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A study of rocket dynamics done by K. E. Tsiolkovsky in 1896 is reported. Problems in rectilinear movement of rockets were studied. Calculations were done on velocity efficiency, motion in free space, motion in a homogeneous gravitational field and motion with constant acceleration.
The research for more efficient methods of propelling a spacecraft, than can be achieved with chemical energy, was studied. During a time when rockets for space flight had not actually been built pioneers in rocket technology were already concerned with this problem. Alternative sources proposed at that time, were nuclear and solar energy. Basic engineering problems of each source were investigated.
The development of Austrian mail delivery rockets and atmospheric sounding rockets in the late 1920's is described.
This program demonstrated the feasibility of virtually all the components in present-day, high-energy, liquid-rocket engines. Transpiration and film-cooled thrust chambers were successfully operated. The first liquid-hydrogen tests of the coaxial injector was conducted and the first pump to successfully produce high pressures in pumping liquid hydrogen was tested. A 1,000-lb-thrust gaseous propellant and a 3,000-lb-thrust liquid-propellant thrust chamber were operated satisfactorily. Also, the first tests were conducted to evaluate the effects of jet overexpansion and separation on performance of rocket thrust chambers with hydrogen-oxygen propellants.
The development and testing of the Viking rocket series is reviewed. These twelve sounding rockets were launched from 1949 to 1954.
The application of advanced liquid-bipropellant rocket engine analysis techniques has been utilized for prediction of the potential delivered performance and the design of thruster wall cooling schemes for laser-heated rocket thrusters. Delivered specific impulse values greater than 1000 lbf-sec/lbm are potentially achievable based on calculations for thrusters designed for 10-kW and 5000-kW laser beam power levels. A thruster wall-cooling technique utilizing a combination of regenerative cooling and a carbon-seeded hydrogen boundary layer is presented. The flowing carbon-seeded hydrogen boundary layer provides radiation absorption of the heat radiated from the high-temperature plasma. Also described is a forced convection thruster wall cooling design for an experimental test thruster.
A Nike-Tomahawk rocket was launched into a system of auroral arcs northward of Poker Flat Research Range, Fairbanks, Alaska. The pitch-angle distribution of electrons was measured at 2.5, 5, and 10 keV and also at 10 keV on a separating forward section of the payload. The auroral activity appeared to be the extension of substorm activity centered to the east. The rocket crossed a westward-propagating fold in the brightest band. The electron spectrum was relatively hard through most of the flight, showing a peak in the range from 2.5 to 10 keV in the weaker aurora and below 5 keV in the brightest arc. The detailed structure of the pitch-angle distribution suggested that, at times, a very selective process was accelerating some electrons in the magnetic field direction, so that a narrow field-aligned component appeared superimposed on a more isotropic distribution. It is concluded that this process could not be a near-ionosphere field-aligned potential drop, although the more isotropic component may have been produced by a parallel electric field extending several thousand kilometers along the field line above the ionosphere.
The use of sounding rockets for calibrating solar cells offers two principal advantages: (1) there is no effect due to the terrestrial atmosphere, and (2) the cells are recoverable immediately after the calibration. On March 30, 1976, 29 n/p silicon and four p/n gallium arsenide solar cells were calibrated in space and successfully recovered from a NASA-Astrobee F rocket that reached a peak altitude of 230 km. Approximately 75 IV characteristic curves were generated for 32 of the cells to an accuracy of plus or minus 0.2 ma and plus or minus 0.2 mV.
Results of a coordinated auroral experiment involving the Atmosphere Explorer C satellite and a sounding rocket are reported. Auroral primary electron fluxes and neutral gas densities measured by instruments on the satellite are used in a model calculation of the thermospheric manifestation of the aurora. There is encouraging agreement between the calculated and measured electron density, electron temperature, secondary electron flux, and O I emissions at 5577 and 6300 A. A discrepancy between the calculated and the rocket-measured 3914-A emission profile is discussed in terms of experiment geometry and auroral physics. The coordinated measurements are used to infer vertical fluxes of ionization and of electron thermal energy at high altitudes
During the first few seconds of the space shuttle trajectory, the solid rocket boosters will be in the proximity of the launch pad. Because of the launch pad structures and the surface of the earth, the turbulent mixing experienced by the exhaust gases will be greatly increased over that for the free flight situation. In addition, a system will be present, designed to protect the lifting vehicle from launch structure vibrations, which will inject quantities of liquid water into the hot plume. The effects of these two phenomena on the temperatures, chemical composition, and flow field present in the afterburning solid rocket motor exhaust plumes of the space shuttle were studied. Results are included from both a computational model of the afterburning and supporting measurements from Titan 3 exhaust plumes taken at Kennedy Space Center with infrared scanned radiometers.
