I want to know more about spacecrafts, like are there engines on spacecrafts? I would figure that if they did they would probably have to be the most powerful on Earth. What different kinds of energy does get used when lifting off the rocket into space?

Do you have some more specific questions about this? It's a rather general question considering all the different spacecraft that have been made.
But;
The Saturn-V rockets were the most powerful engines ever made. You may want to peruse that if you're looking for power information.
Basically, all rocket technology uses a chemical reaction (a burn) to create the energy. There have been many different fuels used.

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How about the Space Shuttle? the manned spacecraft.

How about what aspect?
Saturn-V was manned...
I don't understand your question...

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Nevermind...here is another question, what happens when the rocket gets our of the Earth's atmosphere and gravity, does it still put on the afterburners or what?

Do we have the technology now to send a rocket to lets say Pluto

I googled rocket to pluto. The very first result is the New Horizons missions page.

Ya know, Platinum...you "could" use google yourself to answer your questions...just a thought.

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The fuel has it's own oxidizer, either part of the fuel, or part of the burn (with an oxygen tank to mix with it).
Therefore, no air from the atmosphere is needed.
The rocket does not "get out of our gravity". It just goes fast enough against gravity that it's neutralized (free fall). And since there is nothing slowing you down in space, it's best to get up to speed as quickly as possible.
New horizons is on it's way to Pluto...
I suggest you do some of your own research. It's fairly clear that you need a little more education on the subject than a Q&A can provide. I know that I tend to learn a lot more this way, because I always discover related topics that make things a lot more clear.
Here's a start on orbital mechanics.

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RAF beat me on that...

Remember the Pioneers and Voyagers too.

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The space shuttle uses 2 solid rocket boosters and 3 main engines to get into orbit. The main engines use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Once in space the orbiter maneuvers with 44 thrusters and 2 larger OMS engines. These engines are powered by mono-methyl hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide which are hypergolic meaning they ignite on contact requiring no ignition system

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Joe Bartoszek

Considering power of a rocket engine (or jet engine or other reaction engine), it isn't really relevant to express that in horsepower. It gives a huge number, sure, but simply stating thrust is more relevant as (unless I'm mistaken) you can't really compare these HP's with the HP's of say a car engine.

btw also the turbopumps feeding the rocket engines are enormously powerful, and one of the difficult parts in designing and building a working rocket engine. Jut ask the N-1 rocket .

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

Please give my web page a look, it should give you a good introduction to the subject and answer many of your questions:

Rocket & Space Technology

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If your website is as good as some of your general rocket info in your replies, it is a good start indeed .

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wow, that is a great website. kudos to you Bob.

Thank, guys.

I wish I had time to do more with it, but job and home responsibilities always seem to get in the way. I have an outline of a bunch of sections I want to add but I seem to be able to get only about one done a year. By the time I finally consider the site complete I'll probably have spent 20 years working on it. I suppose that's what makes it a good hobby; there is always more to learn and do.

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Not just google, either. Try going to your public library, and find a book on rockets. They're bound to have them. You'll find a great amount of interesting knowledge.

And if you're an interested kid, why not get an Estes rocket? Simple, but it's the same principle. Plus they're really cool to watch, and not that expensive.

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I've checked on ESTEC rockets, and they're in the two hundred million dollar range. Oh, Estessss. My bad.

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Actually, they were the most powerful liquid fueled engines ever made. They put out 1.5 million pounds of thrust each. The Shuttle SRB's are the highest thrust rocket engines ever, at 2.8 million pounds of thrust each.

An important distinction...Thanks for the correction.
I may have heard it with some technical semantic with the word motor or something that doesn't apply to solid rockets.

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Possibly...

I will say this - IMO, they are both incredible achievements, and to see the nozzle of an F1 is an amazing sight (as is the entire saturn V). The SRB's are inherently simpler, but there's still a lot of work that went into making the thrust curve exactly as needed - it isn't a simple matter like throttling a liquid.

(on a side note, this is an amazing site to see some simulations of large solid rocket motors, including the Shuttle SRB's)

The SRB's are the most advanced candles in the world.

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

Although it is not a hard and fast rule, generally...

Engine = liquid propellant
Motor = solid propellant

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When did they start including oxidizer with candles?

The Saturn V had many different types of rocket engines, ranging from the Rockedyne F-1 Kerosene/LOX engines to the solid propellant ullage and retrorocket motors on the upper stages. Specifically you are meaning the F-1 engines which were installed in a five engine cluster at the base of the first stage. Total thrust was 7.5 million pounds.

Matthew Ota
space history buff

That's what makes them so advanced.
SRB > flare > candle

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Platinum Rhymer, are you planning to return to this thread? You started it and yet you seem not to be much of a participant. Working on the premise that you are paying attention, I will try to answer some of your questions.

When you use the word “spacecraft” I assume you are talking about the vehicle that is put into space and not the rocket that launched it. Your questions seem to wander back and forth between spacecraft and launch vehicles, thus I’m not sure what it is you are looking for. I define the terms as follows:

Spacecraft - A piloted or unpiloted vehicle designed for travel in space.

