SpaceX is cool

What is the coolest thing about SpaceX?

I know they are the leaders in the private space industry but not this fact.

The thing is they are ambitious, I mean highly ambitious.

And that's what separates them from the rest of the space crowd.

I mean their REUSABLE LAUNCH SYSTEM PROGRAMME is the coolest thing a rocket enthusiast would have seen in his life.

The most observable benefit of this system is that you can literally land the rocket boosters anywhere you want. The standard parachute landing mechanism needs a landing zone which I think carries a lot many problems like it can go anywhere it wants to I mean the control lies in no one's hand ( this system has been used to deploy rovers on mars).

The bad part about the reusable program is that it is a lot failure-prone. Anything could go wrong like what if all the fuel got used up or the engines didn't kick up at right time maybe because the altitude sensor malfunctioned. But as everyone would be aware that better things require practice to work and that's exactly how SpaceX perfected it by going wrong 4 times initially.

The other thing a rocket enthusiast would like about them is that they make 90% of parts in house.

I wonder how Elon Musk got Tom Mueller to design the MERLIN ROCKET ENGINE. It works on the gas generator power cycle. 

The reusable launch system is highly cost-effective, a thing the company owners drool over.

These were some of my thoughts over SpaceX. I mean I love their work in this industry.

Next, I might write my thoughts over STARLINK also a few more blogs might spawn on reusable launch systems basically on how I imagine things to work in it.

Rocket Basics Parts

PARTS OF A ROCKET

A rocket primarily consists of 3 main parts:

1. NOSE CONE

2. BODY

3. NOZZLE

1. NOSE CONE: 

It basically contains the payload i.e satellite, explosives, astronauts, etc. which has to be transported.

2. BODY :  

It houses the fuel tanks i.e the fuel (RP-1, methane, hydrogen, etc), the oxidizer ( liquid oxygen), and the most important of all the rocket engines.

3. NOZZLE:

It basically joins the combustion chamber with itself where the thrust is produced by the engine to power the rocket.

Well, it would not be wrong to say that all the parts in a rocket are of equal importance, as they all play an equal role in a successful launch. Anything going wrong can turn the entire hard work and investment into trash.

The probability of failure here is high because the dependence is on a lot many complicated factors.

I could have included fins in the important parts but new technologies( like thrust vectoring ) have emerged leading to their removal from the necessary list.

A diagram would make an image in your mind 

This was also a basics blog. There is much-advanced machinery involved.

Although for me understanding the working is of greater importance.

Once you understand the working and factors involved clearly, you might design your own rocket engine, who knows!!

Rocket Basics Introduction

ROCKETS AND BASICS

Rockets are basically vehicles that are used to transport satellite(set of packed scientific instruments) into orbits around planets. Rockets are also used as weapons(missiles), the only difference being that now they are carrying explosives.

The basic difference is the stuff they are carrying with them which is called PAYLOAD in technical terms.

The payload can be astronauts as well.

THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE BEHIND ROCKETS

Newton's third law is the main player here.

It states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

So what happens here is 

The THRUST or the fire coming out of the rear part of the rocket pushes it upwards.

(this was the simplest way I could present it)

You might have learned or seen somewhere, that lighting fire to petrol or any other kind of fuel causes it to burn.

The fuel explodes if you set it on fire in a container like maybe a bottle.

The difference in burning the fuel in a container and in an open surrounding is that of pressure.

The pressure is a really important attribute in rocket engineering.

In a container, the wall surrounding the fuel exerts pressure on it. In this case, when you light it the heat energy generated tries to escape but finds no space. So it has no other option than to break the walls and come out.

The same trick used by ROCKET ENGINE.

Well, let's not get confused. I just wanted to fit this small piece of data in your brain as it is going to turn useful in understanding the concepts fairly well.

So basically thrust is the expulsion of the heat energy (explosion of fuel confined in some space) which accelerates the mass(rocket) in the opposite direction. 

It is caused when fuel along with an oxidizer (liquid oxygen) is feed in the combustion chamber with the ignition. If you think and imagine clearly you might be able to relate the bottle example with thrust (hint: think in terms of pressure).

We will talk about the combustion chamber (NOZZLE) in future blogs.

This was just an introduction blog guys. A few more blogs will cover the complete basics. Actually I will focus on my learning about rocket engines and much more cooler stuff about them ( which is in my brain and i cant spit it out).