How a Rocket Works by Tyler Victorio

GIF Credit: Tigran Manukyan

We all know what rockets are: the big and loud skyscrapers that allow us to reach the moon, mars, and beyond! Now let’s take a deeper look into the science of how a rocket actually works.

Staging

Most powerful and well-working rockets have what's called staging. Staging is basically the use of different rocket sections or stages, each containing its own engine; each stage is kind of like its own rocket. Speaking of stages, different stages might have different types of rocket engines, which brings us into our next topic.

Engines

There are many different engines and engine types in rocket history. But that's not what we're focusing on in this section. We are going to focus on how different engines act and what engines are best for different environments. Efficiency is one large thing to focus on for rockets. Efficiency is the amount of fuel your engine uses compared to how much thrust the engine produces.

For example, you might want an engine with high thrust but low efficiency for the denser parts of the atmosphere so you can reach space faster. But you might want low thrust engines with high efficiency for parts of the atmosphere that aren’t as dense because in a vacuum it's easier to reach higher velocity. Although engines with higher efficiency tend to produce less thrust, they still last longer compared to smaller engines that may have the same amount of thrust.

Stages of the Launch

Now we are going to get into everything that happens, start from launch to orbit.

Because there are many types of rockets and rocket fuel, we are going to go through the stages of the Falcon 9, a rocket made by the private company called SpaceX. First we start out with liftoff. This uses the 9 Merlin engines on the booster of the rocket. This works by using liquid oxygen and combining it with RP-1 which is a type of rocket fuel.

As a result of this chemical reaction, there is a giant explosion which pushes out the bottom of the rocket causing the rocket to go up. After this the bottom stage detaches and begins its boostback burn so it can land back on earth (not all rockets do this). The second stage consists of one Merlin Vacuum engine which again uses Liquid Oxygen and RP-1. The fairing (a shell to protect the payload against aerodynamic forces) will separate off the second stage and the second stage will push the payload into orbit. While the second stage is pushing the payload into orbit, the booster will land back on Earth. SpaceX calls it the Hoverslam but I like to call it a Suicide Burn because there is no going back once the booster is about to land.

The adventure continues next time...