Abstract
The technology of how a rocket moves, how it knows its orientation and how it controls the orientation are the subjects of this chapter. We will then take a slight diversion to consider the application of that control to the fine art of docking a spacecraft.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Hunley (1999), Chapter 1.
- 2.
Thus, for example, an opacifier reduces the thermal conductivity of a propellant, which can be important to control during the furious burning of a propellant in the combustion chamber of a rocket motor.
- 3.
The math of specific impulse, showing how it is related to exhaust gas speed and to rocket motor efficiency, is outlined in the NASA website Specific impulse, at www.grc.nasa.gov/www/BGH/specimp.html.
- 4.
Readers interested in solid propellant chemistry can find a summary of the historical development on the website Solid at www.astronautix.com/s/solid.html. For rocket propellants in general see Hunley (1999), Williams et al. (1989), and the Wiley Encyclopedia of Composites entry Composite Rocket Propellants by M. Shusser at https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118097298.weoc049. The Wikipedia article Rocket propellant is a good place to start, as is the popular article by Pappalardo (2018).
- 5.
One complication of the energy density comparison between solid and liquid propellants is this: though liquids tend to have a higher specific impulse, sometimes solid-propellant rocket motors have a higher thrust. How so? Some space inside a liquid-propellant motor is taken up by stuff that isn’t propellant—pipes, pumps, ignition systems, whereas the combustion chamber of solid-propellant motors is almost entirely filled with propellant. Thus for solid and liquid propellant tanks of the same volume, although the solid propellant energy density is lower, the total energy stored in the tank can be greater. For more detailed accounts of liquid propellants, see Clark (2017), Sutton (2006), Sutton and Billarz (2010), and Turner (2009).
- 6.
UDMH stands for Unsymmetrical DiMethylHydrazine. Sexy, huh?
- 7.
The interesting NASA website Liquid Hydrogen—the Fuel of Choice for Space Flight makes the claim for LH2 as a rocket fuel, and outlines the technical problems that needed to be solved to make it happen.
- 8.
- 9.
The subject areas of guidance and control overlap, varying with which book you read, causing confusion. Here we are choosing rocket control to mean directing a rocket along a path (some would say guiding it along a path), and rocket guidance to mean establishing—and if necessary correcting—its orientation (some would say controlling its orientation).
- 10.
Birds that migrate at night use star maps they memorized as nest-bound juveniles, staring up at the night sky. These birds have internal clocks that compensate for the motion of star fields across the sky as the Earth rotates. Star fields, rather than individual stars, are preferred because often the night sky is partially obscured by clouds. See Denny (2016).
- 11.
For rocket control mechanisms see the NASA websites Examples of Controls and Guidance System, and the Wikipedia article Attitude control. For spin-stabilization of a model rocket see the Youtube video GoPro Awards: On a Rocket Launch to Space. Would the modern use of spin for stabilizing a rocket have pleased William Hale, or would it have made him turn in his grave?
- 12.
Any good physics textbook will cover this in sufficient detail, where we define ‘good’ as one that covers this in sufficient detail. Failing that, as ever, the Internet is filled with explanations, some better than others. The inevitable Wikipedia entry gives as good a start as any.
- 13.
There are dozens of engineering textbooks that cover this to various levels of detail, including Larson and Wertz (1999). Once again the US FAA provides a good overview, found here: https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/avs/offices/aam/cami/library/online_libraries/aerospace_medicine/tutorial/media/III.4.3.1_Space_Vehicle_Control_Systems.pdf.
- 14.
The references in the previous note also apply here or you can just check Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_control
- 15.
Merriam-Webster defines inertial space as: “a part of space away from the Earth assumed to have fixed coordinates so that the trajectory of an object (as a spacecraft or missile) may be calculated in relation to it”, which is good enough for our purposes.
- 16.
For general background see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docking_and_berthing_of_spacecraft. For the development of modern docking systems see Cook et al. (2011).
- 17.
A persistent Soviet claim in the early years was that NASA couldn’t develop automatic systems as effective as Soviet ones and so had to rely far more on the human occupant. Make of that what you will.
- 18.
The standard is defined in “International Docking System Standard Interface Definition Document” (2016), available here: http://www.internationaldockingstandard.com/,
Reference Works
Clark, J.D. Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2017).
Cook, J., Aksamentov, V., Hoffman, T. and Bruner, W.. “ISS Interface Mechanisms and their Heritage”, AIAA SPACE 2011 Conference & Exposition (2011) (https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2011-7150)
Denny, M. (2016). Long Hops: Making Sense of Bird Migration. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press).
French, J. Firing A Rocket: Stories of the Development of the Rocket Engines for the Saturn Launch Vehicles and the Lunar Module as Viewed from the Trenches. (Amazon Kindle, 2017).
Hunley, J.D. The History of Solid-Propellant Rocketry: What We Do and Do Not Know. (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 35th Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, 1999). DOI: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.1999-2925
Larson, W.J. and Wertz, J.R. (Ed.) Space Mission Analysis and Design, 3rd Edition (El Segundo, California: Microcosm Press, 1999).
Noordung, H. The Problem of Space Travel—The Rocket’s Motor. (Washington, DC: NASA, 1995).
Pappalardo, J. “The Rocket Fuel Rivalry Shaping the Future of Spaceflight.” Popular Mechanics (April 10, 2018).
Salazar, D.E. “Deep-Space NASA Rocket Engines Perform Most Powerful Ignition Test Yet.” (Space.com, February 25, 2018). Available at www.space.com/39799-nasa-most-powerful-rs-25-rocket-engine-test.html.
Stumph, D. Titan II: A History of a Cold War Missile Program. (Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2002).
Sutton, G.P. History of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines. (Reston, VA: AIAA, 2006).
Sutton, G.P. and O. Billarz. Rocket Propulsion Elements, 8th ed. (New York: Wiley, 2010).
Turner, M.J.L. Rocket and Spacecraft Propulsion. (Berlin: Springer, 2009).
Williams, F.A., M. Barrèrre and N.C. Huang. Fundamental Aspects of Solid Propellant Rockets. (Slough, U.K.: Technivision Services, 1989).
Young, A. The Saturn V F-1 Engine. (Chichester, UK: Springer-Praxis, 2009).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Denny, M., McFadzean, A. (2019). Rocket Propulsion and Guidance. In: Rocket Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28080-2_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28080-2_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28079-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-28080-2
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)