The driving force for the motion of any vehicle is friction, but in the case of rocket propulsion in space, the friction force is not present. The motion of a rocket changes its velocity (and hence its momentum) by ejecting burned fuel gases, thus causing it to accelerate in the direction opposite to the velocity of the ejected fuel. In this situation, the mass and velocity of the rocket constantly change along with the total mass of ejected gases. Due to conservation of momentum, the rocket's...

The motion of a rocket is governed by the conservation of momentum principle. A rocket's momentum changes by the same amount (with the opposite sign) as the ejected gases. As time goes by, the rocket's mass (which includes the mass of the remaining fuel) continuously decreases, and its velocity increases. Therefore, the principle of conservation of momentum is used to explain the dynamics of a rocket's motion. The ideal rocket equation gives the change in velocity that a rocket experiences by...

Rockets range in size from small fireworks that ordinary people use to the enormous Saturn V that once propelled massive payloads toward the Moon. The propulsion of all rockets, jet engines, deflating balloons, and even squids and octopuses are explained by the same physical principle: Newton's third law of motion. The matter is forcefully ejected from a system, producing an equal and opposite reaction on what remains.
The motion of a rocket in space changes its velocity (and hence its...

A rocket's velocity in the presence of a gravitational field is decreased by the amount of force exerted by Earth's gravitational field, which opposes the motion of the rocket. If we consider thrust, that is, the force exerted on a rocket by the exhaust gases, then a rocket's thrust is greater in outer space than in the atmosphere or on a launch pad. In fact, gases are easier to expel in a vacuum.
A rocket's acceleration depends on three major factors, consistent with the equation for the...

The gravitational acceleration of an object near the Earth's surface is called the acceleration due to gravity. It can be measured by conducting simple experiments on Earth. However, such an experiment is impossible to conduct on the surface of other planets.
Astronomical observations are thus used to measure the acceleration due to gravity on other planets. This can be determined by observing the effect of a planet's gravity on objects close to it. The crucial factor that helps in this...

The Moon orbits around the Earth. In turn, the Earth (and other planets) orbit the Sun. The space directly above our atmosphere is filled with artificial satellites in orbit. One can examine the circular orbit, the simplest kind of orbit, to understand the relationship between the speed and the period of planets and satellites with respect to their positions and the bodies that they orbit.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) first suggested that the Earth and all other planets orbit the Sun in...