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A 'rocket engine' is a reaction engine that can be used for spacecraft propulsion as well as terrestrial uses, such as missiles. Rocket engines take all their reaction mass from within tankage and form it into a high speed jet, obtaining thrust in accordance with Newton's third law. Most rocket engines are internal combustion engines, although non combusting forms exist.

Contents

Principle of operation

Performance

Thermal issues

Mechanical issues

Safety

Noise

Chemistry

Ignition

Types of rocket engines

Electric heating

Solar heating

Beamed power

Nuclear heating

History of rocket engines

References

See also

External Links

Principle of operation

Most rocket engines produce thrust by the expulsion of a high-temperature, high-speed gaseous exhaust. This is typically created by high pressure (10-200 bar) combustion of solid or liquid propellants, consisting of fuel and oxidizer components, within a combustion chamber.
Liquid-fueled rockets typically pump separate fuel and oxidizer components into the combustion chamber, where they mix and burn. Solid rocket propellants are prepared as a mixture of fuel and oxidizing components and the propellant storage chamber becomes the combustion chamber. Hybrid rocket engines use a combination of solid and liquid or gaseous propellants. Alternatively, a chemically inert reaction mass can be heated using a high-energy power source.
The hot gas produced escapes through a narrow opening (the "throat"), into a high expansion-ratio 'de Laval nozzle'. The nozzle dramatically accelerates the gas, converting most of the thermal energy into kinetic energy. The large bell or cone shaped expansion nozzle gives a rocket engine its characteristic shape. Exhaust speeds as high as ten times the speed of sound at sea level are not uncommon.

A portion of the rocket engine's thrust comes from the unbalanced pressures inside the combustion chamber but the majority comes from the pressures against the inside of the nozzle. As the gas expands (adiabatically) the pressure against the nozzle's walls forces the rocket engine in one direction while accelerating the gas in the other.
The highest exhaust speed possible is highly desirable for rocket engines to minimise propellant usage. For aerodynamic reasons the flow goes sonic ("chokes") at the narrowest part of the nozzle, the 'throat'. Since the speed of sound in gases increases with the square root of temperature, the use of hot exhaust gas greatly improves performance. By comparison, at room temperature the speed of sound in air is about 340m/s while the speed of sound in the hot gas of a rocket engine can be over 1700m/s; much of this performance is due to the higher temperature, but additionally rocket propellants are chosen to be of low molecular mass, and this also gives a higher velocity compared to air.
Expansion in the rocket nozzle then further multiplies the speed, typically between 1.5 and 4 times, giving a highly collimated hypersonic exhaust jet. The speed increase of a rocket nozzle is mostly determined by its area expansion ratio—the ratio of the area of the throat to the area at the exit, but detailed properties of the gas are also important. Larger ratio nozzles are more massive but are able to extract more heat from the combustion gases, increasing the exhaust velocity.
Nozzle efficiency is affected by operation in the atmosphere because atmospheric pressure changes with altitude. For optimal performance the pressure of the gas at the end of the nozzle should just equal the ambient pressure; if lower the vehicle will be slowed by the difference in pressure between the top of the engine and the exit, if higher then this represents pressure that the bell has not turned into thrust. To maintain this ideal the diameter of the nozzle would need to increase with altitude, which is difficult to arrange. A compromise nozzle is generally used and some reduction in performance occurs. To improve on this, various exotic nozzle designs such as the plug nozzle, stepped nozzles, the expanding nozzle and the aerospike have been proposed, each having some way to adapt to changing ambient air pressure and each allowing the gas to expand further against the nozzle, giving extra thrust at higher altitude.

Performance

Rocket technology can combine very high thrust (Mega Newtons), very high exhaust speeds (around 10 times the speed of sound at sea level) and very high thrust/weight ratios (>100) ''simultaneously'' as well as being able to operate outside the atmosphere.
Rockets can be further optimised to even more extreme performance along one or more of these axes at the expense of the others.

