Rocket Fuel Equilibrium
For this project we were assigned to research a topic interesting to us as an individual and create a social media campaign to share the equilibrium happening behind the chemical process. This social media campaign was intended to be able to reach out and educate people about the topic chosen. What I chose as my topic was rocket fuel and how equilibrium plays a big part in keeping the fuel stable.
The origin of rocket fuel stretches back to the first rockets used by the Russians and eventually developed by NASA. This early type of fuel consisted of Petroleum, primarily made up of crude oils and a mixture of hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons were made of oxygen and hydrogen primarily as oxidizers to make the fuel combust in an isolated tanker. A few years later, a new advancement in rocket fuel technology created a new compound made from kerosene and an oxidizer. This made space exploration much more possible because the compound was much more environmentally friendly and was a lighter compound than the crude oils used earlier. Eventually NASA developed a way to secure liquid hydrogen to propel these rockets with even less materials and a lighter mass. This is the best fuel to use and is currently being used today with Space X and current NASA rockets to propel satellites. The combination of liquid hydrogen and an oxidizer of liquid oxygen creates a compound with a very small mass because an atom of hydrogen has a mass of 1 AMU and an atom of oxygen has a mass of 6 AMU.
Equilibrium is the state where the reactants and the products of the chemical equation are equal. For example, 2 hydrogen + 2 oxygen form one H2O molecule, and can preform a reverse reaction where one H2O molecule can form 2hydrogen and 2 oxygen, which makes this an equilibrium reaction. The principle that underlies each equilibrium reaction is Le Chateliers which states if a reaction that is undergoing stress on one side, the reaction will happen more likely on the other. For example, when water is going under mass amounts of pressure, it will turn into hydrogen and oxygen. These terms will be the underlying topics throughout these next few days.
During this project, I felt very independent and a little more stressed out. While working by myself did have its benefits, not being able to collaborate with group members and share ideas made the project a little more difficult. One thing that I found was a big roadblock during this project was finding information and interpreting that information, given it was from a MIT lecture and a NASA report. While this was a downfall, it was also a benefit in a way because these sources were completely reliable and well respected. The combination of difficulty finding sources, individual assessment, and the deep understanding of equilibriums in rocket fuel made this a hard project to complete but ultimately I exceeded all of those roadblocks and constructed a project.
http://stemrocketfuel.weebly.com/
For this project we were assigned to research a topic interesting to us as an individual and create a social media campaign to share the equilibrium happening behind the chemical process. This social media campaign was intended to be able to reach out and educate people about the topic chosen. What I chose as my topic was rocket fuel and how equilibrium plays a big part in keeping the fuel stable.
The origin of rocket fuel stretches back to the first rockets used by the Russians and eventually developed by NASA. This early type of fuel consisted of Petroleum, primarily made up of crude oils and a mixture of hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons were made of oxygen and hydrogen primarily as oxidizers to make the fuel combust in an isolated tanker. A few years later, a new advancement in rocket fuel technology created a new compound made from kerosene and an oxidizer. This made space exploration much more possible because the compound was much more environmentally friendly and was a lighter compound than the crude oils used earlier. Eventually NASA developed a way to secure liquid hydrogen to propel these rockets with even less materials and a lighter mass. This is the best fuel to use and is currently being used today with Space X and current NASA rockets to propel satellites. The combination of liquid hydrogen and an oxidizer of liquid oxygen creates a compound with a very small mass because an atom of hydrogen has a mass of 1 AMU and an atom of oxygen has a mass of 6 AMU.
Equilibrium is the state where the reactants and the products of the chemical equation are equal. For example, 2 hydrogen + 2 oxygen form one H2O molecule, and can preform a reverse reaction where one H2O molecule can form 2hydrogen and 2 oxygen, which makes this an equilibrium reaction. The principle that underlies each equilibrium reaction is Le Chateliers which states if a reaction that is undergoing stress on one side, the reaction will happen more likely on the other. For example, when water is going under mass amounts of pressure, it will turn into hydrogen and oxygen. These terms will be the underlying topics throughout these next few days.
During this project, I felt very independent and a little more stressed out. While working by myself did have its benefits, not being able to collaborate with group members and share ideas made the project a little more difficult. One thing that I found was a big roadblock during this project was finding information and interpreting that information, given it was from a MIT lecture and a NASA report. While this was a downfall, it was also a benefit in a way because these sources were completely reliable and well respected. The combination of difficulty finding sources, individual assessment, and the deep understanding of equilibriums in rocket fuel made this a hard project to complete but ultimately I exceeded all of those roadblocks and constructed a project.
http://stemrocketfuel.weebly.com/