Rockets and Missiles - History, Scientific Basis Of Rocketry, Rocket Propulsion, Solid Fuel Rockets, Specific Impulse, Multistage Rockets
usually space carry engine
The term rocket refers both to a non-air-breathing jet engine and to any vehicle it propels. Rocket fuels may be either solid or liquid. In the former case, the rocket is commonly known as a rocket engine, while in the latter case, it is usually called a rocket motor.
A missile is an unmanned vehicle propelled through space, usually carrying some type of explosive intended to do harm to an enemy. A missile, like a rocket, usually carries its own means of propulsion. It may also carry its own guidance system or, alternatively, it may be guided by a ground-based command center.
Rockets have two primary functions. First, they are used to carry out research on Earth's atmosphere, other parts of the solar system, and outer space. Rockets designed to carry instruments no farther than the upper levels of the atmosphere are known as sounding rockets. Those designed to lift spacecraft into orbit or into outer space are known as boosters or as carrier vehicles.
The second function of rockets is as components of missiles. A large fraction of the research and development on modern rocketry systems has been carried out by and/or under the supervision of the military services.
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The first rocket was almost certainly constructed in China, but the date of that invention is not known. There is evidence that the Chinese knew about black gunpowder at least two centuries before the birth of Christ, but the explosive was probably used exclusively for ceremonial purposes. The concept of using gunpowder to propel an object through space probably did not arise for more than a thous…
The scientific principle on which rocket propulsion is based was first enunciated in 1687 by Sir Isaac Newton. In his monumental work on force and motion, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), Newton laid out three laws of motion. The third of these stated that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For example, if you pus…
A rocket is propelled in a forward direction when, like the squid, a fluid is expelled from the back of its body. In the most common type of rocket, the expelled fluid is a mass of hot gases produced by a chemical reaction inside the body of the rocket. In other types of rockets, the expelled fluid may be a stream of charged particles or plasma produced by an electrical, nuclear, or solar process.…
Like liquid-fuel rockets, solid-fuel rockets have both advantages and disadvantages. The rocket can be fueled a long time in advance of a launch without too much danger of the fuel's deteriorating or damaging the rocket body. The construction of the rocket body needed to accommodate the solid fuel is also much simpler than that which is needed for a liquid-fuel rocket. Finally, the fuels th…
The effectiveness of a fuel in propelling a rocket can be measured in a number of ways. For example, the thrust of a rocket is the mass that can be lifted by a particular rocket fuel. The thrust of most rocket propulsion systems is in the range from 500,000 to 14,700,000 newtons (10,000 to 3,300,000 pounds). For example, suppose that a rocket burns up one pound of fuel for every 400 lb (182 kg) of…
In some cases, rocket engineers combine solid and liquid rockets in the same vehicle in order to take advantage of the unique advantages each has to offer. A classical example is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) space shuttles. The shuttles make use of 67 individual rockets in order to lift the vehicle off Earth's surface, maneuver it through space,…
Rockets that operate with solid and liquid chemicals are currently the only kinds of vehicles capable of lifting off Earth's surface for scientific research or military applications. But both types of chemical rockets suffer from one serious drawback for use in vehicles traveling through outer space. The fuels they use are much too heavy for long distance travel above the Earth's atm…
The modern age of missile science can probably be said to have begun toward the end of World War II. During this period, German rocket scientists had developed the ability to produce vehicles that could deliver warheads to targets hundreds or thousands of miles from their launch point. For a period of time, it appeared that the German V-2 rocket-missile might very well turn the tide of the war and…
Missiles can be classified in a number of different ways. Some are said to be unguided because, once they are launched, there is no further control over their flight. The German V-2 rockets were unguided missiles. Such missiles can be directed at the launch site in the general vicinity of a target, but once they are on their way, there is no further way that their path can be adjusted or corrected…
Any missile consists essentially of four parts: a body, known as the airframe; the propulsive system; the weapon; and the guidance system. Specifications for the airframes of some typical rockets were given above. The propulsive systems used in missiles are essentially the same as those described for rockets above. That is, they consist of one or more liquid rockets, one or more solid rockets, or …
At one time, the methods used to guide a missile to its target were relatively simple. One of the most primitive of these systems was the use of a conducting wire trailed behind the missile and attached to a ground monitoring station. The person controlling the missile's flight could make adjustments in its path simply by sending electrical signals along the trailing wire. This system could…
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User Comments
over 5 years ago
My Perspective about missles is very simple. When a missle is launched Tword it's target a rocket activates to fire it.Now before you go trying to proove me wrong think about it. arocket is a projectile and the missle can non do squat without a projectile
When a millsle is launched it is 1 of 3 kinds. It must be eather, balistic, nuclear, or heat seeking. Heat seeking is launched frome mobile forses, the nuclear & Balistick are launched frome bases along with the acatinal heat seeking missle.