Rocket staging: This is a continuation . One way to raise the effective mass ratio is to divide the launch vehicle into different stages. See Figure 4.28. After one stage has burned its fuel, it drops...

Rocket staging: This is a continuation . One way to raise the effective mass ratio is to divide the launch vehicle into different stages. See Figure 4.28. After one stage has burned its fuel, it drops away, and the next stage begins to fire. We assume that there are two stages and that each stage has the same exhaust velocity

v = c ln R1 + c ln R2 ,

where R1 and R2 are the mass ratios for stages 1 and 2, respectively. In this exercise we assume that c = 3.7 kilometers per second, and we assume that each stage has a mass ratio of 3.4.

a. What is the total velocity attained by this twostage craft?

b. Can this craft achieve a stable orbit, as described in part c ?

c. Then the total velocity v attained is the sum of the velocities attained by each stage: