Booster rockets

The Space Shuttle uses aluminum metal and ammonium perchlorate in its reusable booster rockets. The products of die reaction are aluminum oxide, aluminum chloride, nitrogen oxide gas, and steam. The reaction mixture contains 7.00 g of aluminum and 9.32 g of ammonium perchlorate. 

Without the influence of burning rate catalysts most of these hydrocarbon prop bits have similar burning rates and ballistic behavior. They may differ significantly in mechanical properties, particularly as a function of temp. Most hydrocarbon-based composites are used in larger rockets because of their ease of fabrication and high specific impulse. Polaris first and second stages, the Titan 3C booster rocket and Mlnuteman are all powered with composite proplnts... 

A relatively new class of fluorocarbon composite nronlrits with relatively high specific impulse and a high density impulse have been tested as booster rockets for 5-inch projectiles. 

FIGURE 6.27 In this preparation of rocket fuel for the space shuttle, powdered aluminum is mixed with an oxidizing agent in a liquid polymer base that hardens inside the booster rocket shell. 

One spectacular example of the oxidizing ability of perchlorates is their use in the booster rockets of space shuttles. The solid propellant consists of aluminum powder (the fuel), ammonium perchlorate (the oxidizing agent as well as a fuel), and iron(III) oxide (the catalyst). These reactants are mixed into a liquid polymer, which sets to a solid inside the rocket shell. A variety of products can form when the mixture is ignited. One of the reactions is... 

FIGURE 15.23 The white smoke emitted by the shuttle booster rockets consists of powdered aluminum oxide and aluminum chloride. 

Richard Feynman loved to play the bongos. He also loved solving problems. He figured out the reason for the space shuttle Challenger s 1986 explosion by showing that cold weather caused the rubber seals of the booster rocket to fail. Feynman was one of the twentieth century s great theoretical physicists, a Nobel Prize winner who spent much of his career studying atoms. He knew as much about atoms as anyone in the world, and this is what he said about them in his book Six Easy Pieces ... 

Unlike a solid rocket, a ducted rocket requires continuous airflow from the atmosphere to the ramburner through the air-intake. When a ducted rocket projectile is accelerated to a certain flight speed, compressed air is induced from the atmosphere. Once sufficient compressed air has been introduced into the ramburner, the ducted rocket starts to operate and generates thmst. The booster rocket attached... 

PATR 1685(1948) la)W.T. McMichael.USP 2985055 (1955) (Bonding of booster rocket propellant) 2)M. J.Bodnar,"Bonding of Explosives to Metal",PATR 2412(1957) 3)M.J.Bodnar et al, Adhesive Bonding... 

Booster Rocket. Any high-thrust unit or assembly that fires at take-off to get a missile(such as a rocket,bomb,shell) or an unmanned or manned aircraft, to which it is attached, started along its trajectory. Usually, a booster rocket produces a much greater thrust than the 2nd stage or sustained power plant of a rocket. Booster rockets are usually propelled by a solid propellant(such as in the Nike -Ajax missile) but liq proplnts are also used. The booster rocket should not be confused with ATO, JATO or RATO engines although there is a considerable similarity in design. A liquid-propelled booster rocket is used when the requirements are more extensive than normally available from solid-pro-... 

RATO rocket assisted take off, called also "booster rocket" more common name is JATO RES Reynolds Experimental Station, of Atlas Powder Co, Tamaqua, Pa... 

Perchlorates are the most oxidized of the salts of the chlorooxyacids. Although perchlorates are not particularly toxic, ammonium perchlorate (NH4C104) should be mentioned because it is a powerful oxidizer and reactive chemical produced in large quantities as a fuel oxidizer in solid rocket fuels. Each of the U.S. space shuttle booster rockets contains about 350,000 kg of ammonium perchlorate in its propellant mixture. By 1988, U.S. consumption of ammonium perchlorate for rocket fuel uses was of the order of 24 million kg/year. In May 1988, a series of massive explosions in Henderson, Nevada, demolished one of only two plants producing ammonium perchlorate for the U.S. space shuttle, MX missile, and other applications, so that supplies were severely curtailed. The plant has since been rebuilt. 

Fig. 37.18. The solid booster rockets for the space shuttle are one of the most widely publicized applications of solid rocket propellants.

Applications. To date, the liquid propellant systems used in chemical propulsion range from a small trajectory control thruster with only 0.2 lbf (0.89 N) thrust for orbital station-keeping to large booster rocket engines with over l. 0 million lbf (4.44 MN) thrust. Bipropellant propulsion systems are the most extensively used type today for... 

The reusable booster rockets of the U.S. space shuttle use a mixture of aluminum and ammonium perchlorate for fuel. A possible equation for this reaction is... 

The solid booster rockets of the space shuttle contain ammonium perchlorate (NH4CIO4) and powdered aluminum as the propellant. 

The sudden appearance of hot gaseous products in a small initial volume leads to rapid increases in pressure and temperature, which give the rocket its thrust. What total pressure of gas would be produced at 800°C by igniting 7.00 X 10 kg NH4CIO4 (a typical charge of the booster rockets in the space shuttle) and allowing it to expand to fill a volume of 6400 m (6.40 X 10 L) Use the ideal gas law. 

Small booster rockets adjust the course of a satellite in orbit. Some of these small rockets are powered by the N2H4-H2O2 reaction. 

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