Science behind Rockets

"How hard can it be? It's not rocket science!" might be something you've heard, or said, before. While it's a tired old expression, it still raises a valid point: rocket science is really freakin' difficult.

Bill Nye is a guy (indeed, a Science Guy) who knows a thing or two about rocket science. He also knows plenty about space travel, as CEO of The Planetary Society (the world's largest non-profit group devoted to space exploration). Nye, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice answered listener questions about rockets, science and rocket science on StarTalk Radio.

Have any benefits come from the two space shuttle disasters?

NASA's thirty-year Space Shuttle program came to an end in 2011. While the program safely completed 133 flights, there were also a pair of tragic disasters. The shuttle Challenger broke apart shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986, killing all seven astronauts on board. Seventeen years later, nearly to the day, the shuttle Columbia broke up when re-entering Earth's atmosphere. Once again, all seven crew members lost their lives.

Challenger broke up 73 seconds after liftoff in 1986

While it's always difficult to look past such a loss of life, it's still important to keep in mind that plenty is learned from every misstep, no matter how tragic. Neil deGrasse Tyson notes that rocket disasters are "opportunities rich in learning experiences." For instance, after the Challenger disaster, the Space Shuttle program suspended all flights for two years while the investigation was underway. In September of 1988, the Space Shuttle Discovery completed a successful mission, incorporating safety recommendations prompted by Challenger's failure, including redesigned rocket boosters.

Unlike the Challenger disaster, Columbia's disintegration occurred on re-entry into our atmosphere. A seemingly minor mishap - a piece of foam insulation breaking off and damaging the left wing when the shuttle launched - proved deadly on re-entry. The compromised wing allowed atmospheric gases to penetrate inside the wing's internal structure, causing the spacecraft to break apart, killing all seven astronauts on board. Once again, the Space Shuttle fleet was grounded for two years. And once again, lessons were learned. Future missions included improved safety precautions, including upgraded safety harnesses and automated safety mechanisms.

In a more recent rocket disaster, Virgin Galactic's experimental SpaceCraftTwo, the\pacecraft VSS Enterprise broke up during a 2014 test flight, killing the pilot. Virgin founder Richard Branson said his team learned valuable information from the tragedy. He summed up the balance between safety and exploration, saying, "Space is hard - but worth it."

How do we balance our desire to explore with the need to ensure a safe journey?
Building off Branson's mantra, Nye says there will always be a level of risk involved with new endeavors, especially when it comes to space. But dialing it back a few steps, most of humanity's greatest successes have come from taking risks, and many of those successes came after failures. Nye brings up a caveman analogy, that of the curious early human who continually sought out the next hill, the next vista, in the search for new things. "People who don't take risks get eliminated," says Nye, "It's deep within us, the drive."

Fire is dangerous, risky and deadly - but where would we be without it?

It's also worth noting that in all of the tragedies discussed above, the victims knew the risks involved before they set off on their missions. We don't all have to take risks, but if we want to keep furthering our knowledge of the world and the cosmos, someone has to. When Richard Branson's space tourism industry makes its maiden flight, it will probably attract plenty of risk takers. But if you're risk-averse? "You don't have to buy a ticket," notes Nye, "You don't have to go."

How easy is rocketry these days? Do we pretty well have it figured out?
We know a whole lot more than we used to - but there's still plenty to be learned with each launch. We've filled Earth's orbit with all manner of spacecraft over the past sixty years. "We are boldly going where hundreds have before," says Neil deGrasse Tyson. But even though hundreds may have gone there before, it's still an incredibly small sample size. Bill Nye, the engineer who spent his early career working on jets at Boeing (including the iconic 747), notes that the hundreds of rockets we've launched are a tiny drop in the bucket compared with the thousands upon thousands of airplane flights we've made since the Wright brothers first lifted off at Kitty Hawk.

Barely a decade after the Wright brothers achieved rickety liftoff, highly-maneuverable biplanes like the SPAD XIII (seen with American ace Eddie Rickenbacker) dominated World War I's aerial dogfight

Though piloting planes safely within our atmosphere and launching spacecraft into orbit are two very different things, there are parallels to be drawn. If we had the same sample size for rockets and spacecraft as we do for aircraft, we'd know a lot more about rocketry. So how do we learn more about rocketry? The answer is simple, says Nye: "Let's go to low Earth orbit enough times to make it routine."