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Rockets Space Race Rockets
Reference Information
Ancient Rockets - 100 B.C. to 17th Century
The Dream to Fly
Ever since humans first saw birds soar through the
sky, they have wanted to fly. The ancient Greeks
and Romans pictured many of their gods with
winged feet, and imagined mythological winged
animals. According to the legend of Daedalus and
Icarus, the father and son escaped prison by
attaching wings made of wax and feathers to their
bodies. Unfortunately, Icarus flew too near the sun,
and the heat caused the wax and feathers to melt.
The feathers fell off, and Icarus plummeted to the
sea. Daedalus landed safely in Sicily.
Hero’s Engine
About 100 BC, a Greek inventor known as Hero of Alexandria came up
with a new invention that depended on the mechanical interaction of
heat and water. He invented a rocket-like device called an aeolipile. It
used steam for propulsion. Hero mounted a sphere on top of a water
kettle. A fire below the kettle turned the water into steam, and the gas
traveled through the pipes to the sphere. Two L-shaped tubes on
opposite sides of the sphere allowed the gas to escape, giving a thrust
to the sphere, causing it to rotate.
Ancient Rockets - 100 B.C. to 17th Century
Chinese Launch Fire Arrow
The Chinese began experimenting with the
gunpowder-filled tubes. At some point, they attached
bamboo tubes to arrows and launched them with
bows. Soon they discovered that these gunpowder
tubes could launch themselves just by the power
produced from the escaping gas. The true rocket
was born. The “Fire Arrow” sounded more like
fireworks but the Chinese used the rockets as
weapons in battle.
Dr. Goddard (far left) adjusts pressure lines. Rocket with turbo-pumps that inject propellants into
the combustion chamber is shown on its assembly frame without its casing at the Goddard
workshop in Roswell, New Mexico in 1940. In 1930, he shifted his entire rocket operation to
Roswell to escape publicity. The new location also provided wide-open spaces and excellent
climate for testing.
20th Century Rockets - Early to Mid 20th Century
Hermann Oberth
Dr. Hermann Oberth (1894-1989) was the foremost authority on rocketry
outside the United States. A Hungarian-born German, he is considered to
be one of the top three pioneers in modern rocketry - Konstantin
Tsiolkovsky and Robert Goddard are the other two. Oberth was the only
one out of the three to see human spaceflight come to fruition. Oberth
was a guest at the Apollo 11 moon landing launch on July 1969 as well as
at the launch of the STS-51J, Space Shuttle Atlantis mission. He is
credited with suggesting that space stations would be essential if humans
wished to travel to other planets. He was inspired by the tales of Jules
Verne in From the Earth to the Moon and Travel to the Moon.
Liquid Oxygen
Tank
Hydrogen- Propellant
Peroxide Tank Turbo-Pump
Main Liquid
Combustion Oxygen Valve
Chamber
Main Fuel
Exhaust Valve
Vane
Wing
Antenna
Steerable
Aero Rudder
Credit: V-2 Rocket.Com
20th Century Rockets - Early to Mid 20th Century
Von Braun Team Moved to the U.S.
As the war ended, the United States
developed an interest in the technical
capability of the Germans. A team of
American scientists was dispatched to Europe
to collect information and equipment related
to German rocket progress. "Project
Paperclip" enabled the German rocket
specialists to come to the United States to
advance American rocketry.
The three men responsible for the success of Explorer 1 are (from
left to right): Dr. William H. Pickering, former director of JPL that
built and operated the satellite; Dr. James A. van Allen, from the
University of Iowa who designed and built the instrument on
Explorer I that discovered the radiation belts circling the Earth; Dr.
Wernher von Braun, leader of the Army's Redstone Arsenal team
that built the first stage Redstone rocket that launched Explorer 1.
Space Race Rockets - Mid 20th to Late 20th Century
Atlas Launches First American into Orbit
The Atlas was the first ICBM deployed by the United
States. Its development goes back to just after World
War II when captured German rocket and missile
technology supported many new missile research
studies. In 1953, Convair completed the initial design
studies. Innovations introduced in the development of
the Atlas included: movable thrust chambers mounted
on gimbals to provide directional control, integral
airframe and tank structure to reduce deadweight and
thus increase range and payload, the use of vernier
engines to obtain precise velocity and attitude
adjustments, and a separable warhead re-entry
vehicle. The fuel tank containing a kerosene mixture
and the oxidizer tank with liquid oxygen was separated
by an intermediate bulkhead. If the tanks were not
pressurized, the entire structure collapsed. The first
silo-stored Atlas F squadron became operational in
November 1962. The Atlas was 75 ft long and its 10 ft
diameter flared to 16 ft at the nacelles.
