History of Rockets & Satellites

History of Rockets & Satellites

By Abby Fancsali

Multiple Choice

Review: This Force pulls objects together based on their mass

• Gravity

• Friction

• Thrust

• Strength

Multiple Choice

Review: Newton's Third Law of Motion states

• An Object in motion always stays in motion

• For every action there is a reaction

• The force of an Object depends on it's mass * its acceleration

Early Rockets

• Modern Rockets operate based on a combination of physics and Chemistry

• ​First recorded example of a "Rocket" in 300 BC

  • Archytus in greek makes a wooden model bird that flies through the air​ on wires

    • ​uses steam as a source of power

    • Would later be copied by Hero of Alexandria

Early Rockets

• The First Century AD: China creates the first non-steam powered fuel using saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal

  • Recipe was put into bamboo tubes and thrown into fire as a religious ceremony

• 1232: Experimentation caused them to attach the tubes to arrows and launch them much farther than a plain arrow

  • Used in war agains Mongols, may not have been effective as a weapon, but did cause fear​

Early Rockets

• Mongols soon copied the Chinese rocket and spread the technology throughout Europe

  • ​Mainly used as weapons, but developments also were made for the entertainment value of rockets

    • Legends started to arise about using rockets for transportation, but no evidence show it happened

      • Wan Hu: Chinese Official who supposedly strapped 47 fire arrows to his chair to help it move

        • "Disappeared" when the fuse was lit

Rockets Post Newton

• Issac Newton's laws of Motion helped to influence the design of Rockets to work better

• 1898 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky​ proposes the idea of a rocket to explore space

  • Suggests developing a liquid propellant that could provide more thrust than steam or gunpowder​

• 1919: Robert H. Goddard publishes a mathematical pamphlet describing the most sound rockets for flight

  • originally used solid propellant, but eventually developed a propellant that used liquid Oxygen​

    • First flight March 16, 1926. Only flew 12.5 meters tall and 56 meters away

Modern Rockets and the Space Race

• Germany Developed the V-2 Rockets during WWII

  • Could have changed the tide of the war had they been perfected earlier​

• Post WWII the cold war era lead to both the US and USSR developing Space programs

• 1957: Launch of Sputnik 1 and Laika the dog by the USSR

  • US Followed with launch of Explorer 1 and development of NASA​

Multiple Choice

The first Rockets used this as a fuel

• Steam

• Oxygen

• Gunpowder

• Gasoline

Multiple Select

Early Rockets were used for what? (Click all that apply)

• Weapons

• Entertainment

• Travel

• communication

Multiple Select

Early Rockets were used for what? (Click all that apply)

• Weapons

• Entertainment

• Travel

• communication

Multiple Choice

This Russian Scientist was the first to propose Rockets as a means of space travel

• Han Wu

• Robert H. Goddard

• Konstantin Tsiolkovsky​

• Issac Newton

Satellites

• In general, a satellite is any object that is in orbit around a planet, but many people refer to a satellite in terms of a man made object

  • Earth's Natural Satellite= the Moon

• Different types ofSatellites have different purposes​

  • Communication

  • Navigation

  • Weather Prediction

• Can be in different location in Earth's Orbit

  • Low Earth Orbit (LEO) =200-500 miles high​

    • Travel Very Fast

How do Satellites stay in orbit

• Satellites follow and elliptical path around the Earth

  • Are Launched at a high enough speed to break through the Earth's Atmosphere

  • Gravity keeps the satellite from straying to far from the planet, but it moves fast enough to constantly circle the Earth

    • Closer to Earth, the faster a satellite has to move

How do communication Satellites

• A station on the ground sends out a radio wave to a satellite in space

• A receiver on the satellite​ reads the wave and amplifies it

  • transmits it to a receiver station on the ground

Cell Phone's vs Satellite Phones

• Cell phones send signals through small "Cells" that process all the waves in an area

  • ​Each Cell Works on many frequencies

  • Calls travel from cell to cell, going where the signal is the strongest

• Satellite Phones use LEO Satellites

  • Phone sends signals out to groups of satellites​ and bounces it back down to any phone with a receiver, landline or cellular

    • No Towers means more range

  • Most Cell phones are not capable of sending to satellites, but that is changing

    • 2021: Shannon Satellite by Lynk able to connect to Cellphones without major hardware changes

Multiple Choice

Which Type of Satellite is used to work a GPS

• Navigation

• Communication

• Weather

Multiple Choice

True or False: LEO Satellites have to move very slow to stay in Earth's Orbit

• True

• False