Upper Atmosphere Research Using High Altitude Rockets

Two rocket motors were selected as typical of current British boost and sustainer motors respectively, and the minimum amounts of fin structure, etc., needed to convert them into aerodynamically stable vehicles were added. The performance of these single-stage vehicles in vertical climbs from sea level was evaluated by numerical integration. The maximum altitude attained was 120,000 ft. which is not much above the economical limit for balloons. If current rockets are to be of value in upper-atmosphere research, therefore, they must either be used in a single-stage arrangement, or be launched well above sea level, perhaps from a balloon or mountain top. Alternatively, a new solid fuel rocket motor with a long burning time and high length/diameter ratio could be designed specifically for the purpose of high-altitude research - this is probably the best approach.

IENTIFIERS: Nike Cajun, Strongarm. The atmospheric and geophysical properties of theATMOSPHERE ABOVE 100 KM AND THEIR METHODS OF MEASUREMENT ARE DISCUSSED, WITH PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON THE INTERACTION OF THE SOUNDING VEHICLE WITH THE PROPERTIES BEING MEASURED. The economics of rocket sounding including considerations of trajectories, altitudes, vehicle speed and geographical location are discussed.

Sounding rockets provided the first means to carry instruments to the outermost reaches of the Earth's atmosphere. They were, indeeed, our first space vehicles. As Mr. Corliss relates in this history, in this day of satellites and deep space probes, sounding rockets remain as important to space science as ever, furnishing our most powerful means for obtaining vertical profiles of atmospheric properties. NASA continues to depend on sounding rockets for research in astronomy, meteorology, ionospheric physics, exploratory astronomy, and other disciplines.