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How Do Space Missions Help Us Learn About the Solar System?

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How Do Space Missions Help Us Learn About the Solar System? S ON CU O F How do space missions TEKS help us learn about the 11C solar system? You’re taking a trip to a faraway place . to Mars, which is 225 million Watch the Untamed Science video kilometers away. You won’t be able to to learn more about exploring space. call for roadside assistance if your all-terrain vehicle breaks down, because there is no cellphone service there. If you want to be sure your vehicle is up for the challenge, you better road-test it in Martian-like conditions first! How might models help designers who are building a rover? 410 Exploring Space CHAPTER Exploring Space 10 Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills TEKS: 2D Construct tables and graphs, using repeated trials and means, to organize data and identify patterns. 2E Analyze data to formulate reasonable explanations, communicate valid conclusions supported by the data, and predict trends. 11C Describe the history and future of space exploration, including the types of equipment and transportation needed for space travel. 411 CHAPTER 10 Getting Started Check Your Understanding 1. Background Read the paragraph below and then answer the question. A force is a push or pull. Bill wonders how a rocket gets off the ground. His sister Jan explains that the rocket’s engines create a lot of Speed is the distance an object moves per unit of force. The force causes the rocket to travel upward with time. great speed. The force helps the rocket push against Gravity is the force that pulls gravity and have enough speed to rise into space. objects toward each other. • What force is pulling down on the rocket as it pushes off the ground? Vocabulary Skill Identify Related Word Forms You can expand your vocabulary by learning the related forms of a word. If you know that the verb collect means “to gather together,” then you can figure out the meaning of the noun collection and the adjective collective. Verb Noun Adjective probe probe probing to examine something carefully an unmanned space vehicle serving to test or try vacuum vacuum vacuum to clean with a vacuum cleaner a place empty of all matter partially or completely empty of all matter 2. Quick Check Circle the sentence below that uses the noun form of the word probe. • The satellite probes Earth’s surface thoroughly. • The probes collected photographs and data for the scientists to analyze. 412 Exploring Space rocket Chapter Preview LESSON 1 • rocket • thrust • velocity • orbital velocity • escape velocity Relate Text and Visuals Interpret Data LESSON 2 satellite • satellite • space shuttle • space station • space probe • rover Ask Questions Make Models LESSON 3 • vacuum • microgravity Identify the Main Idea Draw Conclusions space probe microgravity 413 LESSON 1 The Science of Rockets How Were Rockets Developed? TEKS 11C How Does a Rocket Work? TEKS 11C What Is the Main Advantage of a Multistage Rocket? TEKS 11C FUN FACT Jet Packs Study the picture of the person using It’s been snowing all day and the roads a jet pack. Use your knowledge of haven’t been plowed yet. No problem. Just science to answer the question. strap on a jet pack and fly over the snow. What would be the advantages and Does this sound like something out disadvantages of using a jet pack for of a science fiction movie? Actually, transportation? manufacturers have already started making one-person jet packs. The jet packs are very expensive. They also use a lot of heavy fuel­—about 10 gallons of gasoline per hour. And jet packs can carry a person for only about 30 minutes before they have to be refueled. However, 30 minutes is long enough to get many people to work—if they can find a place to land and park the jet pack once they get there. Do the Inquiry Warm-Up Lab What Force Moves a Balloon? zone Find the lab online. TEKS 11C In this section, How Were Rockets Developed? you will learn about rockets, a form of transportation used You’ve probably seen rockets at fireworks displays. As the rockets in space travel. moved skyward, you may have noticed a fiery gas rushing out of the back. A rocket is a device that expels gas in one direction to ELPS 3.B.2 move the rocket in the opposite direction. Rocket technology With a partner, read and retell the originated in China hundreds of years ago and then gradually four paragraphs on page 415. Retell spread to other parts of the world. Rockets were developed for each paragraph as a simple story. military use as well as for fireworks. 