What type of fuel powers rockets?
Moment of Um
American Public Media
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 12 October 2023
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rocket engines have to push REALLY hard against Earth’s gravity to get up off the ground. The rockets that NASA sends into space weigh over a million pounds! That is a LOT to try to lift into the air! So what kind of fuel do those powerful rocket engines use? We asked NASA scientist Erik Axdahl to help us find the answer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the brains behind brains on, this is the um, um. |
| 0:15.0 | Moment of um, |
| 0:16.0 | moment of um comes to you from APM studios. |
| 0:18.7 | I'm Crockett Gref, the Rocket Chef from Planet Calorpez. |
| 0:23.0 | Ugh, um... |
| 0:25.0 | Heh, welcome to my space kitchen, |
| 0:30.0 | where I'll whip up any kind of rocket you need. |
| 0:32.0 | I just got to call for my good friend |
| 0:34.4 | Colorpin adventure video game hero and adorable alien fuzz butt pickle star |
| 0:39.5 | she's looking for a new mixture of fuel for her spaceship. |
| 0:44.0 | I think I can come up with something to keep those hard working engines of hers well fed. |
| 0:49.0 | Let's head to the pantry for ingredients. I know we're going to need something spicy to get the engines |
| 0:58.3 | really hot. Maybe the nuisian chili flakes. Oh, there's still some of that fire sauce I got from that mini-mart next to the asteroid belt. |
| 1:07.0 | And we're going to need some prune juice and baking powder, obviously. |
| 1:11.0 | And, wait, what what that's not how rocket fuel works on your |
| 1:16.6 | planet. Huh interesting maybe we can trade recipes it's a good thing |
| 1:22.0 | Naomi asked about this too. |
| 1:26.2 | There are three kinds of rockets and they would use three different kinds of fuel. |
| 1:30.0 | My name is Eric Axel and I am an aerospace engineer for NASA. |
| 1:34.6 | The first kind of rock is a liquid-fueled rocket. |
| 1:37.0 | And so that's a rocket that has fuel tanks on board. |
| 1:40.2 | And that fuel could be things like hydrogen, |
... |
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