Rocket engine nozzles are surprisingly efficient heat engines for generating a high speed jet, as a consequence of the high combustion temperature and high compression ratio in accordance with the carnot cycle. For a vehicle employing a rocket engine the energetic efficiency is very good if the vehicle speed approaches or somewhat exceeds the exhaust velocity (relative to launch); but at low speeds the efficiency asymptotically approaches 0% at zero speed (as with all jet propulsion.)

Thermal issues

The reaction mass's combustion temperatures can fairly typically reach ~3500 K (~5800 F) which is often far higher than the melting point of the nozzle and combustion chamber materials (~1200K for copper). Indeed many construction materials can make perfectly acceptable propellants in their own right. It is important that these materials be prevented from combusting, melting or vapourising to the point of failure. Materials technology could potentially place an upper limit on the exhaust temperature of chemical rockets.
To avoid this problem rockets can use ablative materials that erode in a controlled fashion, or very high temperature materials. Carbon based materials such as graphite, diamond, carbon nanotubes or certain metals such as tantalum, tungsten are able to take even these temperatures, but require protection from oxidation.
Alternatively, rockets may use more common construction materials such as aluminum, steel, nickel or copper alloys and employ cooling systems that prevent the construction material itself becoming too hot. Regenerative cooling, where the propellant is passed through tubes around the combustion chamber or nozzle, and other techniques, such as curtain cooling or film cooling, are employed to give longer nozzle and chamber life. These techniques ensure that a gaseous thermal boundary layer touching the material is kept below the temperature which would cause the material to catastrophically fail.

Mechanical issues

The combustion chamber is often under substantial pressure, typically 10-200 bar, higher pressures giving better performance. This causes the outermost part of the chamber to be under very large hoop stresses.
Worse, due to the high temperatures created in rocket engines the materials used tend to have a significantly lowered working tensile strength.

Safety

Rocket engines are tested at a test facility before being put into production.
Rockets have a reputation for unreliability and danger; especially catastrophic failures. Contrary to this reputation, carefully designed rockets can be made arbitrarily reliable. In military use, rockets are not unreliable. However, one of the main non-military uses of rockets is for orbital launch. In this application, the premium is on minimum weight, and it is difficult to achieve high reliability and low weight simultaneously. In addition, if the number of flights launched is low, there is a very high chance of a design, operations or manufacturing error causing destruction of the vehicle. Essentially all launch vehicles are test vehicles by normal aerospace standards (as of 2006).
The X-15 rocket plane achieved a 0.5% failure rate, with a single catastrophic failure during ground test, and the SSME has managed to avoid catastrophic failures in over 350 engine-flights.

Noise

The Saturn V launch was detectable on seismometers a considerable distance from the launch site. As the hypersonic exhaust mixes with the ambient air, shock waves are formed. The sound intensity from these shock waves depends on the size of the rocket, and on large rockets can actually kill. The Space Shuttle generates over 200 dB(A) of noise around its base.
Generally speaking noise is most intense when a rocket is close to the ground, since the noise from the engines radiates up away from the plume, as well as reflecting off the ground. This noise can be reduced somewhat by flame trenches with roofs, by water injection around the plume and by deflecting the plume at an angle.

Chemistry

Although rocket propellants require relatively high energy density (energy per unit mass) many common materials are more energetic. For example, petrol/gasoline or paraffin has as much energy as a typical rocket fuel and far more than the fuel/oxidiser mix used in a rocket engine. This is because the rocket propellant carries its own oxidiser. Fuels for automobile or turbojet engines, utilise atmospheric oxygen and can have much higher energy density.
Many rocket propellants use hydrogen in the propellant, as this gives the highest exhaust speeds (primarily due to the low molecular mass, but this is not the whole story)^[1].
Computer programs that predict the performance of propellants in rocket engines are available.^[2].

