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How does a space shuttle overcome gravity?
When astrophysicists design rockets to travel to other planets—or out of the solar system entirely—they use the rotational velocity of the Earth to speed up the rockets and launch them beyond the reach of Earth’s gravity. The speed required to break free of an orbit is known as escape velocity.
How does gravity affect a rocket in space?
Vertical rocket motion The force of gravity is now acting in the opposite direction to the thrust, so the resultant force pushing the rocket upwards is also less. Making a rocket as light as possible will affect how quickly the rocket will speed up and the height that it will be able to reach.
What is the reaction of a rocket blasting off?
With rockets, the action is the expelling of gas out of the engine. The reaction is the movement of the rocket in the opposite direction. To enable a rocket to lift off from the launch pad, the action, or thrust, from the engine must be greater than the mass of the rocket.
How far can a rocket go in space?
Suborbital rockets – visiting space briefly Sounding rockets can travel much higher than weather balloons (another way of measuring the atmosphere), which can only travel up to an altitude of 40 km. Some sounding rockets travel up to 950 km or higher before falling back to Earth.
How are rockets able to escape the Earth’s gravity?
Rockets need to escape the Earth’s gravity – the force pulling objects towards the Earth. To do this, they must generate a huge amount of thrust – the force that pushes the rocket upwards. Rockets carry a lot of fuel. This fuel burns slowly and generates lots and lots of heat. When the rocket fuel burns, it also produces gas.
What does it mean when a rocket goes into space?
Rockets launched into space can be suborbital (brief visit to space) or orbital (staying in motion around the Earth) or can escape Earth’s gravity to travel deeper into space.
What happens to the fuel in a rocket when it burns?
When the rocket fuel burns, it also produces gas. The build up of this gas escapes the rocket with a lot of force and provides enough thrust for the rocket to blast off. To maintain enough thrust to overcome the Earth’s gravity, the rocket must carry lots of fuel in many tanks.
Why does a rocket have to have greater thrust than weight?
Thrust needs to be greater than weight. A rocket launches when the force of thrust pushing it upwards is greater than the weight force due to gravity downwards. This unbalanced force causes a rocket to accelerate upwards.