I could not ignore some of this posts content
and would add... that rockets burn and function well, in air BUT
in the vacuum of space, they are totally useless, once a rocket leaves earth's atmosphere
and gravitational influence, that rocket is then FALLING through space ~until
another planetary body 'gets in the way'
There is no possibility (presently) to alter a rocket's direction (course) in-space ~it is in free-fall
Yes, as it approaches another 'celestial body' (mass) it may well receive some gravitational influence
The Moon, has only one-sixth of Earth's gravity... If, the rocket is made to accelerate toward the Moon
Then it is accelerating FASTER than 14 times faster than a average bullet (?)
~when, the rocket arrives, it has to slow down and, be 'captured' by gravity and an atmosphere
for, it's engine to be 'effective'
I thought the Moon had no appreciable atmosphere ?
Does anyone see FUEL TANKS on the lander module ??? (what does it use for Landing and Take-off ?)
Wouldn't it need, AT_LEAST one sixth of the fuel it used, to leave Earth ?
Just some logical thoughts... by no-means 'EXPERT CONSIDERATION'
Hi,
To your well reasoned and thought out reply, no one knew if rockets would work in a vacuum. The first rocket scientist, actually ran an experiment in a vacuum to find out if in fact a rocket would work in a vacuum. It did.
To add, because I worked in a museum with a rocket scientist, the lander did in fact have fuel tanks on it. There was also an orbiting rocket, that the lander was launched from and then later reattached to, to go back to earth.
What is interesting at the time to me, a researcher once upon a time and hopefully even now, is how they treated the rocket scientist of the time. He was bullied verbally and had to leave his home state to hide out.
Even the New York times newpaper criticized him severly. They have since printed a retraction, but a retraction after all the damage was done.
Some of that damage is credited with helping to end the Second World War by some people. It worked like this. The Germans could no longer ask Goddard, how to do this thing or that thing with rockets as Goddard had cut them off as the war progressed.
Then one day, no one could find Goddard in America. That is said, to have caused the Germans to develope the V2, as they were said to be sure, that the Army had secreted Goddary away to develope a rocket to use.
The V2, as an efficient use of resources in the war was not. The enormous amount of money and the 30,000 pounds of potatoes needed to launch every V2 rocket in a time of food shortages, helped it is said to end the war earlier. (Potatoes are fermented then distilled to make ethyl alchol. Ethly alchol, yes drining alcohol was the fuel for V2's and even the Redstone Rocket later made in the US, for countering the Soviet threat that Sputnik posed, and their later launchings posed, as that rocket could have been outfitted with a nuclear weapon in those days.)
What is interesting about Werner Von Braun, is that after the war, and after the US had him in Operation Paper Clip, as that is what Werner Von Braun wanted after the war, to be with the US, with all his research and all his technicians and all his engineers, after the war each and every time, he was lauded for being the most important rocket man of that century, he fired back verbally.
His first attack was to say: "Why are you asking me. You have the foremost rocket scientist in the world." He meant, we The Untited States, have Goddard, the foremost rocket scientist in the world. Yes, the one who even tested to see if rockets would work in a vacuum.
LOVE,