414 Exploring Space Vocabulary Skills • rocket • thrust • velocity Reading: Relate Text and Visuals • orbital velocity • escape velocity Inquiry: Interpret Data Origins of Rockets The first rockets were made in China FIGURe 1 in the 1100s, as the timeline in Figure 1 shows. These early Rocket Timeline A legend claims the Chinese ‘‘rockets’’ weren’t rockets, but simply arrows coated with a official Wan-Hoo tried to fly to flammable powder that were lighted and shot with bows. By about the moon around the year 1500 1200, the Chinese were using gunpowder inside their rockets. by tying rockets to his chair. The British greatly improved rocketry in the early 1800s. ­British On the cards below, write a ships used rockets against American troops in the War of 1812. brief entry for the events that “The Star-Spangled Banner” contains the words “the rockets’ red took place in the development glare, the bombs bursting in air.” These words describe a British of rockets. rocket attack on Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. Development of Modern Rockets Modern rockets were first developed by scientists in the early 1900s. One such scientist was the Russian physicist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. He described in scientific terms how rockets work and proposed designs for advanced rockets. The American physicist Robert Goddard also designed rockets. Beginning around 1915, he built rockets to test his designs. Scientists made major advances in rocket design during World War II. The Germans used a rocket called the V-2 to destroy both military and civilian targets. The V-2 was a large rocket that could travel about 300 kilometers. The designer of the V-2, Wernher von Braun, was brought to the United States after the war ended. Von Braun used his experience to direct the development of many rockets used in the U.S. program to send humans into space. Do the Quick Lab Lab History of Rockets. zone Find the lab online. Assess Your Understanding TEKS 11C got it? mgs11a02700 I get it! Now I know that the rocket technologySteve Rider that sends humans into space originated 01.30.09 and gradually spread to 02.05.09 I need extra help with 03.02.09 03.23.09 415 TEKS 11C In this section, you will explore the principles How Does a Rocket Work? that make space travel by A rocket can be as small as your finger or as large as a skyscraper. rocket possible. An essential feature of any rocket, though, is that it expels gas in one direction. A rocket moves forward when gases shooting out the back of the rocket push it in the opposite direction. A rocket works like a balloon that is propelled through the air by releasing gas. In most rockets, fuel is burned to make hot gas. The gas pushes in every direction, but it can leave the rocket only through openings at the back. This moves the rocket forward. Action and Reaction Forces A rocket demonstrates a basic law of physics: For every force, or action, there is an equal and opposite force, or reaction. Look at Figure 2. The force of the gas shooting out of the rocket is an action force. An equal force—the reaction force—pushes the rocket forward. The reaction force that propels a rocket forward is called thrust. The amount of thrust depends on the mass and speed of the gases propelled out of the rocket. The greater the thrust, the greater a rocket’s velocity. Velocity is speed in a given direction. FIGURe 2 Rocket Action and Reaction The force of gas propelled out of the back of a rocket produces an opposing force that propels the rocket forward. Rocket Fuels Label the action force and Three types of fuel are used to power modern rockets. the reaction force in the figure, Solid-fuel rocket: and explain how this causes the rocket to fly. • Oxygen is mixed with the fuel (a dry explosive chemical). • The rocket can be triggered from a distance by an igniter. • Once the fuel is ignited, it burns until all of it is gone. Liquid-fuel rocket: • Oxygen and the fuel are in liquid form, stored separately. • When the rocket fires, the fuel and oxygen are pumped into the same chamber and ignited. • The burning of fuel can be controlled. Ion rocket: • This type expels charged gas particles out of the engine. • Ion rockets are very fuel-efficient. 416 Exploring Space Orbital and Escape Velocity In order to lift off the ground, a rocket must have more upward thrust than the downward force of gravity. Once a rocket is off the ground, it must reach a certain velocity in order to go into orbit. Orbital velocity is the velocity a rocket must achieve to establish an orbit around Earth. If the rocket has an even greater velocity, it can fly off into space. Escape velocity is the velocity a rocket must reach to fly beyond a planet’s gravitational pull. The escape velocity a rocket needs to leave Earth is about 40,200 km per hour.
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