Space Propulsion

10 Pages 2525 Words

ind it in order to “push” the vehicle forward. Efficiency is the way that the quality of rocket engines is measured by. It is measured by the time it takes for one kilogram of propellant to create one kilogram of thrust. The goal of my research is to find out what makes these engines more efficient. In rocketry, the state of the art is extremely hard to define, since there are so many different forms of rocketry ranging from liquid propellant rockets to fireworks. The state of the art though is probably nuclear powered rockets. It is much more efficient because it does not use chemical combustion like most rockets do. Instead NFRRs (Nuclear Fission Reactor Rockets) heat hydrogen in a fission reactor which expels the propellant at blistering speeds. Much research is being done with NFRRs. They are still highly experimental because of the dangers that could be associated with them. The NERVA (Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application) was one of the most extensive NFRR research projects, however it failed because of the inability figure out an approach to putting the research into a developmental stage. SECTION 2 Specific Rocket Propulsion Systems Section One has laid the foundation for further research in the are of rocketry. Section two shall discuss properties of efficiency in more depth, it shall lay out the types of rockets in existence now. It shall also show which type of rocket is the most efficient. After this section, the next one shall describe how the reasons for these specific rockets efficiency and depending on the outcome of that report, the topic of the fourth shall be decided. EFFICIENCY Efficiency is the most important part of my research as yet. Since the object of my research is to find out which type of rockets are the most efficient and why, the reader of this paper must have a basic understanding of efficiency. Once this is established, new definitions will come into play, all of these shall be crucial in th...