Ignition

With liquid propellants immediate ignition of the propellants as they first enter the combustion chamber is essential.
Failure to ignite within milliseconds causes too much liquid propellant to be within the chamber, and if/when ignition occurs the amount of hot gas created will often exceed the maximum design pressure of the chamber. The pressure vessel will often fail catastrophically. This is sometimes called a ''hard start''.
Ignition can be achieved by a number of different methods; a pyrotechnic charge can be used, the propellants can ignite spontaneously on contact (hypergolic), a plasma torch can be used, or electric spark plugs may be employed.
Gaseous propellants generally will not cause hard starts, with rockets the total injector area is less than the throat thus the chamber pressure tends to ambient prior to ignition and high pressures cannot form even if the entire chamber is full of flammable gas at ignition.
Solid propellants are usually ignited with one-shot pyrotechnic devices.
Once ignited, rocket chambers are self sustaining and igniters are not needed. Indeed chambers often spontaneously reignite if they are restarted after being shut down for a few seconds. However, when cooled, many rockets cannot be restarted without at least minor maintenance, such as replacement of the pyrotechnic igniter.

Types of rocket engines

'Type'	'Description'	'Advantages'	'Disadvantages'
water rocket	Partially filled pressurised carbonated drinks container with tail and nose weighting	Very simple to build	Altitude typically limited to a few hundred feet or so (world record is 582 meters/1918 feet)
cold gas thruster	A non combusting form, used for attitude jets	Non contaminating exhaust	Low performance
Solid rocket	Ignitable, self sustaining solid fuel/oxidiser mixture ("grain") with central hole and nozzle	Simple, often no moving parts, reasonably good mass fraction, reasonable ''I''sp. A thrust schedule can be designed into the grain.	Once lit, extinguishing it is difficult although often possible, cannot be throttled in real time; handling issues from ignitable mixture, lower performance than liquid rockets, if grain cracks it can block nozzle with disastrous results, cracks burn and widen during burn. Refuelling grain harder than simply filling tanks.
Hybrid rocket	Separate oxidiser/fuel, typically oxidiser is liquid and kept in a tank, the other solid with central hole	Quite simple, solid fuel is essentially inert without oxidiser, safer; cracks do not escalate, throttleable and easy to switch off.	Some oxidisers are monopropellants, can explode in own right; mechanical failure of solid propellant can block nozzle, central hole widens over burn and negatively affects mixture ratio.
Monopropellant rocket	Propellant such as Hydrazine, Hydrogen Peroxide or Nitrous Oxide, flows over catalyst and exothermically decomposes and hot gases are emitted through nozzle	Simple in concept, throttleable, low temperatures in combustion chamber	catalysts can be easily contaminated, monopropellants can detonate if contaminated or provoked, ''I''sp is perhaps 1/3 of best liquids
Bipropellant rocket	Two fluid (typically liquid) propellants are introduced through injectors into combustion chamber and burnt	Up to ~99% efficient combustion with excellent mixture control, throttleable, can be used with turbopumps which permits incredibly lightweight tanks, can be safe with extreme care	Pumps needed for high performance are expensive to design, huge thermal fluxes across combustion chamber wall can impact reuse, failure modes include major explosions, a lot of plumbing is needed.
Dual mode propulsion rocket	Rocket takes off as a bipropellant rocket, then turns to using just one propellant as a monopropellant	Simplicity and ease of control	Lower performance than bipropellants
Tripropellant rocket	Three different propellants (usually hydrogen, hydrocarbon and liquid oxygen) are introduced into a combustion chamber in variable mixture ratios, or multiple engines are used with fixed propellant mixture ratios and throttled or shut down	Reduces take-off weight, since hydrogen is lighter; combines good thrust to weight with high average ''I''sp, improves payload for launching from Earth by a sizeable percentage	Similar issues to bipropellant, but with more plumbing, more R&D
Air-augmented rocket	Essentially a ramjet where intake air is compressed and burnt with the exhaust from a rocket	Mach 0 to Mach 4.5+ (can also run exoatmospheric), good efficiency at Mach 2 to 4	Similar efficiency to rockets at low speed or exoatmospheric, inlet difficulties, a relatively undeveloped and unexplored type, cooling difficulties, very noisy, thrust/weight ratio is similar to ramjets.
Turborocket	A combined cycle turbojet/rocket where an additional oxidizer such as oxygen is added to the airstream to increase maximum altitude	Very close to existing designs, operates in very high altitude, wide range of altitude and airspeed	Atmospheric airspeed limited to same range as turbojet engine, carrying oxidizer like LOX can be dangerous. Much heavier than simple rockets.
Precooled jets / LACE (combined cycle with rocket)	Intake air is chilled to very low temperatures at inlet before passing through a ramjet or turbojet engine. Can be combined with a rocket engine for orbital insertion.	Easily tested on ground. High thrust/weight ratios are possible (~14) together with good fuel efficiency over a wide range of airspeeds, mach 0-5.5+; this combination of efficiencies may permit launching to orbit, single stage, or very rapid intercontinental travel.	Exists only at the lab prototyping stage. Examples include RB545, SABRE, ATREX

