TABLE OF CONTENTS Jerry Jon Sellers
Rockets take us where we us need to go in space. They form the core of the propulsion systems found on everything from fireworks to Space Shuttles to the Starship Enterprise. Propulsion systems:
Get us into space,
Move us around once we get there, and
Change our attitude (the direction we're pointing)
Once a spacecraft is delivered to space by a launch vehicle, its propulsion subsystem provides the ? V needed to take it to the final mission orbit and then make orbital corrections and maneuvers throughout the mission lifetime.
Propulsion is also essential for attitude control. These thrusters are either the sole method of attitude control (like the Shuttle's reaction-control system) or they complement the primary system for large slewing maneuvers or to provide a means for momentum dumping. In this chapter we will peel back the mysteries of rocket science to see how rockets work and how propulsion systems are put together for both spacecraft and launch vehicles.
A rocket is simply a system that takes mass plus energy and converts them into a force to move a vehicle. The input mass for a rocket is generally called propellant. The force produced by a rocket we call thrust.
Our examination of rocket systems begins by looking at the output-thrust. This requires us to dust off Newton's laws to see how high-speed exhaust going in one direction pushes a vehicle in another. Next we will...
