Support mass

In the case of recoil drives, the support mass is the mass ejected backwards , which causes the recoil . The thrust is the product of the mass flow and the exit velocity.

The support mass can

• taken from the environment, e.g. B. in air-breathing engines such as the jet engine or water jet propulsion ;
• consist exclusively of burned fuel , e.g. B. in chemical rocket engines ;
• be carried regardless of the drive energy, z. B. in ion drives or a water rocket .

literature

• Ernst Messerschmid , Stefanos Fasoulas: Space systems: An introduction with exercises and solutions , Springer, 2005, ISBN 3-540-21037-7 , S. 188 limited preview in the Google book search.
• Wolfgang Kümmel: Technical Fluid Mechanics: Theory and Practice , Teubner, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8351-0141-8 , p. 87 limited preview in the Google book search.