Table of Contents
Why are rockets so huge?
Since both the gravitational potential one need to overcome in order to put thing into orbit, and the chemical energy burned from the fuel, are proportional to the mass, so if we shrink the rocket size, it would seem to be fine to launch satellites.
Why do rockets have to be so large when they launch rockets into orbit?
Getting rockets into orbit To get rockets into orbit, they need much more thrust than the amount that will get them up to the required altitude. At this speed, an object at that height will stay in orbit around the Earth. If speed is less than this, an object will fall back to the Earth.
Why do space rockets carry such large amounts of fuel before liftoff?
Rockets need lots of fuel mass because there is nothing to push against. No friction is good and bad. Without friction you can not speed up or slow down, you have to sacrifice part of your mass to throw backwards to go forwards.
Why do spacecrafts need very little fuel?
Because fuel is very costly to put up into space (it’s heavy, and the fuel-weight factor is self-compounding), space probes in real life use as little fuel as possible.
Why do spaceships have to be so big?
To do a hover like that against full Earth gravity would take a lot of fuel. So much so that when fully fueled to land, your spaceship would need to be nearly as large as those rockets you see in televised launches that take our spacecraft into orbit.
Do Rockets lose speed in space?
As the spacecraft moves around in its orbit or trajectory, it is tugged on by gravity to go faster and slower. If it goes away from a gravity well, it will lose speed; if it goes towards a gravity well, it will gain speed.
Why do rockets need so much fuel?
Rockets need so much fuel in order to overcome Earth’s gravity. Only when they reach a speed of 28 000 km/h are they travelling fast enough to enter orbit. Most rockets are made up of two or three stages. When a stage has used up all of its fuel, it is separated to get rid of the dead weight.