Liquid hydrogen (LH2) fuel, at -423 OF, from the External Tank flowed into the orbiter at the liquid
LH2 feed line disconnect valve. It then entered the orbiter LH2 feed line manifold and branched
out into three parallel paths to each engine.
Umbilical
Space Shuttle Disconnect
Main Engines
External
Tank LO2
Feed Line
Flight Deck
Mid Deck
Space Race Rockets - Mid 20th to Late 20th Century
Solid Rocket Booster
The two SRBs provided the main thrust to lift the space shuttle off
Drogue the pad to an altitude of about 28 miles. They were the largest solid-
Parachute propellant motors ever flown and the first designed for reuse. Prior
to launch, the SRBs carried the entire weight of the external tank
Main and orbiter through their structure to the mobile launcher platform.
Parachutes Seventy-five seconds after SRB separation, SRB apogee occurred
(3 Places) at an altitude of 41 miles; parachutes were deployed and impact
occurred in the ocean approximately 141 miles downrange. The
SRBs were recovered and processed to be used again.
Segment
(4 Places) Each booster had a thrust of approximately 3,300,000 lbs at launch
providing 71.4 % of the thrust at lift-off. The SRBs were ignited after
Steel
the three Space Shuttle Main Engines' thrust level was verified.
Casing
Each was 149.16 ft long and 12.17 ft in diameter and was
Propellant comprised of four segments. The propellant mixture in each SRB
motor consisted of an ammonium perchlorate (oxidizer, 69.6% by
weight), aluminum (fuel, 16%), iron oxide (catalyst, 0.4%), a polymer
(binder that holds the mixture together, 12.04%), and an epoxy
curing agent (1.96%).
Aft Skirt The cone-shaped aft skirt reacted the loads between the SRB and
the mobile launcher platform. Four separation motors mounted on
Nozzle the skirt released the shuttle from the mobile launch platform. The
Separation nozzle was a convergent-divergent design using a gimbal
Motors (4 Places) mechanism to help steer the shuttle.
Space Race Rockets - Mid 20th to Late 20th Century
Largest Rocket Ever Launches
Military Payload
The Energia rocket was designed as a heavy-lift expendable
launch system as well as a booster for the Buran Space
Shuttle. It had the capacity to place up to 110 tons in low Earth
orbit. It could be configured for heavier payloads comparable
to, or even greater than, the Saturn V. On May 15, 1987, it
initially launched Polyus (shown to the left atop the rocket), a
military test-bed put together on a crash basis as an answer to
America's Star Wars program. Polyus failed to reach orbit, but
if it had succeeded, it would have been the core module of a
new Mir-2 space station. Its mere presence could have
decisively changed the shape of the Cold War in its final
months.
Soviet Shuttle Launched
On November 15, 1988, Energia launched an unmanned
Buran re-usable shuttle. After two orbits, Buran landed at
an airfield. The Soviet re-usable spacecraft program Buran
(snowstorm or blizzard) began in 1976 as a response to
the NASA Space Shuttle. The objectives were similar to
those of the U.S. program except Buran would re-supply
the Mir space station. Buran did not fly a manned mission.
Production of Energia rockets ended with the fall of the
Soviet Union and the end of the Buran shuttle project.
Future Rockets - Human Space Exploration Program
Crew Configuration
NASA is beginning a new era in space exploration focusing on
sending astronauts to an asteroid and eventually to Mars. The Orion
Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) will serve as the primary crew
vehicle for missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). The MPCV will be
capable of conducting regular in-space operations such as
rendezvous, docking and extravehicular activity, in conjunction with
payloads delivered by the Space Launch System (SLS) or other
vehicles in preparation for missions beyond LEO.
