At this Web
site you can study how rockets operate at your own pace and
to your own level of interest.
There is a lot of mathematics at this web site, so we
provide background pages on many
mathematical topics.
The flight of the rocket
involves the interaction of forces,
so we include background pages on the fundamentals of
forces.
Aerodynamics
plays a major role
in the flight of toy rockets and in the generation of thrust
for full scale rockets, so there are background pages devoted to
basic aerodynamics . There are also background
pages on thermodynamics and
gas dynamics because of the role they
play in rocket
propulsion.
Since we will be sending rockets to the
Moon and
Mars ,
we provide some background information on these planets in addition
to our
home planet.
The majority of the information at this web site is presented at
a high school or early college level,
although much of the information can also be used by middle school
students and the general public. Information is provided for
both students and teachers.
The site includes materials that were developed over a ten year span
by several different authors, so the pages do not all
look the same. We have added navigation buttons to
ease movement across and within the work of a given author.
Most of the pages are presented in the
following format: a graphic at the top which the user
can capture and incorporate into their own presentations or class notes;
a text explaining the topic presented in the graphic and including
many hyperlinks to related topics; navigation links at the bottom
to related educational activities, closely related web pages,
and an index of all the pages.
Using the
Index of Web Pages,
you are never more
than two clicks away from any other Web page at this site.
Just click on the word "Index" at the bottom of any page, and
then click to a new page from the index.
We have intentionally
organized this site to mirror the unstructured nature of the world
wide web.
However, if you
prefer a more structured approach, you can also take one of our
Guided Tours through the site. Each tour
provides a sequence of pages dealing with some type or aspect of rockets.
Web pages that include Interactive Java applets are noted in the index.
RocketModeler II,
RocketThrust Simulator, and the
AtmosModeler Simulator
are provided to encourage students to explore science and math.
The programs allow students to design and
fly rockets on their personal computer and can be downloaded
to operate off-line.
Additional
Classroom Activities
are also available at this site.
This site was prepared at the
NASA Glenn Research Center
in support of the
Educational Programs Office
and was funded by the
Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.
Many of the pages at this site were prepared
to support videoconferencing
for teachers and students as provided by the
Digital Learning Network.
Much of the information available in the
Rockets Educator's Guide
publication is available on-line at this site.
NOTICE ---
We have made every effort to support Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act. Many of the pages contain mathematical equations
that have been produced graphically and are too long or complex
to provide in an "ALT" tag. For these pages, we have included the
mathematical equations in the text portion of the web page.
Many pages include Java applets which are not yet totally accessible
for all interpretive software. We are continually monitoring efforts by
SUN Microsystems (producers of Java) to make these applets more accessible,
and will implement improved versions of the applets as the technology
is made available.
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