Read more about the article Max Q: What is it?
Max Q: Falcon 9 Webcast. Photo Credits: SpaceX

Max Q: What is it?

Max Q stands for “Maximum dynamic pressure.” It’s the moment in the launch when the rocket or shuttle is undergoing “maximum mechanical stress.” Which is just a way of saying the rocket is feeling a lot of physical pressure from going its way through all the air in the atmosphere at a really high speed. In fact, it’s going through the most physical stress it will feel during the entire launch. Consider the situation similar to when you put your hand…

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Read more about the article Rocket Equation: Derivation
Rocket Equation Derivation

Rocket Equation: Derivation

Consider a rocket in space and an observer standing on earth. Rocket Equation Derivation At time t=0, the rocket's total mass is M + Δm. Where M is the mass of the empty rocket and Δm is the mass of the fuel. The entire system is moving at a velocity of V, with respect to an observer on earth. Total Initial momentum of the rocket = Mass x Velocity Pi = (M + Δm) x V At time t= T, the…

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Read more about the article Margaret Hamilton: The Software Queen
President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Margaret H. Hamilton during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 22, 2016. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

Margaret Hamilton: The Software Queen

Looking back, we were the luckiest people in the world. There was no choice but to be pioneers; no time to be beginners.Margaret Hamilton Margaret Hamilton is an American computer scientist who was one of the first computer software programmers; she created the term software engineer to describe her work. She helped write the computer code for the command and lunar modules used on the Apollo missions to the Moon in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Photograph of Margaret Hamilton…

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Read more about the article Maxime Faget: An Engineering Genius
S69-64137 (1969) --- Maxime A. Faget, Director of Engineering and Development, Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas, holds a model of an early space shuttle vehicle. Photo credit: NASA

Maxime Faget: An Engineering Genius

“It’s hard to tell people how you invent something. You see a problem-you solve a problem. I enjoy solving problems.”Maxime A. Faget Maxime Faget was a Belizean-born American mechanical engineer. Faget was the designer of the Mercury spacecraft and contributed to the later Gemini and Apollo spacecraft as well as the Space Shuttle. Faget developed many of the innovative ideas and design concepts that have been incorporated into all of the manned spacecraft flown by the United States. His accomplishments included…

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Read more about the article Konstantin Tsiolkovsky & Rocket Equation
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in his workshop in Kaluga, Russia. SovfotoGetty Images

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky & Rocket Equation

Today we will know about another rocket scientist who pioneered astronautic theory — Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. He is also regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry and astronautics. Along with Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Hermann Oberth, and Robert H. Goddard, he is one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry and astronautics. His works later inspired leading Soviet rocket engineers Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko who contributed to the success of the Soviet space program. Tsiolkovsky at work. Photo Credits: Ruscosmos…

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Read more about the article Hermann Oberth: German Father of Rocketry
Hermann Oberth, explaining orbital mechanics to his students

Hermann Oberth: German Father of Rocketry

Hermann Oberth was a German scientist who is considered to be one of the founders of modern astronautics along with Tsiolkovsky and Goddard. He is also called the German father of Rocketry. He discovered the Oberth Effect, wherein a rocket engine generates greater mechanical energy when traveling at higher speeds than at lower speeds. Hermann Oberth Photo Credits: Mondadori Publishers Herman Oberth was born in 1894, in Romania. As a young man, Oberth got scarlet fever and was sent to Italy…

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Read more about the article Ion Thrusters: How it works?
NASA's 2.3 kW NSTAR ion thruster for the Deep Space 1 spacecraft during a hot fire test at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Ion Thrusters: How it works?

Ion Thrusters shoot Electrons over the atoms of an inert gas and knock off more electrons from it, there by creating positive ions.

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Read more about the article Vernier Engines — What is it?
The first and second-stage engines of a Soyuz, showing the four RD-107 modules with twin vernier nozzles each, and the central RD-108 with four steerable vernier thrusters.

Vernier Engines — What is it?

A vernier thruster is a rocket engine used on a spacecraft for fine adjustments to the attitude or velocity of a spacecraft. The name is derived from vernier calipers (named after Pierre Vernier).

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