Rocket

There is an assumption that some kind of rocket was designed back in Ancient Greece by Alix Sin. We are talking about a flying wooden dove of Architus of Tarenta ( dr. Greek Ἀρχύτας ὁ Ταραντίνος ). His invention is mentioned in the work of the ancient Roman writer Aul Gellius ( lat. Aulus Gellius ) "Attic nights" ( lat. "Noctes Atticae" ). The book says that the bird rose with the help of weights and was set in motion by blowing hidden and hidden air. It has not yet been established whether the pigeon was set in motion by the action of the air inside it, or the air that blew on it from the outside. It remains unclear how Arch could get compressed air inside the pigeon. In the ancient tradition of pneumatics there are no analogues of such use of compressed air ^[1] .

Most historians attribute the origins of rockets to the days of the Chinese Han Dynasty ( 206 BC - 220 CE), to the discovery of gunpowder and the beginning of its use for fireworks and entertainment. The force arising from the explosion of a powder charge was sufficient to move various objects. Later, this principle found application in the creation of the first guns and muskets . Shells of gunpowder weapons could fly long distances, but they were not rockets because they did not have their own fuel reserves. Nevertheless, it was the invention of gunpowder that became the main prerequisite for the emergence of real rockets. The description of the flying "fire arrows" used by the Chinese indicates that these arrows were missiles. A tube of compacted paper was attached to them, open only from the rear end and filled with a combustible composition. This charge was set on fire, and then the arrow was fired with a bow. Such arrows were used in some cases during the siege of fortifications, against ships, cavalry ^[2] .

In the XIII century, together with the Mongol conquerors, missiles came to Europe, and in 1248 the English philosopher and naturalist Roger Bacon published a work on their application ^[3] .

It is known that rockets were used by Russian Cossacks, starting from the XVI - XVII centuries . ^[4] Multistage missiles were described in the 16th century by Konrad Haas and in the 17th century by the Belarusian- Lithuanian military engineer Kazimir Semenovich .

In India, at the end of the 18th century, missile weapons were used very widely, and, in particular, there were special detachments of missile forces, the total number of which reached about 5,000 people. Missile-arrows-shells, which were tubes with a charge of combustible matter, were used by the Indians in battles with British troops.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the British army also adopted military missiles, the production of which was established by William Congreve ( Congreve Rocket ). At the same time, Russian officer Alexander Zasyadko was developing a theory of missiles. In particular, he tried to calculate how much gunpowder was needed to launch a rocket to the moon . Great success in improving missiles was achieved in the middle of the 19th century by the Russian artillery general Konstantin Konstantinov . The Russian revolutionary inventor Nikolai Ivanovich Kibalchich in 1881 also put forward the idea of ​​an elementary rocket engine ^{[5] [6]} .

Missile artillery was widely used until the end of the 19th century. Missiles were lighter and more mobile than artillery guns. The accuracy and accuracy of firing missiles was small, but comparable to artillery pieces of the time. However, in the second half of the 19th century, rifled artillery pieces appeared, providing greater accuracy and accuracy of fire, and rocket artillery was removed from service everywhere. Only fireworks and signal rockets survived ^[2] .

At the end of the 19th century, attempts were made to mathematically explain jet propulsion and create more efficient missile weapons. In Russia, one of the first to deal with this issue was Nikolai Tikhomirov in 1894. In parallel, in the USA, Nikola Tesla designs the first jet-powered devices, the principles of which he developed during his studies at college (that is, in the 70s of the XIX century) ^[7] .

The theory of jet propulsion was occupied by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky . He put forward the idea of ​​using rockets for space flights and argued that the combination of liquid oxygen and hydrogen would be the most effective fuel for them. He designed the rocket for interplanetary communications in 1903.

German scientist German Obert in the 1920s also outlined the principles of interplanetary flight. In addition, he conducted bench tests of rocket engines .

American scientist Robert Goddard in 1923 began to develop a liquid-propellant rocket engine, and a working prototype was created by the end of 1925. On March 16, 1926, he launched the first liquid rocket, for which gasoline and liquid oxygen were used.

The works of Tsiolkovsky, Obert and Goddard were continued by groups of rocketry enthusiasts in the USA , USSR and Germany . In the USSR, research was carried out by the Jet Propulsion Research Group (Moscow) and the Gas-Dynamic Laboratory (Leningrad). In 1933, the Jet Institute (RNII) was created on their basis. In that same year, the creation of a fundamentally new weapon — rockets, which had been later nicknamed “Katyusha” —was launched, begun in 1929, was completed.

