Question

A rocket in deep space has an empty mass of 150 kg and exhausts the hot gases of burned fuel at 2500 m/s. It is loaded with 600 kg of fuel, which it burns in 30 s. What is the rocket’s speed 10 s, 20 s, and 30 s after launch?

Answer 1

Answer:

$v(10\,s) \approx 775.387\,\frac{m}{s}$

$v(20\,s)\approx 1905.350\,\frac{m}{s}$

$v(30\,s) \approx 4023.595\,\frac{m}{s}$

Explanation:

The speed of the rocket is given the Tsiolkovsky's differential equation, whose solution is:

$v (t) = v_{o} - v_{ex}\cdot \ln \frac{m}{m_{o}}$

Where:

$v_{o}$ - Initial speed of the rocket, in m/s.

$v_{ex}$ - Exhaust gas speed, in m/s.

$m_{o}$ - Initial total mass of the rocket, in kg.

$m$ - Current total mass of the rocket, in kg.

Let assume that fuel is burned linearly. So that,

$m(t) = m_{o} + r\cdot t$

The initial total mass of the rocket is:

$m_{o} = 750\,kg$

The fuel consumption rate is:

$r = -\frac{600\,kg}{30\,s}$

$r = -20\,\frac{kg}{s}$

The function for the current total mass of the rocket is:

$m(t) = 750\,kg - (20\,\frac{kg}{s} )\cdot t$

The speed function of the rocket is:

$v(t) = - 2500\,\frac{m}{s}\cdot \ln \frac{750\,kg -(20\,\frac{kg}{s} )\cdot t}{750\,kg}$

The speed of the rocket at given instants are:

$v(10\,s) \approx 775.387\,\frac{m}{s}$

$v(20\,s)\approx 1905.350\,\frac{m}{s}$

$v(30\,s) \approx 4023.595\,\frac{m}{s}$