Rockets
Rockets are basically planes on steroids. For one, they go a lot faster. The current fastest plane in the world can go at mach 3.35, or about 2570.352 miles per hour, vs. a rocket getting out of earth’s atmosphere can go up to 36,373, about 33803 miles per hour faster. Rockets have to go very fast, they are used to escape the earth's atmosphere to explore space. To break the earth’s atmosphere and get into space, the rocket has to at least be going 25,000 mph(7 miles per second), or escape velocity. The Space shuttle is a type of rocket that is attached to a bigger rocket that carries humans. It first flew on April 12, 1981, and made its last flight on July 21, 2011. In that 30 year time period, the shuttle launched on 135 different missions. On the space shuttle, there were three main parts. The first was the orbiter, which was a large, white space plane where the crew resided. It was the only part of the shuttle that flew into orbit. The second part was the external tank. This was the large orange fuel tank was attached to the bottom for launching. The third and final part was two pieces, a pair of solid white rocket boosters. These provided most of the thrust for the first couple of minutes of a shuttle launch. When landing the orbiter after coming back from space, it lands like a glider. After re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, it glided and landed on a runway. When it touched down on the ground, a parachute opened to slow it down.
How Does it Work?
The word rocket can either mean an engine or a ship used to get into outer space. A rocket engine works differently than from a jet engine. A jet engine needs oxygen from the air to function properly, whereas a rocket engine carries everything it needs to function inside of the engine itself. That’s why a rocket engine can function in space without needing additional materials. Rocket engines can use two different types of fuel. Solid fuel and liquid fuel. Smaller examples of solid fuel can include fireworks and model rockets. While in the earth’s atmosphere, the rocket can use fuel push against the ground and air. But while in the vacuum of space, there is nothing of the sort in space. So scientists build the rockets with Newton’s third law of motion in mind, which is, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”. When a rocket pushes out its exhaust, the exhaust pushes back on the rocket, allowing the rocket to move in space. Rockets, like hot air balloons, don’t follow the aerodynamic principles because they use fuel to move themselves around, and there is no air in space, thus not allowing the aerodynamic principles to take effect on the rocket.