what would happen to a rocket if....?

Question

what would happen to a rocket if it ran out of fuel while it was still in space?
would it crash into a nearby planet but would it kinda float around space because there is no friction in space, or would it orbit around a planet or something?..

just wondering

Answer 1

Ok, it depends on where the rocket runs out of fuel and how fast it was going. First off, the 1st law of motion says that any movement that the rocket has when it runs out of fuel will be maintained unless worked upon by another force. Two possible forces are gravity and friction. If the rocket is close enough to a planet or some other source of gravity, then it will be pulled toward that source. If it is close enough, it might even crash into that source. Also, space is not perfectly void. There are gases in space. They are far apart but they are there. These will be friction on the rocket to slow it down. Now, if it is in deep space then that effect will be negligible and would take a long time to show any effect on the movement of the rocket. If the rocket is close enough to a planet, then the upper atmosphere of that planet will create a lot of friction. Also, if the rocket is the right distance from a planet and is going fast enough then it will orbit around the planet. Of course, friction can slow the rocket down and when that happens the rocket cannot maintain the orbit anymore and will crash.

Ok, to sum up.

If the rocket is close to a planet and it was not going fast enough, then gravity and friction from that planets upper atmosphere will cause the rocket to slow down, fall back to the planet, and then crash.

If the rocket is going fast enough to orbit then the rocket will orbit until friction slows the rocket down enough and the orbit disintegrates.

If the rocket is far enough away from a gravity source, then it will maintain the speed it had and keep going. There will be a little friction to slow it down some but it might take millions of years for that to happen. The rocket will keep moving until something interferes with it moving, such as getting close to another planet or running into some sort of space obstacle such as an asteroid or comet or nebula or something.

Answer 2

Depends on what it is close to.
Lets say too near a planet, it will crash in to it.(Low probability).
Lets say not quite near anything, it will slowly get attracted to something and then crash into it depending on how far object is. Before that it will be floating.
If the rocket was blasting its boosters just before it ran out of fuel and its not near anything, it will continue in a straight line at a constant velocity according to Newton's 1st law although the velocity will definitely change because there is a small net force in space due to the gravity pulls from the heavenly bodies.
As for the orbiting thing, it would be quite difficult and low probability.

Answer 3

If it is in a stable orbit it will not crash in to a planet. After all, the moon has no rocket fuel but it is in a stable orbit and is not going to crash on Earth. If the rocket floats in to a gravitational path that pulls it in to a crash it will go down. If there is nothing out ther it will keep going in the same direction and same speed for ever.

Answer 4

well, yes.
It depends on where the rocket was, and how fast it was going, when it ran out of fuel. For example, the Moon does not have rocket engines at all, and it has been, and will continue to, orbit the Earth for a long time.
Some artificial satellites have had their orbit decay and have reentered the Earths atmosphere. Skylab and Mir come to mind.
If the rocket never was going fast enough to orbit it (like SpaceShipOne, or the first Mercury flights) it will fall or glide back to the planet it was launched from.
If the rocket is going really fast, and nothing is in its way, it will just keep going, like the Voyager probes for example.

Answer 5

Rockets in space usually do run out of fuel - or at least shut down their engines. The space station up there now has no fuel. One it reaches escape velocity, it can continually "fall" toward Earth (which gives them the zero G experience) without actually ever getting closer to Earth.

Answer 6

It could be any of those things, depending upon whether or not there was a 'nearby' planet or star to gravitationally 'capture' it. The biggest probability would be that it would 'drift' until it encountered a planet or star. And that could take a --very-- long time. Space is big ☺

Doug

Answer 7

see Newton's second Law.

"Newton's second law of motion pertains to the behavior of objects for which all existing forces are not balanced. The second law states that the acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables - the net force acting upon the object and the mass of the object. As learned in the "The Rocket Simulation" Lab, the acceleration of an object depends directly upon the net force acting upon the object, and inversely upon the mass of the object. As the force of propulsion acting upon the rocket-chair increased, the acceleration of the rocket-chair increased. As the mass of the rocket-chair increased, the acceleration of the rocket-chair decreased."

Imagine throwing a baseball at 90 mph in the vacuum of space. That baseball would stay at 90mph until acted upon by an external force. If no force acts upon it it will continue in a straight line at 90mph forever.

Answer 8

It would continue on whatever trajectory it was on until the gravity of some star or planet changed it's course.
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