Electric heating

'Type'	'Description'	'Advantages'	'Disadvantages'
Resistojet rocket (electric heating)	A monopropellant is electrically heated by a filament for extra performance	Higher ''I''sp than monopropellant alone, about 40% higher.	Uses a lot of power and hence gives typically low thrust
Arcjet rocket (chemical burning aided by electrical discharge)	Similar to resistojet in concept but with inert propellant, except an arc is used which allows higher temperatures	1600 seconds ''I''sp	Very low thrust and high power, performance is similar to Ion drive.
Pulsed plasma thruster (electric arc heating; emits plasma)	Plasma is used to erode a solid propellant	High ''I''sp , can be pulsed on and off for attitude control	Low energetic efficiency
Variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket	Microwave heated plasma with magnetic throat/nozzle	Variable ''I''sp from 1000 seconds to 10,000 seconds	similar thrust/weight ratio with ion drives (worse), thermal issues, as with ion drives very high power requirements for significant thrust, really needs advanced nuclear reactors, never flown, requires low temperatures for superconductors to work

Solar heating

The Solar thermal rocket would make use of solar power to directly heat reaction mass, and therefore does not require an electrical generator as most other forms of solar-powered propulsion do. A solar thermal rocket only has to carry the means of capturing solar energy, such as concentrators and mirrors. The heated propellant is fed through a conventional rocket nozzle to produce thrust. The engine thrust is directly related to the surface area of the solar collector and to the local intensity of the solar radiation.

'Type'	'Description'	'Advantages'	'Disadvantages'
Solar thermal rocket	Propellant is heated by solar collector	Reasonably simple, good performance with liquid hydrogen propellant, adequate performance with in-situ water for short-range interplanetary flight	only useful once in space, as thrust is fairly low, but hydrogen is not easily stored in space, otherwise moderate/low ''I''sp if higher molecular mass propellants are used

Beamed power

'Type'	'Description'	'Advantages'	'Disadvantages'
laser beam powered rocket	Propellant is heated by laser beam aimed at vehicle from a distance, either directly or indirectly via heat exchanger	simple in principle, in principle very high exhaust speeds can be achieved	~1 MW of power per kg of payload is needed to achieve orbit, relatively high accelerations, lasers are blocked by clouds, fog, reflected laser light may be dangerous, pretty much needs hydrogen monopropellant for good performance which needs heavy tankage, some designs are limited to ~600 seconds due to reemission of light since propellant/heat exchanger gets white hot
microwave beam powered rocket	Propellant is heated by microwave beam aimed at vehicle from a distance	microwaves avoid reemission of energy, so ~900 seconds exhaust speeds might be achieveable	~1 MW of power per kg of payload is needed to achieve orbit, relatively high accelerations, microwaves are absorbed to a degree by rain, reflected microwaves may be dangerous, pretty much needs hydrogen monopropellant for good performance which needs heavy tankage, transmitter diameter is measured in kilometres to achieve a fine enough beam to hit a vehicle at up to 100km.

