Anteral Academy 09: What is a Rocket?

AnteralAcademy its here! In this new chapter we go to talk about rockets for make a tribute to the ending of #WorldSpaceWeek2023. We want to trasmite more information about this technology, a piece of the history it has and so we show you a part of what Anteral contributes to this sector.

WHAT IS A ROCKET?

Rockets are vehicles designed to travel outside of Earth’s atmosphere and into space. They can transport rovers, satellites, supplies, astronauts and more. The Payload is that the rocket carries into space.

They do not have air intakes and bring their own oxidants, substances that play the role of oxygen in burning fuel.

Thanks to this technology we have one of the most mythical phrases in the history: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Neil Armstrong, 1969, Apolo 11.

HISTORY OF ROCKETS

In the 17th century, scientists began studying rockets. Isaac Newton was one of them, and he tried to explain how they worked with his famous laws of motion. Entering the 20th century, another scientist who carried out similar experiments was the American Robert Goddard, known as “the father of modern rockets.“

Before all this, rockets were produced and developed to be ballistic missiles. The first rocket to officially reach space was the V-2, produced in Germany in 1944. But after World War II, V-2 production fell into the hands of the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom.

Over the next few decades, what began as a nuclear arms race became a space race. Some important dates:

– Sputnik Mission: launched a Soviet satellite on October 4,1957.

– Jupiter-C rocket (USA): transports its Explorer 1 satellite into space on February 01, 1958.

– Vostok-K rocket: Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to go into space, on April 12, 1961.

– Saturn V rocket: NASA reached the Moon. It had six lunar landing missions between 1969 and 1972.

– Apollo11 ​​Mission: Neil Armstrong stepped on the Moon on July 21, 1969

ICONIC ROCKETS

• ARIANE 5: earned such a reputation for reliability that NASA trusted it to launch the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope in late 2021. The rocket’s penultimate launch was in April 2023, launching the European Space Agency’s (ESA) ‘Juice’ spacecraft on its path to find out whether Jupiter’s icy moons can harbor extraterrestrial life. The rocket could carry a much larger payload than its Ariane 4 predecessor, giving Europe a competitive advantage and allowing the continent to establish itself in the communications satellite market.
• DELTA: The Delta family of rockets (built by the Boeing company) has been in service since August 1960 when the Delta I was launched. In 1989, the new Delta rocket model was launched, the Delta II, designed to launch the satellites that would make up the GPS system. The United States required larger launchers for its spy satellites, so in 1998 the Delta III was created and in 2001 the Delta IV.
• SPACE SHUTTLE: It carried out different missions between 1981 and 2011. The last shuttle to fly was Atlantis, which orbited the Earth 4,848 times over 33 missions and traveled more than 202 million kilometers and spent 307 days in space. It helped build and populate the International Space Station, transporting the U.S. laboratory module and several sections of the integrated truss structure, and more than 2,500 kilograms of spare parts.

ICONIC ROCKETS: 2023

• PLD SPACE: MIURA 1: Is a suborbital launch vehicle, privately developed in Europe. It is the first space system that is completely designed by PLD Space to carry payloads into space and return them safely. Its objective is to promote scientific research and technology development in microgravity conditions. The next step is the “MIURA 5”: it is a reusable private orbital launcher. Transporting small satellites, from Cubsats to class 1 payloads (450 kg).
• SPACE X: FALCON 9: Is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transportation of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond. Falcon 9 is the world’s first orbital class reusable rocket. Reusability allows SpaceX to refly the most expensive parts of the rocket. In its recent launches it has transported 72 satellites from private companies.

EUROPEAN SPACEFLIGHT

ANTENNAS: WHAT CAN WE DO?

ANTENNAS BY ANTERAL

We have developed for Miura1 mission substrate-based single-layer antennas that, due to their lightweight, conformability, low profile, extreme temperature tolerances and large coverage areas, are ideal for space applications, especially for launchers.

Each model has been specially designed for different applications. All designs are frequency-scalable within their operation bands.

✔ S-band antenna: oriented to TT&C, operating both in transmission for telemetry and in reception for telecommand.

✔ L-band antenna: designed for navigation systems (GNSS).

✔ C-band and UHF-band antennas: ideal for ground safety issues, in particular for Flight Termination Systems (FTS).