket business was not feasible on account of the wastage of fuel due to its low efficiency," I objected.
"We should worry about fuel," said Hart.
I looked about me and saw that there was very little space for the storage of this essential commodity. "Why?" I inquired. "What fuel do you use?"
"Make our own," he replied shortly. He was busy at the moment, maneuvering the Pioneer into a position above and behind the SF-22 and her convoy.
"You make your own fuel enroute?" ”

“ The least obvious thing to do would be to tamper with the fuel in such a way that it would explode violently when it was heated in the motors. The nitric acid used in the booster stage would make the best reactant. The rocket would be too close to the ground to drop the booster. Better check the fuel before the rocket carrying those South American officials blasts off."
He turned to Roger. "Would you like to see how we stake out a place?"
"Sure," replied Roger. "Spaceports are always interesting." ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The first liquid-propellant rocket engines built by the American Rocket Society were machined from blanks of heat-resistant, cast-aluminum alloy. Engine No. 1 powered the first two rockets designed and constructed by the ARS. It featured combustion chamber walls 12.7 millimeters (1⁄2 inch) thick and burned liquid oxygen and gasoline to produce a thrust of 27.22 kilograms (60 pounds) . Liquid oxygen was pressurized by partial evaporation, while bottled nitrogen forced gasoline from the tank to the engine. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The jet plane carries no oxygen for its engine: its jet propulsion engine uses oxygen from the air. This engine has fewer parts and is of simpler construction than the traditional engine. It operates a mechanism which compresses the air. This air is mixed with atomized fuels such as gasoline, kerosene, alcohol, or some other fuels of the hydrocarbon family, rich in hydrogen. From that point forward the operation is the same as in the rocket engine; that is to say, the gas is released and ignited, the resulting expansion and emission through the jet providing the power.... ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A rocketship must burn its fuel by chemical explosion in order to push its cargo load upward. Its fuel is limited by its own weight and by the awkwardness of its handling. This A-G ship also must supply energy, foot-pound for foot-pound, for every foot it raises the vehicle. But due to the amount of energy supplied by this new nuclear generator, such power is at last available in one compact form and in such concentration that this ship could propel itself for hundreds of years. ”

“ It allows of nearly the whole composition being fired at once; the result of which is that an enormous quantity of heated gases collects in the hollow bore, and the gases, forcing their way downwards through the narrow opening, urge the rocket up through the air. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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 ”

“ G. "So that it would not be absolutely necessary to give the projectile an initial velocity of five miles a second."
I. "No; and, besides, we are not solely dependent on the rocket. A jet of gas, at a very high pressure, escaping from an orifice into the vacuum or ether, would give us a very high propelling force. By compressing air, oxygen, or coal-gas (useful otherwise) in iron cylinders with closed vents, which could be opened, we should have a store of energy serviceable at any time to drive the car. ”