In order for any rocket to fly, it must obey some basic rules of physics. No rocket can escape the cardinal rule that the center of gravity must be in front of the center of pressure.
Center of Gravity
The Center of Gravity or Cg is the point that behaves as if all the mass was concentrated in that one spot. Simply put it is the point at which you could balance the rocket on your finger. The Cg is also the point around which the rocket rotates. This becomes very important for the rocket's stability as you will soon see.
Center of Pressure
The Center of Pressure or Cp is similar to the Cg. The Cp is the point at which the forces from the air pushing on the vechicle seem to be focused.
What is a Cg or a Cp?
Basic Rocket
Why Does This Matter ?
When a rocket is in flight, the force of the air pushing on it keeps the Cp behind the Cg. This is important because the rocket is pushed by the force of the exhaust coming out the back. If the Cp was in front of the Cg, the rocket would want to spin around (so that its back was pointing forwards).. However, because the exhaust is always pushing the rocket forward, it spins around again and again... and you get the picture from there.
Fins
So now that you know all about Cgs and Cps, it should make perfect sense what fins are for.
Still a little confused? The fins are extra surface area near the back of the rocket. This brings the Cp further back on the rocket without significantly moving the Cg..
Calculating Cp
Calculating a Cp is rather involved. The easiest way to do it is by using Barrowman's Equations, although these are still fairly complicated. I was going to explain them, but I found a site that does a better job than I could ever do.
The UAF Student Rocket Project builds and flies sounding rockets with help from Wollops Flight Facilty.
Our latest mission, SRP4, is a student designed and built payload. It will be carrying a science instrument designed by students and professors at Toyama Prefectual University in Japan. Our goal is to measure the D-region of the ionosphere.
SRP4 will fly atop an Orion sounding rocket motor that will be supplied by NASA's Wollops Flight Facility.
We expect to launch from Poker Flat Research Range in March of 2002.
During the late 1950’s the space race began. This was a race to see who could achieve the most space firsts, between the USA and Russia. Sonny, O’Dell, Sherman, Roy Lee and Quentin live in Coalwood, West Virginia.The space race inspired these boys, who decide to call themselves the Rocket Boys, to make their own rockets. The BCMA (Big Creek Missile Agency) was born when Sonny called a meeting with his friends in his room and discussed how he wanted to build rockets. With the help from the a man at the town’s machine shop, Mr.Bykovski, the BCMA built its first rocket, called Auk I. The rocket was named after an extinct bird that was unable to fly. Auk I was equipped with a wooden bullet shaped nose cone, an aluminum tubing body, fins, and a soldered washer at the bottom. The boys mixed together black powder and postage stamp glue to act as fuel for their rocket. The rocket flew up 6ft, and then fell back down. The rocket boys later found out that the reason their rocket stopped flying was because the solder melted. The BCMA was happy with the result from the rocket, because it was their first ever rocket to fly.
A rocket in its simplest form is a chamber enclosing a gas under pressure. A small opening at one end of the chamber allows the gas to escape, and in doing so provides a thrust that propels the rocket in the opposite direction. Newton’s laws can be used to explain this his laws in the simplest terms can be explained like this:
According to Miller, Ron. The History of Rockets. N.p.: Grolier, 1999. Print. "The forces of action and reaction, which propel the rocket forward, occur the moment the fuel is burned-before the exhaust leaves the engine." (Miller 10). the combustion within the motor is burning the fuel (reactants) causing the exhaust (products) to leave the motor pushing the rocket up.
Tate, Karl. "NASA's Mighty Saturn V Moon Rocket Explained (Infographic)." Space.com. N.p., 9 Nov. 2012. Web. 18 May 2014.
"Aerospace Engineers." Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance. 14th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Ferguson, 2008. 62-66. Print.
