Humans did not reach space until the second half of the 20th century. They needed somehow to break past Earths gravity. A rocket moves rapidly in one direction. The device is propelled by particles flying out of it at high speed in the other direction. There are records of the Chinese using rockets in war against the Mongols as early as the 13th century. The Mongols then used rockets to attack Eastern Europe. Early rockets were also used to launch fireworks. Rockets were used for centuries before anyone could explain how they worked. The theory came about in 1687. Isaac Newton (16431727) described three basic laws of motion, now referred to as Newtons Laws of Motion: 1. An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by a force. 2. Force equals mass multiplied by acceleration. 3. To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Which of these three best explains how a rocket works? Newtons third law of motion. When a rockets propulsion pushes in one direction, the rocket moves in the opposite direction, as seen in the Figure 23.12. For a long time, many people believed that a rocket wouldnt work in space. There would be nothing for the rocket to push against. But they do work! Fuel is ignited in a chamber. The gases in the chamber explode. The explosion creates pressure that forces the gases out of one side of the rocket. The rocket moves in the opposite direction, as shown in Figure 23.13. The force pushing the rocket is called thrust. For centuries, rockets were powered by gunpowder or other solid fuels. These rockets could travel only short distances. Around the turn of the 20th century, several breakthroughs took place. These breakthroughs led to rockets that could travel beyond Earth. Liquid fuel gave rockets enough power to escape Earths gravity (Figure 23.14). By using multiple stages, empty fuel containers could drop away. This reduced the mass of the rocket so that it could fly higher. Rockets were used during World War II. The V2 was the first human-made object to travel high enough to be considered in space (Figure 23.15). Its altitude was 176 km (109 miles) above Earths surface. Wernher von Braun was a German rocket scientist. After he fled Germany in WWII, he helped the United States develop missile weapons. After the war, von Braun worked for NASA. He designed the Saturn V rocket (Figure One of the first uses of rockets in space was to launch satellites. A satellite is an object that orbits a larger object. An orbit is a circular or elliptical path around an object. Natural objects in orbit are called natural satellites. The Moon is a natural satellite. Human-made objects in orbit are called artificial satellites. There are more and more artificial satellites orbiting Earth all the time. They all get into space using some sort of rocket. Why do satellites stay in orbit? Why dont they crash into Earth due to the planets gravity? Newtons law of universal gravitation describes what happens. Every object in the universe is attracted to every other object. Gravity makes an apple fall to the ground. Gravity also keeps you from floating away into the sky. Gravity holds the Moon in orbit around Earth. It keeps Earth in orbit around the Sun. Newton used an example to explain how gravity makes orbiting possible. Imagine a cannonball launched from a high mountain, as shown in Figure 23.17. If the cannonball is launched at a slow speed, it will fall back to Earth. This is shown as paths (A) and (B). Something different happens if the cannonball is launched at a fast speed. The Earth below curves away at the same rate that the cannonball falls. The cannonball then goes into a circular orbit, as in path (C). If the cannonball is launched even faster, it could go into an elliptical orbit (D). It might even leave Earths gravity and go into space (E). Unfortunately, Newtons idea would not work in real life. A cannonball launched at a fast speed from Mt. Everest would not go into orbit.
Output: vehicle pushed in one direction by particles flying out of it in the opposite direction