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).