• Question: How much fuel does a rocket need

    Asked by anon-245788 to Sam, Samantha, Nicol, Lori-Ann, Liam, David on 10 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Lori-Ann Foley

      Lori-Ann Foley answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      That can vary depending of the type of rocket, and its size, weight and shape. So, for example, Space X use kerosene and liquid oxygen in its Falcon 9 rockets. The first stage uses 39,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and 25,000 gallons of kerosene. The two he second stage uses 7300 gallons of liquid oxygen and 4600 gallons of kerosene. That’s a lot, especially when you think that they are quite fuel efficient! 🙂

    • Photo: Samantha Faircloth

      Samantha Faircloth answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      Hi Giorgio, if a rocket were going to the Moon it would need about 200,000 gallons of fuel! That’s about 10 swimming pool’s of fuel! : -)

    • Photo: Sam Frampton

      Sam Frampton answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      It’s a tricky question! as Lori-Ann said, you need a whole lot! Most of the fuel is needed just to leave Earth. The Saturn rocket that we used to get to the moon was bigger than big ben, and almost all of it was filled with fuel just to get us to the moon!

    • Photo: David Sobral

      David Sobral answered on 10 Mar 2020:

      Depends on where you want the rocket to go, how heavy it is and what kind of fuel you might want to use. It will always be “a lot” because the Earth’s pull is not easy to overcome, but it’s getting progressively cheaper to send things up.

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