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"ROCKETS DO NOT PUSH AGAINST AIR (1)"
I would like to dedicate this post to those who still embrace the absurd notion that
"rockets do not push against air", a trite NASA-promoted quackery - tediously parroted by their many 'apollogists'. As it is, it appears to be the most audacious and aggressively-guarded fallacy ever concocted - in order to uphold in our minds the very feasibility of (outer) space travel. Here it is proclaimed once again, this time in an 'educational' article from major space contractor Northrop Grumman:
Does the rocket push down on the surrounding air?
A common misconception regarding rockets is that they push against the air surrounding them. In fact, rockets work best [!] in a vacuum like outer space. There’s no air or atmosphere in a vacuum. Fortunately for us, we are surrounding by a breathable atmosphere. Unfortunately for the rocket, our atmosphere pushes against its movement upwards.
http://www.northropgrumman.com/Corporat ... _Guide.pdf
"Unfortunately for the rocket, our atmosphere pushes against its movement upwards".
Well, yes - dear Northrop Grumman 'educators'... : this is, in fact, what is commonly known as
aerodynamic drag. It is
air resistance exerted on the frontal area of the rocket - PUSHING against it. It is a force - and it increases exponentially with speed. And yes, this pesky force unfortunately slows the rocket's progress through the air. Luckily though, if a rocket is travelling at, say,
3000km/h in the atmosphere - this exponentially increasing air drag will always be
far inferior to the formidable power of the rocket thrust (a massive "counter-drag", if you will) which undoubtedly PUSHES against the
air below it - with a high-speed 'wall' of burning propellants ejected at
16.000km/h (4,4km/s).
To acknowledge the existence of air drag
in front of the rocket while, at the same time,
deny the existence of the opposite air displacement exerted by the exhaust plume
below it - is an utter contradiction in terms and a crude offense to common sense. If this were to be true (that "rockets do not push against air"), this would mean that the formidable, explosive thrust of a rocket's exhaust plume
does not encounter any air resistance - a preposterous and outlandish contention, if there ever was one. Instead, as the NASA quackery goes, we are asked to believe that rockets are propelled
solely by the "recoil force" generated
by the rapid expulsion of fuel mass from rocket tanks. If this were true, we should all hover above our toilet seats when stricken with explosive diarrhea - yet I doubt that anyone has ever had the (mixed) fortune of experiencing such a thrill.
To be sure, if one were to supply propellant to a tankless rocket from a container anchored on Earth (via a very, very long hose), the rocket would take off just as well - and indeed, much better and faster - given its considerably inferior weight. The truth is that, to uphold the idea that rockets can be niftily propelled in the vacuum of outer space, NASA's propaganda wizards
have had no option but to hammer into our brains the absurd notion that rocket jets
"do not push against air"! It is now time for this mainstay of NASA's hypnotic brainwashing machine to be flushed out of our skulls.
"Does not push against air" (NASA claims):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxgMhHOaUSY