WordNet
n. an explosive charge that propels a rocket [syn: rocket fuel, rocket propellent]
Wikipedia
Rocket propellent is either a high oxygen containing fuel or a mixture of fuel plus oxidant, whose combustion takes place, in a definite and controlled manner with the evolution of a huge volume of gas. In the rocket engine, the propellant is burnt in the combustion chamber and the hot jet of gases (usually at a temperature of 3000°C and a pressure of 300 kg/cm) escapes through the nozzle at very high velocity.
Rocket propellant is a material used by a rocket as, or to produce in a chemical reaction, the reaction mass (propulsive mass) that is ejected, typically with very high speed, from a rocket engine to produce thrust, and thus provide spacecraft propulsion. Each rocket type requires different kind of propellant: chemical rockets require propellants capable of undergoing exothermic chemical reactions, which provide the energy to accelerate the resulting gases through the nozzle. Thermal rockets instead use inert propellants of low molecular weight that are chemically compatible with the heating mechanism at high temperatures, while cold gas thrusters use pressurized, easily stored inert gases. Electric propulsion requires propellants that are easily ionized or made into plasma, and in the extreme case of nuclear pulse propulsion the propellant consists of debris from nuclear explosions.
Usage examples of "rocket propellant".
Just as it hit the ground, the single-stage liquid rocket propellant ignited.
There was no way Cassini's rocket propellant - tanks of hydra-zine and nitrogen tet - could deliver such a velocity change.
They may be short on rocket propellant, though, since the hydrogen and oxygen are electrolyzed from the water that the facility produces.
The desert was alive with sound now, with the roaring torch of rocket propellant and the scream of sirens.
The Moon flowers could make a serviceable chemical-rocket propellant for their seed pores from aluminum and oxygen extracted from Moon rock&mdash.
There will be no more need to carry every gram of water and air and rocket propellant for the entire two-way journey.
Fumes of cordite and rocket propellant clawed at the lining of his nose and throat.
For a second the rocket propellant still flamed hungrily at the cylinder's base, then it died and there were only flickering blue flames licking at the stick.
But that would take much more rocket propellant than the pod could carry.
True, they offer ample ways for someone to do himself in, but so do a great many areas aboard any starship, and the things that pose dangers to the ship, like the connections for things like hydrogen and emergency rocket propellant to fuel the ship's small craft, or the stores of ammunition and external ordnance kept in nearby magazines, are safeguarded in many ways.
Cazaux was inspecting three LD3 cargo containers, standard airline-use baggage, cargo, or mail containers, each filled with two thousand pounds of a mixture of waste ammonium nitrate rocket propellant, stolen from an industrial-waste storage facility in western Massachusetts, and TNT.
The Moon flowers could make a serviceable chemical-rocket propellant for their seed pores from aluminum and oxygen extracted from Moon rock—.