Launch Vehicle - A rocket used to launch a satellite or spacecraft into orbit.

Obviously there are engines on launch vehicles since they must power their payload into orbit. Most spacecraft have some combination of engines as well depending on the mission they are designed to perform.

Virtually all satellites and spacecraft have some means of attitude control. Attitude refers to the orientation of the vehicle, which is important for aiming instruments and engines, etc. In some cases attitude is controlled by non-propulsive means, such as reaction wheels, but more often there is some form of three-axis control (pitch, yaw, and roll) using small engines called thrusters. The thrusters may be cold gas type (e.g. nitrogen), monopropellant type (e.g. hydrazine), or bipropellant type (e.g. monomethyl hydrazine [MMH] and nitrogen tetroxide [N₂O₄]).

In addition to attitude control, some spacecraft have an engine(s) for performing a variety of maneuvers. For instance, a manned vehicle may need an engine to alter its orbit and maneuver to a rendezvous with another space vehicle. An interplanetary spacecraft has an engine for mid-course corrections and to provide the decrease in velocity required to enter orbit around its target planet. A geostationary satellite may have an engine to perform the maneuver needed to settle into its final geostationary orbit.

Are you now talking about spacecraft or launch vehicles?

Launch vehicles certainly need powerful engines to lift the full weight of the rocket, propellant, and payload; however the engines don’t necessarily have to be the most powerful available. It all depends on how big the fully assembled rocket is. The engines have to powerful enough to lift the rocket, but you don’t want to oversize them or else the acceleration loads will be too great. There is a balancing act that must be performed to determine the right sized engine for the specific application. Launch vehicles come in all sorts of sizes for launching a wide range of payloads.

Spacecraft, on the other hand, most certainly do not need the most powerful engines. Attitude control thrusters are very small, and most maneuvering engines are of fairly low thrust. It does not take an especially powerful engine to maneuver a spacecraft around once it is in space.

The chemical energy stored within the propellant is released as thermal energy which is then converted to kinetic energy, however I have a feeling this isn’t the answer you were looking for. If your intention is otherwise, please clarify.

The winged part of the Space Shuttle is called the Orbiter. It is both a spacecraft and part of the launch vehicle. The three large engines on the aft end of the Orbiter, called the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME), are used only during launch and are fed liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant from the large External Tank (ET). The SSME provide a thrust of 470,000 pounds each in a vacuum. Once the Orbiter is in space, the SSME are no longer used until the next time the Shuttle is launched.

The Space Shuttle is also equipped with two smaller engines that are part of the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS). The OMS engines are also on the aft end of the Orbiter, burn MMH and N₂O₄, and have a thrust of 6,000 pounds each. The Orbiter’s Reaction Control System (RCS) consists of 38 each 870-pound thrusters and six 24-pound thrusters. These thrusters are scattered about at both the forward and aft ends. The larger thrusters are for coarse attitude control while the smaller ones are for fine attitude control. The very small thrusters are sometimes called verniers.

A spacecraft does not need to continually thrust as is often depicted in science fiction movies and television. Traveling in space is simply a matter of transferring between orbits of different sizes and shapes until you get to where you want to go. The orbit transfers require engine burns of short duration, but then the spacecraft just coasts along the new trajectory until it reaches the next transfer point. Most transfers can be performed with a fairly small engine.

Yes … see New Horizons.

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Nice explanation Bob. I certainly learned a few things

A follow-on question, though.
You wrote:
The thrusters may be cold gas type (e.g. nitrogen), monopropellant type (e.g. hydrazine), or bipropellant type (e.g. monomethyl hydrazine [MMH] and nitrogen tetroxide [N2O4]).

Does a monopropellent such as hydrazine "burn" to generate more energy than a cold-gas thruster? If so, what starts the "burning?" Is the stuff just explosive below a certain pressure, or is there a spark generator or similar device to start the process?

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Although hydrazine (N₂H₄) burns when combined with an oxidizer, in a monopropellant application it "decomposes" when brought in contact with a catalyst. The resulting high-temperature gases (nitrogen, hydrogen and ammonia) are then accelerated through the nozzle. This type of engine is called, appropriately, a catalytic decomposition engine. The performance is much better than cold gas but not as good as bipropellant engines -- hydrazine decomposes at a temperature of about 1,200^o K while bipropellants burn upwards of 3,000^o K.

The following is the description of monopropellant engines from my Web page:

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Nitrous Oxide is another usable monopropellant IIRC, with a potential I_sp of about 170 seconds...

One thing I've always wondered about. I've never had much to do with the design and manufacture of large solid fuel rockets. Looks like there are some experts in that field on this thread.

Check out this photo of an Honest John launch.

Note how the exhaust is grayish black until it's well beyond the nozzle and then brightens into a white plume. What's the reason for this? I would expect the exhaust to be uniform since the combustion is happening in the chamber, not aft of the nozzle. Is this perhaps a peculiarity of the fuel/oxidizer blend being used? Interaction with atmospheric water vapor?

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