Rockets external ballistics

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. 

In external ballistics there is a range of equations associated with the flight of the rocket. Each equation contains certain parameters that, collectively, may be used to predict the flight path. For firework rockets, the most important factors include the weight of the rocket, the weight of the propellant, the specific impulse of the propellant and the shape and size of the rocket in accordance with equation (3.9),... 

BALLISTICS (EXTERNAL) Extemal ballistics deals with the science of the motion of bodies such as shells and rockets in the earth s atmosphere and under the effect of the earth s gravitational field. 

The combustion of the propellants is a stable process that proceeds in parallel layers on the surface of a propellant even at very high values of external pressure, up to a few thousand bars. The investigation of the influence of the external pressure on the combustion rate is especially important in the field of internal ballistics of weapons and solid-propellant rocket motors. It has been shown experimentally that the dependence of the combustion rate (r) on the external pressure (p) may be expressed by the following equation ... 

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See also in sourсe #XX -- [ ]

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