Today there are two main types of rocket propulsion, solid and liquid. The first one to be developed was liquid. Liquid propulsion was first thought of by a Soviet school teacher in the 1920s. The idea to use it for rockets was not thought of until world war 2 were Nazi scientists experimented with rocket powered missiles. The idea of liquid rockets was again picked up by both the United States and the Soviet Union after the second world war. That sparked the space race.
In the line of missions to get to the moon, the Apollo missions, the rocket was propelled by a liquid rocket booster. The advantages to this type of fuel is that it can be throttled. This means that the pilot of the rocket can control the amount of thrust the rocket has. They can also turn it off at will if they see fit. A disadvantage of this type of fuel is that it takes up more space and is less energetic. The rocket needs to hold two tanks of liquid, one containing the fuel, and one containing the oxidizer needed for the reaction. Because the rocket used for the Apollo missions did not have any secondary boosters, the ability to adjust thrust is essential. This is why the rocket used only liquid fuel propulsion.
In the later missions like the space shuttle missions, there were a combination of solid and liquid rocket boosters. Solid rocket boosters (SBR) have a couple benefits and drawbacks. One benefit of SBRs is that they produce more thrust per weight. They also require less moving parts, this means that there is less that can go wrong. The biggest downside of SBRs is that there is no way to throttle or modulate the propulsion. Once the solid fuel is ignited, it can’t be stopped. It burns until there is no fuel left to burn. Because they are best for initial thrust to get off of the surface of the earth, all space shuttles had two of them that detaches into the ocean for recovery before the shuttle exited the atmosphere.
A combination of both solid and liquid rocket boosters is the most ideal because of the ability to have an energetic and high thrust to volume ratio to get out of the Earth’s atmosphere and a controllable second stage for finer adjustments later in the flight. From the 1960s to now, American ambition and desire to explore (and beat the Soviets) has expanded our understanding of physics, rocket propulsion, and what is possible.
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Good job on the post Nicholas. It was interesting to read about the difference between solid and liquid propulsion, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. I also liked how you made sure to tie the topic back into American History. After reading your blog post and learning about the differences between the two main types of rocket propulsion, I would agree that a combination of both types is the most ideal way to equip a rocket. However, I am curious as to whether we will ever be able to develop and even more ideal type of rocket propulsion.
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