Space travel

[wildwood]

I can not fully get my head around how direction correctional thrust on a spaceship works as to my mind there is nothing to push against, but they must work or we wouldn't be able to accurately travel outside the Earth's atmosphere.

Not suggesting that we send a Fokker Friendship to the moon, but as a matter of interest, would propeller propulsion work just as well in outer space?

[gonzo00]

propeller propulsion would not work in space as space is a vaccuum and therefore there would be no air to push with the said propeller! rocket motors work in a different way...it's all very complicated apparently!!!

[DrFilth]

i think you will find the moon too bumpy for the Fokker Friendship to land


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[paddiez]

suppose you survived the landing,think of the take-off run,thats why rockets work out in space. They create a force.

[Huderon]

Well, supposedly, you could move around in space by sitting in a bucket and throwing rocks - you'd move in the opposite direction to the rocks you throw. It would be a very slow way to travel mind !

Thrusters work the same way, more or less, they just don't use rocks. What they use is compressed air or the gasses from combustion. Ummm ... if you blow up a balloon and let go, the air inside is forced out and the balloon goes shooting off. It's the same principle with spaceships.

[Teddio]

"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" Forces work in pairs, no exceptions. When the rocket fires in the vacuum of space the gas molecules push against the nozzle and the nozzle pushes against the gas molecules. From the perspective of the rocket, it experiences a thrust force and, consequently, an acceleration in the direction of the thrust.

[R1Geezer]

Yep, Newtons 1st dear boy!

[wildwood]

Thank you all.