On August 17, 1933, the GIRD 9 rocket was launched, which can be considered the first Soviet anti-aircraft missile. She reached a height of 1.5 km. And the next GIRD 10 rocket, launched on November 25, 1933, has already reached a height of 5 km ^[8] .

In Germany, similar work was carried out by the German Society for Interplanetary Communications (VfR). On March 14, 1931, VfR member Johannes Winkler carried out Europe’s first successful launch of a liquid rocket.

Werner von Braun worked at VfR, and since December 1932 he began developing rocket engines at the artillery range of the German army in Kummersdorf . The engine he created was used on an experimental A-2 rocket, successfully launched from Borkum Island on December 19, 1934. After the Nazis came to power in Germany, funds were allocated for the development of missile weapons, and in the spring of 1936 a program was approved for the construction of a rocket center in Peenemuende , Walter Dornberger was appointed as its leader, and von Braun as technical director. It was developed ballistic missile A-4 with a flight range of 320 km. During the Second World War, on October 3, 1942, the first successful launch of this rocket took place, and in 1944 its combat use began under the name V-2 ( V-2 ).

The military use of the V-2 showed the enormous potential of rocket technology, and the most powerful post-war powers - the United States and the USSR - also began developing ballistic missiles. ^[3]

In 1957, the first intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 , which was used to launch the world's first artificial Earth satellite, was created in the USSR under the leadership of Sergei Pavlovich Korolyov as a means of delivering nuclear weapons . So began the use of rockets for space flights.

Most modern missiles are equipped with chemical rocket engines . A similar engine can use solid, liquid or hybrid rocket fuel . The chemical reaction between the fuel and the oxidizer begins in the combustion chamber , the resulting hot gases form a flowing jet, are accelerated in the jet nozzle (s) and are ejected from the rocket. The acceleration of these gases in the engine creates traction - a pushing force that makes the rocket move. The principle of jet propulsion is described by Newton’s third law .

However, chemical reactions are not always used to move rockets. In steam rockets, superheated water flowing through the nozzle turns into a high-speed steam jet, which serves as the propulsion device . The effectiveness of steam missiles is relatively low, but this pays off for their simplicity and safety, as well as low cost and availability of water. The operation of a small steam rocket in 2004 was tested in space aboard the UK-DMC satellite . There are projects using steam rockets for interplanetary cargo transportation, with water heating due to nuclear or solar energy.

Missiles like steam, in which the heating of the working fluid occurs outside the working area of ​​the engine, are sometimes described as systems with external combustion engines . Other examples of external combustion rocket engines include most nuclear rocket engine designs.

Forces acting on a rocket in flight

The science that studies the forces acting on rockets or other spacecraft is called astrodynamics .

The main forces acting on a rocket in flight:

1. Engine thrust .
2. When moving in the atmosphere - drag .
3. Lift force . Usually small, but significant for missile plans .
4. Gravity

Warfare

Missiles are used as a means of delivering weapons to the target ^[9] . The small size and high speed of movement of missiles provides them with low vulnerability. Since a pilot missile is not needed to control a combat missile, it can carry charges of great destructive force, including nuclear ones. Modern homing and navigation systems give missiles greater accuracy and maneuverability.

There are many types of combat missiles, differing in flight range, as well as the launch site and the place where the target was hit (ground - air). To combat combat missiles, missile defense systems are used.

There are also flares and flares.

Research

Geophysical and meteorological rockets are used instead of airplanes and balloons at an altitude of more than 30-40 kilometers. Missiles do not have a restrictive ceiling and are used to probe the upper atmosphere, mainly the mesosphere and ionosphere.

There is a division of missiles into light meteorological, capable of lifting one set of devices to a height of about 100 kilometers, and heavy geophysical, which can carry several sets of devices and whose flight height is practically unlimited.

Usually, scientific rockets are equipped with instruments for measuring atmospheric pressure , magnetic field , cosmic radiation and air composition, as well as equipment for transmitting measurement results by radio to earth. There are models of rockets where devices with data obtained during the ascent are lowered to the ground using parachutes .

Missile meteorological research was preceded by satellite, therefore, the first meteorological satellites had the same instruments as meteorological rockets. The first time a rocket was launched in order to study the parameters of the air environment on April 11, 1937, but regular rocket launches began in the 1950s, when a series of specialized scientific rockets were created. In the Soviet Union, these were meteorological rockets МР-1 , М-100 , МР-12 , ММР-06 and geophysical type “ Vertical ” ^[10] . In modern Russia, in September 2007, M-100B missiles were used . ^[11] Aerobi , Black Brant , and Skylark missiles were used outside of Russia.