Nuclear heating

Nuclear propulsion includes a wide variety of propulsion methods that use some form of nuclear reaction as their primary power source. Various types of nuclear propulsion have been proposed, and some of them tested, for spacecraft applications:

'Type'	'Description'	'Advantages'	'Disadvantages'
Radioisotope rocket/"Poodle thruster" (radioactive decay energy)	Heat from radioactive decay is used to heat hydrogen	about 700-800 seconds, almost no moving parts	low thrust/weight ratio
Nuclear thermal rocket (nuclear fission energy)	propellant (typ. hydrogen) is passed through a nuclear reactor to heat to high temperature	''I''sp can be high, perhaps 900 seconds or more, above unity thrust/weight ratio with some designs	Maximum temperature is limited by materials technology, some radioactive particles can be present in exhaust in some designs, nuclear reactor shielding is heavy, unlikely to be permitted from surface of the Earth, thrust/weight ratio is not high
Gas core reactor rocket (nuclear fission energy)	Nuclear reaction using a gaseous state fission reactor in intimate contact with propellant	Very hot propellant, not limited by keeping reactor solid, ''I''sp between 1500 and 3000 seconds but with very high thrust	difficulties in heating propellant without losing fissionables in exhaust, exhaust inherently highly radioactive, massive thermal issues particularly for nozzle/throat region
Fission-fragment rocket (nuclear fission energy)	Fission products are directly exhausted to give thrust		Theoretical only at this point
Fission sail (nuclear fission energy)	A sail material is coated with fissionable material on one side	No moving parts, works in deep space	Theoretical only at this point
Nuclear salt-water rocket (nuclear fission energy)	Nuclear salts are held in solution, caused to react at nozzle	Very high ''I''sp, very high thrust	Thermal issues in nozzle, propellant could be unstable, highly radioactive exhaust. Theoretical only at this point
Nuclear pulse propulsion (exploding fission/fusion bombs)	Shaped nuclear bombs are detonated behind vehicle and blast is caught by a 'pusher plate'	Very high ''I''sp, very high thrust/weight ratio, no show stoppers are known for this technology	Never been tested, pusher plate may throw off fragments due to shock, minimum size for nuclear bombs is still pretty big, expensive at small scales, nuclear treaty issues
Antimatter catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion (fission and/or fusion energy)	Nuclear pulse propulsion with antimatter assist for smaller bombs	Smaller sized vehicle might be possible	Containment of antimatter, production of antimatter in macroscopic quantities isn't currently feasible. Theoretical only at this point
Fusion rocket (nuclear fusion energy)	Fusion is used to heat propellant	Very high exhaust velocity	Largely beyond current state of the art
Antimatter rocket (annihilation energy)	Antimatter reaction is used to heat propellant	Extremely energetic, very high exhaust velocity is possible on paper	Antimatter containment issues, thermal issues, beyond current state of the art.

History of rocket engines

According to the writings of the Roman Aulus Gellius, in c. 400 BC, a Greek Pythagorean named Archytas, propelled a wooden bird along wires using steam.^[3] However, it would not appear to have been powerful enough to take off under its own thrust.
The ''aeolipile'' (50/62/70) (known as ''Hero's engine'') was a rocket-like reaction engine and the first recorded steam engine. It essentially consists of a hot water rocket on a bearing. It was created almost two millennia before the industrial revolution. Apparently Hero's steam engine was taken to be little more than a toy, the principles behind it were not well understood, and its full potential not realized for a millenium.
The availability of black powder to propel projectiles was a precursor to the development of the first solid rocket. Ninth Century Chinese Taoist alchemists discovered black powder in a search for the Elixir of life; this accidental discovery led to fire arrows which were the first rocket engines to leave the ground.
Slow development of this technology continued up to the later 20th Century, when the writings of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky first talked about liquid fuelled rocket engines.
These independently became a reality thanks to Robert Goddard.

References

1. Newsgroup correspondence, 1998-99
2. Complex chemical equilibrium and rocket performance calculations, Cpropep-Web
3. Leofranc Holford-Strevens, ''Aulus Gellius: An Antonine Author and his Achievement'' (Oxford University Press; revised paperback edn. 2005)

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See also

★ NERVA - NASA's Nuclear Energy for Rocket Vehicle Applications, a US nuclear thermal rocket programme

★ Project Prometheus, NASA development of nuclear propulsion for long-duration spaceflight, begun in 2003

External Links

★ Designing for rocket engine life expectancy

★ Rocket Engine performance analysis with Plume Spectrometry

★ Rocket Engine Thrust Chamber technical article