The Payload Nine Toy can help increase NASA’s sales by 6.8%, could be produced with minimal changes to the production floor, and if started by May 1,2017, it could successfully be completed in time for Christmas. Although this toy seems like an easier solution, it does not fit best into the current long-term goals, or fall in line with Galaxy’s overall mission and vision. Of those long-term goals set out to achieve, using new technology based action toys and using innovative technology, are two of the most important. Galaxy’s vision says that they want to create toys that inspire children to dream of space exploration. Therefore, the best choice for Galaxy is to roll out with the new MMTJE1
Rocketry, the use of rocket power as a propulsion mechanism, has changed the boundaries of man’s domain.Before the advent of efficient rocket power, space flight was seen as an impossibility and exclusively the subject of science fiction stories.The nature of rocket power changed in the early twentieth century when a man named Robert Hutchings Goddard focused his research and his entire life on efficient rocket propulsion.Rocket power had been thought of long before Goddard’s time, but he was the first to have success with it.
Bottle rockets have been a source of entertainment and education for many years . In many science classes, the constructing and launching of bottle rockets are used as a tool to provide students with a real-world application of forces. However, what is a bottle rocket and what does it have to do with science? Why do bottle rockets fly?
Are we allotting enough funding for aerospace research? At the present time, significant progress in aerospace research will not be made for a long time. It is sad that we don’t place more urgency on such an important field. Yes, there is still research being conducted in the field; however, limited funding prevents significant advancement. The benefits derived from aerospace research should provide enough justification for investing more money in this area. The benefits are not exclusive to sp...
In 1947, the first rocket plane to break the sound barrier was the Bell X-1 flown by Chuck Yeager. In efforts to develop a machine that can fly faster and higher, Burt Rutan used a mother plane to carry a rocket plan 40,000 feet in the air. The Mother plane then drops the rocket plane, leading the rocket plane to fire its motors in order to get into space. With this method Rutan was able to will a $10 million prize in 2004 from being the first civilian plane to go into space and return. This space craft was called SpaceShipOne (Ref 5). Rutan’s method certainly helped with the growth of space exploration, enabling other inventors to build upon his method leading to an exponential growth in rocketry. Both the Bell X-1 and SpaceShipOne successfully combined both aviation and rocketry. The fusion of these two attributes really was the foundation to the future of science and the exploration of space. All in all, these past events will be important in implementing a safe and successful future for space
You need to submit a science project soon, but unfortunately you procrastinated so bad that you don’t have much time to do a complicated project. Or maybe you just want to learn about simple science by doing an easy fun project. Either way, it would be perfect to do this balloon rocket project that’s both easy and fun. This essay will explain how to successfully make a simple Balloon Rocket, which is typically used as a science experiment. The initial main step to making a balloon rocket is collecting the materials from a nearby store or arts and crafts shop. The second main step is to set up the experiment in your home or wherever you are making the balloon rocket. The last step is to conduct the experiment and record the data on different aspects of the experiment.
Wagner, R., & Cook, H. (2000). Designs on space blueprints for 21st century space exploration. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Sir Isaac Newton was in my mind one of the greatest people who ever lived. He was born in 1642 and died in 1727. He formulated three laws of motion that help explain some very important principles of physics. Some of Newton 's laws could only be proved under certain conditions actual observations and experiments made sure that they are true. Newton 's laws tell us how objects move by describing the relationship between force and motion. I am going to try to explain his first law in more simple terms.
Kinematics refers to the motion of objects without taking note of the forces that act upon that object, while projectile motion is a form of movement where an object is thrown from the surface and travels along a curved path that is just controlled by gravity. As a result of neglecting air resistance, gravity would be the only force affecting the system and thus, the acceleration due to gravity would only affect the vertical displacement and vertical velocity of the object. The horizontal component of the velocity remains unchanged throughout its motion. In this experiment, the time of flight and range of the object were investigated by using a projectile launcher. The ball was either launched by short range or medium range, which is more powerful than the short range (ball travels
"National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Marshall Space Flight Center." NEW FRONTIERS ::: JUNO. NASA, Web. 01 Apr. 2014. .