THE WORLD OF ROCKETRY

 Lucy mission to Trojans By Ramesh S Krishna Lucy spacecraft Introduction: Lucy is a 12 -year mission by NASA to explore7  JUPITER TROJANS & to a single MAIN-BELT asteroid. It launched on an ATLAS V 401 rocket. The TROJANS are on LAGRANGE POINTS 4 & 5 of JUPITER's orbit. What are Lagrange points in space? Lagrange points are points in space where gravity becomes unbalanced. These are extraordinary points! Yes, these points are relative to the object's place in its orbit. The  Lagrange point 2 of the earth's orbit is where JWST is to be deployed. Lucy's dimensions: Width: 46.75 ft (14.25 m) Height :  23.6 ft (7.2 m) or 12.4 (3.8m) when solar panels are stored) Power :  504 watts at the furthest encounter The way Lucy goes to trojans!: Lucy, after its launch on 16-10-2021, Will take some Gravitational assists from earth to reach L4 of Jupiter's orbit. While orbiting to get Gravitational assist, lucy would have visited its 1st asteroid  52246 Donald...

NS-18 Pre-launch preview  By Ramesh S Krishna What is  this about?  NS-18 or New Shepard 18 is a mission by blue origin. This is its 2nd human carrying mission. This mission marks a new record of sending the oldest person to space. Previous Wally funk , a 82 year old aviation legend went to space on this same rocket in the mission NS-16. NS-17 launched recently with a suborbital trajectory.  Rocket:                                          This is on NEW SHEPARD which is the only operation crew carrying rocket by Blue origin. This rocket got it's name NEW SHEPARD as ALEN SHEPARD was the 1st American to go to space. Allen Shepard traveled in a sub-orbital trajectory. The first stage has a BE-3 engine. In it's 2nd stage  it has a main engine which will help to escape in an emergency situation[ Launch abort motor]. It also has small thrusters to slow down t...

          When is the 1st starship launch? By Ramesh S Krishna Introduction: Starship is a fully re-useable super-heavy launch system developed by SpaceX to take humans to MOON, MARS & DEEP SPACE DESTINY. 120M in height & 9M in diameter. It is the most powerful rocket when in operation. It could take 100+ Metric tonnes to Low Earth Orbit. It has two stages,:  Super heavy: Super heavy is the booster that helps the ship to escape the thicker part of the atmosphere. It  has a gross liftoff mass of over 3 million kg and uses sub-cooled liquid methane and liquid oxygen (CH4/LOX) propellants. It is 70m tall[ The whole height of FALCON 9] & 9M in diameter. Super heavy has a propellant capacity of 3400 tonnes! Starship's 1st stage has more than 32 raptor engines. The number keeps increasing with time. The super-heavy is only be used on earth. Starship:  The ship has 3 sea-level raptors & 3 RVAC[ VACUUM RAPTOR].  Just as super heavy, i...