Everything about Multistage Rocket totally explained
A
multistage (or
multi-stage)
rocket is a
rocket that uses
two or more
stages, each of which contains its own
engines and
propellant. A
tandem or
serial stage is mounted on top of another stage; a
parallel stage is attached alongside another stage. The result is effectively two or more rockets stacked on top of or attached next to each other. Taken together these are sometimes called a
launch vehicle. Two stage rockets are quite common, but rockets with as many as five separate stages have been successfully launched.
By jettisoning stages when they run out of propellant, the mass of the remaining rocket is decreased. This
staging allows the thrust of the remaining stages to more easily accelerate the rocket to its final speed and height.
In serial or tandem staging schemes, the
first stage is at the bottom and is usually the largest, the
second stage and subsequent
upper stages are above it, usually decreasing in size. In parallel staging schemes
solid or
liquid rocket boosters are used to assist with lift-off. These are sometimes referred to as 'stage 0'. In the typical case, the first stage and booster engines fire to propel the entire rocket upwards. When the boosters run out of fuel, they're detached from the rest of the rocket (usually with some kind of small
explosive charge) and fall away. The first stage then burns to completion and falls off. This leaves a smaller rocket, with the second stage on the bottom, which then fires. This process is repeated until the final stage's motor burns to completion.
The
Space shuttle has two large boosters and isn't
Single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO).
Advantages
The main reason for multi-stage rockets and boosters is that once the
fuel is burned, the space and structure which contained it and the motors themselves are useless and only add weight to the vehicle which slows down its future acceleration. By dropping the stages which are no longer useful, the rocket lightens itself. The thrust of future stages is able to provide more acceleration than if the earlier stage were still attached, or a single, large rocket would be capable of. When a stage drops off, the rest of the rocket is still traveling near the speed that the whole assembly reached at burn-out time. This means that it needs less total fuel to reach a given velocity and/or altitude.
A further advantage is that each stage can use a different type of rocket motor, with each stage/motor tuned for the conditions in which it'll operate. Thus the lower stage motors are designed for use at atmospheric pressure, while the upper stages can use motors suited to near vacuum conditions. Lower stages tend to require more structure than upper as they need to bear their own weight plus that of the stages above them, optimizing the structure of each stage decreases the weight of the total vehicle and provides further advantage.
Disadvantages
On the downside, staging requires the vehicle to lift motors which are not being used until later, as well as making the entire rocket more complex and harder to build. Nevertheless the savings are so great that every rocket ever used to deliver a payload into
orbit had staging of some sort.
In more recent times the usefulness of the technique has come into question due to developments in technology. In the case of the Space Shuttle the costs of space launches appear to be mostly composed of the operational costs of the people involved, as opposed to fuel or equipment. Reducing these costs appears to be the best way to lower the overall launch costs. New technology that's mainly in the theoretical and developmental stages is being looked at to lower the costs of launch vehicles. More information can be found on
single stage to orbit designs that don't have separate stages.
Development
From an illustration and description in the 14th century
Chinese Huolongjing of
Jiao Yu is the oldest known multistage rocket; this was the 'fire-dragon issuing from the water' (huo long chu shui), used mostly by the Chinese navy. It was a two-stage rocket that had carrier or
booster rockets that would eventually burn out, yet before they did they automatically ignited a number of smaller rocket arrows that were shot out of the front end of the missile, which was shaped like a dragon's head with an open mouth.
This multi-stage rocket may be considered the ancestor to the modern
exocet.
The historian
Joseph Needham points out that the written material and depicted illustration of this rocket come from the oldest stratum of the
Huolongjing, which can be dated roughly 1300-1350 AD (from the book's part 1, chapter 3, page 23).
The earliest experiments with multistage rockets in Europe were made by Austrian
Conrad Haas, the arsenal master of the town of
Sibiu,
Transylvania (now in
Romania) in
1551.
This concept was developed independently by at least four individuals:
Alternatives to rockets
Further Information
Get more info on 'Multistage Rocket'.
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