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the rocket equation

the rocket equation published on 1 Comment on the rocket equation

the rocket equation is the reason we don’t live in the star trek universe. because a rocket has to carry all its fuel, it grows exponentially the further you want it to go.

rocket that goes up a few hundred metres? size of a water bottle.
rocket that goes into orbit? size of a dinosaur.
rocket that goes to the moon and back? size of skyscraper.

if we lived on a smaller planet with weaker gravity (like mars), space travel would be relatively easy. if we lived on a larger planet with stronger gravity (like saturn), space travel would be impossible. instead we live on earth, where space travel is only just possible, but incredibly difficult.

Transcripts

sedna: to get into orbit and not fall back down and die, you need to get above the atmosphere and go sideways really fast. like “over 7km/second” fast.

sedna: to go that fast you need a lot of fuel, but to carry all that fuel you need even more fuel. so a rocket has to have multiple stages.

sedna: that’s why space travel is so expensie. to get a tiny thing into orbit you need a massive rocket which gets destroyed after one use.
dini: whoa…

sedna: …unless you can bring the rocket down safely and reuse it.
sfx: snap!
dini: h-hey, speaking of which…

Webcomic Transcript Authorsthomas

1 Comment

Some things that can prevent reusing model rockets: one or more fins fall off on launch resulting in uncontrolled flight and crash, nose-cone fails to come out, parachute and nose cone separate from fuselage, parachute lines get tangled, parachute melts (hole or lump), rocket lands on inaccessible roof, rocket lands in unclimbable tree, rocket lands in water and the fuselage soaks up water, rocket lands on road and gets run over.

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