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A space vehicle's flight is determined by application of Newton's second law of motion: =, where F is the vector sum of all forces exerted on the vehicle, m is its current mass, and a is the acceleration vector, the instantaneous rate of change of velocity (v), which in turn is the instantaneous rate of change of displacement.
A rocket's required mass ratio as a function of effective exhaust velocity ratio. The classical rocket equation, or ideal rocket equation is a mathematical equation that describes the motion of vehicles that follow the basic principle of a rocket: a device that can apply acceleration to itself using thrust by expelling part of its mass with high velocity and can thereby move due to the ...
Orbital mechanics or astrodynamics is the application of ballistics and celestial mechanics to the practical problems concerning the motion of rockets, satellites, and other spacecraft. The motion of these objects is usually calculated from Newton's laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation .
In the limiting case where the vehicle acceleration is high compared to the local gravitational acceleration, the spacecraft points straight toward the target (accounting for target motion), and remains accelerating constantly under high thrust until it reaches its target. In this high-thrust case, the trajectory approaches a straight line.
As a rule of thumb, for a constant acceleration at 1 g (Earth gravity), the journey time, as measured on Earth, will be the distance in light years to the destination, plus 1 year. This rule of thumb will give answers that are slightly shorter than the exact calculated answer, but reasonably accurate.
Space exploration is about reaching the destination safely (mission enabling), quickly (reduced transit times), with a large quantity of payload mass, and relatively inexpensively (lower cost). The act of reaching the destination requires an in-space propulsion system, and the other metrics are modifiers to this fundamental action.
A launch from high altitude need not throttle back at max Q as it starts above the thickest portion of the Earth's atmosphere. Debora A. Grant and James L. Rand, in "The Balloon Assisted Launch System – A Heavy Lift Balloon", [ 11 ] wrote: "It was established some time ago that a ground launched rocket capable of reaching 20 km would be able ...
Space exploration also gives scientists the ability to perform experiments in other settings and expand humanity's knowledge. [67] Another claim is that space exploration is a necessity to humankind and that staying on Earth will eventually lead to extinction. Some of the reasons are lack of natural resources, comets, nuclear war, and worldwide ...