In that spectacular display, Falcon Heavy blasted off from Cape Canaveral, FL on

Question

In that spectacular display, Falcon Heavy blasted off from Cape Canaveral, FL on Feb 06, 2018. The launch data showed that, starting from rest, Falcon Heavy attained an altitude of 800 m in 20 s. The mass of the Falcon heavy is 1,420,788 kg (about 3.1 million lbs) and the Roadster is 1350 kg. 1) How much upward thrust was required for this? (If you follow the time and altitude data, you will see that the acceleration was increasing which means the upward thrust was also increasing. However, for the sake of simplification, let's assume a constant thrust). Here, upward thrust is the upward force provided by the rocket engine. 2) The maximum payload it can carry is 64,000 kg. For the same upward thrust as in 1) but with the maximum payload, how high would the rocket reach in 20 s?

Explanation / Answer

given altitude, h = 800 m

t = 20 s

M = 1420788 kg

m = 1350 kg

1) assuming constant thrust

acceleration = a

h = 0.5*a*t^2

a = 4 m/s/s

hecne

T - (m + M)g = (m + M)a

T = 19639725.78 N

2) m = 64,000 kg

then

T - (m + M)g = (m + M)a

a = 3.417292 m/s/s

h = 0.5*a*20^2 = 683.4585812 m

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