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Re: Rocket Acceleration...



Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 22:56:34 -0400 (EDT)
From: Delissa Souder <dsouder@ashland.edu>

Greetings! I have a couple of questions dealing with rockets.
At what rate does a rocket (Shuttle) accelerate? Has anyone heard of a
JATO(sp?) rocket? What is the acceleration of a JATO rocket?

JATO = jet assisted take off; e.g., the B-36
RATO = rocket assisted take off; e.g., the B-47

About a year ago, I heard on the news of a man who "received" the
"Darwin's Award". The award is given to those who do things that is
perceived as being "dumb". Apparently a man got ahold of a JATO rocket
and attached it to his car. The rocket is a solid rocket booster and
once lit, it doesn't stop until the fuel is used up. A group of people
found the wreckage and didn't recognize it. The wreckage was studied and
was discovered to be a rocket and a car. Apparently, the driver tried
putting on his brakes which immediately burned up and the car slammed
into the side of a mountain. Does anyone have any information about this
topic? I'm not sure how accurate this information is, so if anyone could
give me a more detailed information and possibly any information on the
JATO rocket, I would greatly appreciate it! I'm mainly looking for the
acceleration of the rocket alone. I'm thinking of making this a homework
or test question. :-)

Sorry, but it's another modern myth (or "urban legend"). I have a copy
of the item as posted on the Internet somewhere last year. If there's
enough interest, I can post it here.

---------------------------------------------
Phil Parker pparker@twsuvm.uc.twsu.edu
We're this year's Sister Souljah.---Evan Wolfsen, Lambda LDEF