Reaction Action
Rockets as Inventions - Late 19th Century
Tsiolkovsky’s Rocket Concepts
The big breakthrough in rocket technology was the use of
1 2 3 liquid propellants that Konstantin Tsiolkovsky advocated at the
turn of the 19th Century. The liquids are stored in separate
tanks and fed into the combustion chamber either under the
pressure of a stored gas or by means of pumps. The thrust
can be controlled by valves. Later, the rocket pioneers quickly
discovered that combustion chambers and nozzles can burn
through if they are not properly designed. Some of the first
motors were provided with water-cooling jackets. Soon,
regenerative cooling was introduced that used part of the fuel,
Legend: after circulating in the jacket, and then entered the chamber
for combustion with the oxidant.
Oxidant
Concept 1 - The first spaceship design in 1903 envisioned
Combustion the use of liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LO2). It
incorporated a pressure cabin and exhaust vanes for thrust
Fuel
vector control (TVC).
Concept 2 - The 1914 design was a development of the
1903 design in which the passenger lay supine. It featured
double-walled construction, including the pressure cabin and
TVC, and was remarkable in that combustion took place in an
offset chamber that exhausted into a curved tube that would
have greatly impaired performance.
Concept 3 - The 1915 design is taken from the jacket of the
book Lunar Travel On the Moon (Moscow, 1935). Internal
detail now shows inlet valves for LO2 and LH2.
20th Century Rockets - Early to Mid 20th Century
Goddard’s 1926 Design
Igniter The diagram shows the first liquid-propellant (liquid
Valve Valve oxygen/gasoline) rocket to fly. An alcohol burner between the
tanks was used to increase vaporizing of the liquid oxygen. A
Fuel Oxidant starting hose (pulled free as the rocket began to rise) fed
oxygen from a ground supply cylinder through the oxygen gas
pressure line. Cork float valves prevented the liquid propellants
De Laval
De Laval from spilling into the pipes while still allowing the gas to flow.
Nozzle
Nozzle The supply of fuel/oxidant to the igniter that contained match
heads and black gunpowder provided the initial explosion.
De Laval Nozzle
In 1915, Robert Goddard found that rockets of the time were not very efficient. Only 2% of the
energy released was used to accelerate the exhaust. Since a faster exhaust means more power,
he looked for effective ways to channel the exhaust. Gustav De Laval, a Swedish engineer, had
invented a nozzle while working on steam engines. De Laval found that the most effective way to
generate a high speed jet was with a nozzle that alternately converged and diverged.
20th Century Rockets - Early to Mid 20th Century
Oberth’s Cone Motor Oberth’s Modell B Rocket
Oberth's “Kegelduese,” cone motor, of 1929
set the pattern for the VfR's (the German
Society for Space Travel) early rocket engine Third
experiments. The liquid oxygen/gasoline Stage
motor was comprised of two halves secured
by bolts. It was made of steel and heavily
copper plated on the inside. The lower half
included the nozzle. In 1930, the cone motor
Second
performed for 90 seconds delivering a
constant thrust. Stage
The fuel and oxidizer turbo-pumps were steam turbines, and the steam was produced by
concentrated hydrogen peroxide with a potassium permanganate catalyst. The alcohol-water fuel
was pumped along the double wall of the main combustion burner. This cooled the chamber and
heated the fuel. The fuel was then pumped into the main burner chamber through 1,224 nozzles,
assuring the correct mixture of alcohol and oxygen. Small holes also permitted some alcohol to
escape directly into the combustion chamber, forming a cooled boundary layer that further
protected the wall of the chamber, especially at the throat where the chamber was narrowest. The
boundary layer alcohol ignited in contact with the atmosphere, accounting for the long, diffuse
exhaust plume.
The V-2 was guided by four external rudders on the tail fins and four internal graphite vanes at
the exit of the motor. The guidance system consisted of two free gyroscopes (a horizon and a
vertical) for lateral stabilization, and a gyroscopic accelerometer connected to an electrolytic
integrator (engine cut-off occurred when a thin coating of silver was electrochemically eroded off a
poorly conducting base). Some later V-2s used "guide beams" (radio signals transmitted from the
ground) to navigate towards the target, but the first models used a simple analog computer that
adjusted the azimuth for the rocket, and the flying distance was controlled by the timing of the
engine cut-off, ground controlled by a Doppler system or by different types of on-board integrating
accelerometers. The rocket stopped accelerating and soon reached the top of the (approximately
parabolic) flight curve.
Space Race Rockets - Mid 20th to Late 20th Century
R-7 Rocket
The problem in building the first nuclear ICBM in the
1950s was rockets still had relatively low thrust, whereas
first-generation thermonuclear weapons were extremely
heavy.