Rocket Fuel

Rocket propellant

Rocket propellant is used as a reaction mass ejected from a rocket engine to produce thrust. The energy required can either come from the propellants themselves, as with a chemical rocket, or from an external source, as with ion engines or nuclear engines.

Rocket

A rocket is an elongated flying vehicle that uses a rocket engine to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Unlike jet engines, rockets are fuelled entirely by propellant which they carry, without the need for oxygen from air; consequently a rocket can fly in the vacuum of space, and indeed rocket engines operate more efficiently outside the atmosphere.

Fuel

A fuel is any material that can react with other substances to release energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but has since also been applied to other sources of heat energy, such as nuclear energy.

rocket

Noun

1. A projectile.

Verb

1. To accelerate swiftly and powerfully.
2. To fly vertically.

fuel

Noun

1. Substance consumed to provide energy through combustion, or through chemical or nuclear reaction.
2. Substance that provides nourishment for a living organism; food.

Verb

1. To provide with fuel.
2. To exacerbate, to cause to grow or become greater.