Fluid-flow components in a liquid propellant rocket engine and the rocket vehicle which it propels are interconnected by lines, bellows, and flexible hoses. Elements involved in the successful design of these components are identified and current technologies pertaining to these elements are reviewed, assessed, and summarized to provide a technology base for a checklist of rules to be followed by project managers in guiding a design or assessing its adequacy. Recommended procedures for satisfying each of the design criteria are included.
The construction of a high resolution imaging telescope experiment payload suitable for launch on an Astrobee F sounding rocket was proposed. Also integration, launch, and subsequent data analysis effort were included. The payload utilizes major component subassemblies from the HEAO-B satellite program which were nonflight development units for that program. These were the X ray mirror and high resolution imager brassboard detector. The properties of the mirror and detector were discussed. The availability of these items for a sounding rocket experiment were explored with the HEAO-B project office.
A lightweight pyrogen igniter assembly including an elongated molded plastic tube adapted to contain a pyrogen charge was designed for insertion into a rocket motor casing for ignition of the rocket motor charge. A molded plastic closure cap provided for the elongated tube includes an ignition charge for igniting the pyrogen charge and an electrically actuated ignition squib for igniting the ignition charge. The ignition charge is contained within a portion of the closure cap, and it is retained therein by a noncorrosive ignition pellet retainer or screen which is adapted to rest on a shoulder of the elongated tube when the closure cap and tube are assembled together. A circumferentially disposed metal ring is provided along the external circumference of the closure cap and is molded or captured within the plastic cap in the molding process to provide, along with O-ring seals, a leakproof rotary joint.
The pulsating X-ray binary 4U1223-62 and Vela X-1 were observed by Aerobee rocket-borne proportional counters. Valid X-ray events were telemetered and analyzed for possible flaring, quasiperiodic, and periodic pulsations, and for other nonstatistical behavior in the source. Both fast Fourier transform and autocorrelation programs were used. For several hours four days before and after the rocket flight, the SAS-3 satellite scanned the galactic plane in order to identify X-ray sources in the vicinity of 4U1223-62 and their intensities, and to provide positional accuracy of 0.25 for sources with intensity greater than 10% of the target. Observations of the source near the main peak of its pulsating period as defined by SAS-3 are discussed. There is no evidence of a spectral feature although twice as many photons were received as than from Vela X-1.
An experimental investigation was conducted in the MSFC 14 inch TWT to study the roll characteristics of a 0.00548 scale model of the 146 inch shuttle solid rocket booster to obtain more accurate rolling moment data on the solid rocket booster. A sensitive single component roll balance was utilized. Data were obtained for a single nose mounted sting. The angle of attack range consisted of angles from 150 deg to 190 deg; roll angles consisted of angles from 0 deg to 337 1/2 deg in increments of 22 1/2 deg; and Mach numbers were 1.46, 1.96, 2.74 and 2.48.
A simple closed loop control system has been developed to maintain the gas pressure in thin-window proportional counters during rocket flights. This system permits convenient external control of detector pressure and system flushing rate. The control system is activated at launch with the sealing of a reference volume at the existing system pressure. Inflight control to plus or minus 2 torr at a working pressure of 760 torr has been achieved on six rocket flights.
Data are collected by electron detectors aboard a sounding rocket measuring the primary electron spectrum and the energy flux on the field lines containing auroral light in the E region. These data are compared to calculations based on spectroscopic measurements of the auroral lines 4278, 5577, and 6300 A used in predicting the energy influx and the characteristic energy of an assumed Maxwellian primary electron spectrum for two auroral displays. Data were also collected by photometers sampling the auroral light from the E region magnetically conjugate to the rocket. These data are compared to those of current ionospheric models.
High frequency waves in two frequency bands above the electron gyro frequency (1.6 MHz and 2.3 MHz) were observed by radio receivers carried on a sounding rocket as it passed over a strong aurora. Only the line at 2.3 MHz has a large magnetic component. Both 0.4s and 4s periods are present in much of the emissions. Good correlation is seen for a short time between the 2.3 MHz waves and 1.9 keV electrons detected on board the rocket.