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How The Rockets Work...
Most people’s first experience of rockets is playing with fireworks. The rockets we light at New Year are true rockets. They carry on board everything needed to create a high-energy ‘jet’ of gases. The gases go one way – the rocket goes the other.
Thrust powered cars come in two types – those with rockets and those with gas-turbine (‘JET’) engines. Gas turbines breath air to provide the oxygen needed to burn the fuel. Rockets carry their oxygen with them. A rocket will run in outer space – a gas turbine won’t. Modern Airliners use gas turbines – the Space-Shuttle uses rockets.
For a rocket to work, you need a source of oxygen, carried in the rocket and a fuel to burn to create the hot gases.
Solid fuel rockets (such as fireworks) carry everything in one solid chemical mixture. There’s a chemical that releases oxygen and a chemical that burns in the oxygen. Sometimes there’s an extra chemical that acts as an accelerator to make everything burn faster and hotter. Solid fuel rockets are reliable, simple (no fuel tanks, pumps or plumbing) and light. The two rockets on the side of the Space Shuttle are solid fuel rockets. The big problem with solid fuel is, once it’s lit, you can’t turn it off. Not the best of ideas for use in a car!
Basic layout of Hybrid Rocket Motor:
Liquid fuel rockets use tanks carrying oxygen and a fuel (often hydrogen or kerosene). The two liquids are pumped into a combustion chamber, where they mix as vapour droplets and are lit, often with a small firework. The main engines on the back of the Space-Shuttle are liquid fuel rockets. Liquid fuel rockets can be controlled, throttles up and down, and shut off, by controlling the flow of fuel and oxygen going into the combustion chamber. Liquid oxygen is tricky stuff to handle as it is very cold and can’t be kept in a rocket for long periods as it has to allowed to boil off. It’s also dangerous stuff and can cause enormous fires very quickly. NASA’s first fatal accident was an oxygen fire that killed three astronauts. Liquid oxygen in racing pits, with the public standing nearby is not a great idea.
Hybrid rockets are a cross-breed between liquid- and solid-fuel rockets. They have a liquid source of oxygen which burns a solid fuel. Our rockets use liquid Nitrous Oxide to provide the oxygen and burn cooking oil, soaked into dense cardboard tubes to provide the fuel. We decided on using nitrous oxide (N2O, ‘laughing-gas’) as it is quite safe to handle and it’s a good way to get lots of oxygen into the rocket. We can throttle up and down and shut the rockets of very quickly by controlling the flow of liquid nitrous into the rocket. Before the nitrous oxide is of any use, it has to ‘split’ into nitrogen and oxygen as separate gases. We do this by igniting a small fire work inside the rocket.
Actually making four large hybrid rockets work safely and reliably in a car is very complicated and we won’t go into all those complications here. It has taken two years of testing to get it all to work reliably.
We do believe that good scientists share their results and methods, and we are happy to that. Anyone who wants to know more details is welcome to come to the pits when we are running, and one of the team will give a thorough ‘show and tell’.
Read More (The History Of Rocket Cars)
Thrust powered cars come in two types – those with rockets and those with gas-turbine (‘JET’) engines. Gas turbines breath air to provide the oxygen needed to burn the fuel. Rockets carry their oxygen with them. A rocket will run in outer space – a gas turbine won’t. Modern Airliners use gas turbines – the Space-Shuttle uses rockets.
For a rocket to work, you need a source of oxygen, carried in the rocket and a fuel to burn to create the hot gases.
Solid fuel rockets (such as fireworks) carry everything in one solid chemical mixture. There’s a chemical that releases oxygen and a chemical that burns in the oxygen. Sometimes there’s an extra chemical that acts as an accelerator to make everything burn faster and hotter. Solid fuel rockets are reliable, simple (no fuel tanks, pumps or plumbing) and light. The two rockets on the side of the Space Shuttle are solid fuel rockets. The big problem with solid fuel is, once it’s lit, you can’t turn it off. Not the best of ideas for use in a car!
Basic layout of Hybrid Rocket Motor:
Liquid fuel rockets use tanks carrying oxygen and a fuel (often hydrogen or kerosene). The two liquids are pumped into a combustion chamber, where they mix as vapour droplets and are lit, often with a small firework. The main engines on the back of the Space-Shuttle are liquid fuel rockets. Liquid fuel rockets can be controlled, throttles up and down, and shut off, by controlling the flow of fuel and oxygen going into the combustion chamber. Liquid oxygen is tricky stuff to handle as it is very cold and can’t be kept in a rocket for long periods as it has to allowed to boil off. It’s also dangerous stuff and can cause enormous fires very quickly. NASA’s first fatal accident was an oxygen fire that killed three astronauts. Liquid oxygen in racing pits, with the public standing nearby is not a great idea.
Hybrid rockets are a cross-breed between liquid- and solid-fuel rockets. They have a liquid source of oxygen which burns a solid fuel. Our rockets use liquid Nitrous Oxide to provide the oxygen and burn cooking oil, soaked into dense cardboard tubes to provide the fuel. We decided on using nitrous oxide (N2O, ‘laughing-gas’) as it is quite safe to handle and it’s a good way to get lots of oxygen into the rocket. We can throttle up and down and shut the rockets of very quickly by controlling the flow of liquid nitrous into the rocket. Before the nitrous oxide is of any use, it has to ‘split’ into nitrogen and oxygen as separate gases. We do this by igniting a small fire work inside the rocket.
Actually making four large hybrid rockets work safely and reliably in a car is very complicated and we won’t go into all those complications here. It has taken two years of testing to get it all to work reliably.
We do believe that good scientists share their results and methods, and we are happy to that. Anyone who wants to know more details is welcome to come to the pits when we are running, and one of the team will give a thorough ‘show and tell’.
Read More (The History Of Rocket Cars)Videos...
