Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. There are many different methods. Each method has drawbacks and advantages, and spacecraft propulsion is an active area of research. However, most spacecraft today are propelled by exhausting a gas from the back/rear of the vehicle at very high speed through a supersonic de Laval nozzle. This sort of engine is called a rocket engine.
NECESSITY:
For interplanetary travel, a spacecraft must use its engines to leave Earth orbit. Once it has done so, it must somehow make its way to its destination. Current interplanetary spacecraft do this with a series of short-term trajectory adjustments.In between these adjustments, the spacecraft simply falls freely along its trajectory. The most fuel-efficient means to move from one circular orbit to another is with a Hohmann transfer orbit: the spacecraft begins in a roughly circular orbit around the Sun.
Some spacecraft propulsion methods such as solar sails provide very low but inexhaustible thrust;an interplanetary vehicle using one of these methods would follow a rather different trajectory, either constantly thrusting against its direction of motion in order to decrease its distance from the Sun or constantly thrusting along its direction of motion to increase its distance from the Sun.
Spacecraft for interstellar travel also need propulsion methods. No such spacecraft has yet been built, but many designs have been discussed. Since interstellar distances are very great, a tremendous velocity is needed to get a spacecraft to its destination in a reasonable amount of time. Acquiring such a velocity on launch and getting rid of it on arrival will be a formidable challenge for spacecraft designers
EFFECTIVNESS:
When in space, the purpose of a propulsion system is to change the velocity, or v, of a spacecraft. Since this is more difficult for more massive spacecraft, designers generally discuss momentum, mv. The amount of change in momentum is called impulse.So the goal of a propulsion method in space is to create an impulse.
The rate of change of velocity is called acceleration, and the rate of change of momentum is called force. To reach a given velocity, one can apply a small acceleration over a long period of time, or one can apply a large acceleration over a short time. Similarly, one can achieve a given impulse with a large force over a short time or a small force over a long time. This means that for maneuvering in space, a propulsion method that produces tiny accelerations but runs for a long time can produce the same impulse as a propulsion method that produces large accelerations for a short time. When launching from a planet, tiny accelerations cannot overcome the planet's gravitational pull and so cannot be used.
The Earth's surface is situated fairly deep in a gravity well and it takes a velocity of 11.2 kilometers/second (escape velocity) or more to escape from it. As human beings evolved in a gravitational field of 1g (9.8 m/s²), an ideal propulsion system would be one that provides a continuous acceleration of 1g (though human bodies can tolerate much larger accelerations over short periods). The occupants of a rocket or spaceship having such a propulsion system would be free from all the ill effects of free fall, such as nausea, muscular weakness, reduced sense of taste, or leeching of calcium from their bones.
ROCKET ENGINES:
Most rocket engines are internal combustion heat engines (although non combusting forms exist). Rocket engines generally produce a high temperature reaction mass, as a hot gas. This is achieved by combusting a solid, liquid or gaseous fuel with an oxidiser within a combustion chamber. The extremely hot gas is then allowed to escape through a high-expansion ratio nozzle. This bell-shaped nozzle is what gives a rocket engine its characteristic shape. The effect of the nozzle is to dramatically accelerate the mass, converting most of the thermal energy into kinetic energy. Exhaust speed reaching as high as 10 times the speed of sound at sea level are common.Ion propulsion rockets can heat a plasma or charged gas inside a magnetic bottle and release it via a magnetic nozzle, so that no solid matter need come in contact with the plasma. Of course, the machinery to do this is complex, but research into nuclear fusion has developed methods, some of which have been proposed to be used in propulsion systems, and some have been tested in a lab.
LAUNCH MECHANISM:
High thrust is of vital importance for Earth launch, thrust has to be greater than weight (see also gravity drag). Many of the propulsion methods above give a thrust/weight ratio of much less than 1, and so cannot be used for launch.
One advantage that spacecraft have in launch is the availability of infrastructure on the ground to assist them. Proposed non-rocket spacelaunch ground-assisted launch mechanisms include:
1. Space elevator (a geostationary tether to orbit)
2. Launch loop (a very fast enclosed rotating loop about 80 km tall)
3. Space fountain (a very tall building held up by a stream of masses fired from base)
4. Orbital ring (a ring around the Earth with spokes hanging down off bearings)
5. Hypersonic skyhook (a fast spinning orbital tether)
6. Electromagnetic catapult (railgun, coilgun) (an electric gun)
7. inclined launch rails
8. Space gun (Project HARP, ram accelerator) (a chemically powered gun)
9. Laser propulsion (Lightcraft) (rockets powered from ground-based lasers)
10.High Altitude Platforms to assist initial stage
AIR-BREATHING ENGINES FOR ORBITAL LAUNCH:
Studies generally show that conventional air-breathing engines, such as ramjets or turbojets are basically too heavy (have too low a thrust/weight ratio) to give any significant performance improvement when installed on a launch vehicle itself. However, launch vehicles can be air launched from separate lift vehicles (e.g. B-29, Pegasus Rocket and White Knight) which do use such propulsion systems. Jet engines mounted on a launch rail could also be so used.
On the other hand, very lightweight or very high speed engines have been proposed that take advantage of the air during ascent:
1. SABRE - a lightweight hydrogen fuelled turbojet with precooler
2. ATREX - a lightweight hydrogen fuelled turbojet with precooler
3. Liquid air cycle engine - a hydrogen fuelled jet engine that liquifies the air before burning it in a rocket engine
4. Scramjet - jet engines that use supersonic combustion
Normal rocket launch vehicles fly almost vertically before rolling over at an altitude of some tens of kilometers before burning sideways for orbit; this initial vertical climb wastes propellant but is optimal as it greatly reduces airdrag. Airbreathing engines burn propellant much more efficiently and this would permit a far flatter launch trajectory, the vehicles would typically fly approximately tangentially to the earth surface until leaving the atmosphere then perform a rocket burn to bridge the final delta-v to orbital velocity.
TESTING SPACE-CRAFT PROPULSION:
Spacecraft propulsion systems are often first statically tested on the Earth's surface, within the atmosphere but many systems require a vacuum chamber to test fully. Rockets are usually tested at a rocket engine test facility well away from habitation and other buildings for safety reasons. Ion drives are far less dangerous and require much less stringent safety, usually only a large-ish vacuum chamber is needed.
Some systems cannot be adequately tested on the ground and test launches may be employed at a Rocket Launch Site.
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