Introduction

Our team consists of 6 people; Megan, Ben, Shannon, Lucy, James and Alfie. We all set ourselves individual tasks to work on our blog about Rockets, and at the end worked together to present it.

After writing about Rockets, the history, the science – all of that boring stuff!!  - we discussed whether the funding of Rockets was efficient, or if they were actually just a waste of money.

We concluded that there are in fact many good uses, for example the discoveries we have made with them, however they could cut the spending down by not sending Rockets into space so often, for we could use the spending on far more efficient uses.

rocket

The main uses of rockets

Rockets are used in many ways, such as a few years ago china used rockets in wars, but luckily didnt cause much damage.The ancient Chinese also used rockets as fireworks. Rockets were more commonly used as fireworks than they were as military weapons in ancient China.

Nowadays rockets are used or many peaceful purposes. For example, they are used to carry payloads for commercial or scientific purposes into space. One of the most important commercial payloads are satellites, which are very important in our daily communication. Scientists use rockets to carry space probes into outer space to study other planets and objects in space. For example, the Viking spacecraft was used to send a Viking 2 Lander to Mars to send very important biological, chemical, and geological information back to the Earth.

cost of rockets

Rockets are, needless to say really expensive. The space shuttle endeavour built to replace the space shuttle challenger cost a whopping $ 1.7 billion to build.

Our Rockets!

We made our own rockets, using basic materials, to fire in the air. We used cones, parachutes, elastic, tubes and various fins to build and fly our rockets. We followed step-by-step instructions carefully to ensure our rockets would be the best! Once they were built, we took them outside, into a field, and loaded them up. Once they were ready, we stood 5 metres away and pressed a button that was attached to the rockets. This made them build up presure in side, and caused them to explode in the air. They went straight up, then the parachute helped it land, so we could collect them and see what damage had been done!

 

 

 

The pro’s and con’s of funding NASA:

Pro’s…

• It’s lead to search for worlds around distant stars.
• We’ve been able to send up Robot’s to other planets.
• NASA satellites provide data on problems such as the Ozone layer and Global Warming
• They allow tracking of weather systems
• They are very important in discoveries of questions about the universe.

Con’s…

• The discoveries are of no practical use.
• It cost’s a lot of money.
• Damaging to the environment.
• Money could be spent better elsewhere
• An inefficient use of the funding.

 

 

 

 

Rocket Launch

This is a video recording of a rocket launch we did. We first had to make our rockets in little groups and then went out with our groups and launched our rockets.

More random Facts… :D

Future rocket drives include nuclear thermal engines that would use a nuclear reactor to heat the gas blasted out.

NASA’s Deep Space-1 project is based on xenon ion engines which thrust electrically charged particles called ions, not hot gases, out of the back of the craft.

Solar thermal engines of the future would collect the Sun’s rays with a large mirror to heat gases.

The Saturn V rocket that launched the Apollo mission to the Moon is the most powerful rocket ever built.

Rockets provide the huge thrust needed to beat the pull of Earth’s gravity and launch a spacecraft into space. Rockets burn propellant (propel means ‘push’), to produce hot gases that drive the rocket upwards. Rocket propellant comes in two parts – a solid or liquid fuel, and an oxidizer.

Solid fuel is a rubbery substance that contains hydrogen, and it is usually used in additional, booster rockets.

Liquid fuel is usually liquid hydrogen, and it is typically used on big rockets.

There is no oxygen in space, and the oxidizer supplies the oxygen needed to burn fuel. It is usually liquid oxygen (called ‘lox’ for short).

The first rockets were made 1000 years ago, in China. Robert Goddard launched the very first liquid-fuel rocket in 1926.

The German V2 war rocket, designed by Werner von Braun, was the first rocket capable of reaching space.

RANDOM FACT:

Rockets work by burning fuel.

The first person into space.

The first person into space was a russian man called Yuri Garagin. Born 9th March 1934. He was the first person into outer space when his space rocket(Vostok soacecraft) completed an orbit of the earth on April 12 1961. He spent a total of 1 hour and 48 minutes in space.

In Yuri post flight report he stated ”The feeling of weightlessness was somewhat unfamiliar compared with Earth conditions. Here, you feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended.”

His parents worked on a collective farm. Yuri was the third of four children, while his parents were at work his older sister help take care and raise him. 

During WW2 his house was taken over by a German officer so him and his family had to life in a mud hut for 1 year and 9 months. After that, his 2 older siblings were deported to Nazi Germany for slave labour in 1943 and they did not return until after the war in 1946.

While in space  The feeling of weightlessness was somewhat unfamiliar compared with Earth conditions. Here, you feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended.

Sadly Yuri Garagin died when the MiG 15 training yet that he was piloting crashed.