Space shuttle, booster rockets

Solid Rocket Boosters. NASA Space Shuttle Reference Manual,... 

Modern composite solid propellant is a mechanical mixture of the powder-like chemicals and a binding resin. The propellant used for the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters (SRBs) is a typical example of such mixture ... 

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. 

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... 

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 ... 

The solid rocket boosters of the Space Shuttle are appropriately named for the solid propellant loaded within them. The ignition provided by the reaction of the solid aluminum powder and ammonium perchlorate powder generates a finely divided white powder known as alumina, various gases, and an extensive amount of heat. The dispersal of the white powder in the gases streaming from the boosters creates the billowy white appearance. 

The propellant mixture in each solid rocket booster of the Space Shuttle contains ammonium perchlorate ( the oxidizer, 69.6% by weight), aluminum ( the fuel, 16% by weight), an iron oxide catalyst (0.4% by weight), a polymeric binder that... 

The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters. Student Space Awareness — National Web Team, University of Arizona Chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, http //seds.lpl.arizona.edu/ssa/docs/Space.Shuttle/srb.shtml... 

The two rocket booster engines used in a space shuttle launch contain a solid mixture of aluminum and ammonium perchlorate. 

The U.S. Space Shuttle, for example, has two large solid-rocket boosters for its launch stage. The booster propellant has the following composition ... 

In sending a rocket into the sky we are calling into action several laws of physics and chemistry, and the same laws apply whether the application is a small firework rocket weighing a few ounces or a solid propellant booster for the space shuttle containing around 300 tons of propellant. These fundamental processes may be conveniently divided into internal ballistics and external ballistics. 

It takes a lot of force to get a space shuttle out of the grip of Earth s gravity. Two solid rocket boosters filled with a solid mixture of ammonium perchlorate and aluminum metal, called the propellant, produce most of that force. The rockets also contain a catalyst made of iron oxide, which speeds up the burning of the propellant. Another material called the binder holds everything together. All together, the propellant, the catalyst, and the binder make up the solid material inside the rocket boosters. 

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.

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... 

Pyrotechnic device—On a spacecraft, an explosive device used for quick release of some mechanism or object. Explosive bolts used to separate rocket stages or the solid rocket boosters used during a space shuttle launch are examples of pyrotechnic devices. 

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

Using Numbers The space shuttle gains nearly 72% of its lift from its solid rocket boosters (SRBs) during the first two minutes of launch. The two pencil-shaped SRB tanks are attached to both sides of the liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel tank. Each SRB contains 495 000 kg of an explosive mixture of ammonium perchlorate and aluminum. The unbalanced equation for the reaction is given below. 

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. 

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