There are also special anti-hail rockets designed to protect agricultural land from hail clouds. They carry in the head part a reagent (usually silver iodide), which is sprayed during the explosion and leads to the formation of rain clouds instead of hail clouds. The flight altitude is limited to 6-12 km.

Cosmonautics

Hermann Obert is considered to be the creator of astronautics as a science, who for the first time proved the physical ability of the human body to endure the overloads that occur when a rocket is launched, as well as the state of zero gravity.

On May 10, 1897, K. E. Tsiolkovsky in the manuscript “Rocket” explores a number of jet propulsion problems, where it determines the speed that an aircraft develops under the influence of a thrust of a rocket engine, unchanged in direction, in the absence of all other forces; the final dependence was called the “ Tsiolkovsky formula ” (the article was published in the journal “Scientific Review” in 1903).

In 1903, K. E. Tsiolkovsky published his work “Exploring the World Spaces with Jet Devices” - the first in the world devoted to the theoretical justification of the possibility of interplanetary flights using a rocket-propelled aircraft. In 1911-1912, the second part of this work was published; in 1914, an addendum. K. E. Tsiolkovsky and independently F. A. Zander came to the conclusion that space flights are possible on energy sources already known then, and indicated practical schemes for their implementation (rocket form, principles of engine cooling, use of liquid gases as fuel couples, etc.).

The high rate of expiration of the products of fuel combustion (often exceeding the Mach Number by 10 times) allows the use of rockets in areas where ultra-high speeds are required, for example, to put spacecraft into orbit of the Earth (see. First space velocity ). The maximum speed that can be achieved with the help of a rocket is calculated by the Tsiolkovsky formula, which describes the increment of speed as the product of the outflow velocity and the natural logarithm of the ratio of the initial and final mass of the apparatus.

The rocket so far is the only vehicle capable of launching a spacecraft into space. Alternative methods to put spacecraft into orbit, such as a space elevator , electromagnetic and conventional guns, are still at the design stage.

In space, the main feature of the rocket is most clearly manifested - the lack of need for the environment or external forces for its movement. This feature, however, requires that all the components necessary to create a reactive force be on board the rocket itself. Так, для ракет, использующих в качестве топлива такие плотные компоненты, как жидкий кислород и керосин , отношение массы топлива к массе конструкции достигает 20:1. Для ракет, работающих на кислороде и водороде , это соотношение меньше — около 10:1. Массовые характеристики ракеты очень сильно зависят от типа используемого ракетного двигателя и закладываемых пределов надёжности конструкции.

Скорость, требуемая для выведения на орбиту космических аппаратов, часто недостижима даже при помощи ракеты. Паразитный вес топлива, конструкции, двигателей и системы управления настолько велик, что не даёт разогнать ракету до нужной скорости за приемлемое время. Задача решается за счёт использования составных многоступенчатых ракет, позволяющих отбросить излишний вес в процессе полёта.

За счёт уменьшения общего веса конструкции и выгорания топлива ускорение составной ракеты с течением времени увеличивается. Оно может немного снижаться лишь в момент сбрасывания отработавших ступеней и начала работы двигателей следующей ступени. Подобные многоступенчатые ракеты, предназначенные для запуска космических аппаратов, называют ракетами-носителями ^[12] .

Чаще всего в качестве ракет-носителей используются многоступенчатые баллистические ракеты. Старт ракеты-носителя происходит с Земли, или, в случае долгого полёта, с орбиты искусственного спутника Земли .

В настоящее время космическими агентствами разных стран используются ракеты-носители Атлас V , Ариан 5 , Протон , Дельта-4 , Союз-2 и многие другие.

Хобби, спорт и развлечения

Есть люди, увлекающиеся ракетомодельным спортом , их увлечение состоит в постройке и запуске моделей ракет. Также ракеты используют в любительских и профессиональных фейерверках .

Ракеты на перекиси водорода применяются в реактивных ранцах ^[13] , а также ракеты используются как двигатель в ракетных автомобилях . Ракетные автомобили сохраняют рекорд в гонках на максимальное ускорение ^[14] .

• Ракетогидродинамика
• Раушенбах, Борис Викторович
• Дорнбергер, Вальтер
• Поморцев, Михаил Михайлович

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