Aerodynamics
What is the name of the force that opposes the forward motion of an object through the air?
What is drag?
What is the name of the path an object follows around a planet or star?
What is an orbit?
What is the name of the aerodynamic surface primarily responsible for generating lift on an airplane?
What is the wing?
Who made the first powered, controlled airplane flight?
Who were the Wright brothers?
What is the name of the reaction force generated by expelling mass at high speed?
What is thrust?
Name the point on an airfoil where the resultant lift force is considered to act.
What is the center of pressure?
What is the lowest point in an orbit around Earth called?
What is perigee?
Which surface controls pitch in most conventional aircraft?
What is the elevator?
Who was the first person to walk on the moon?
Who is Neil Armstrong?
What is the term for specific impulse (Isp) measured in?
What are seconds?
What is the angle between the chord line of an airfoil and the oncoming airflow called?
What is the angle of attack?
Kepler’s Second Law states that a planet sweeps out equal areas in equal ______?
What is time?
This structural part of a spacecraft supports all subsystems and payloads, ensuring integrity during launch and in space.
What is the bus?
What spacecraft carried the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space?
What is Vostok 1?
What type of airbreathing engine uses shockwaves for compression and has no moving parts?
What is a scramjet?
Which type of flow occurs when all streamlines are parallel and flow velocity is constant across layers?
What is laminar flow?
What type of orbit allows a satellite to stay over the same point on the Earth's surface?
What is geostationary orbit?
In structural design, what is the primary failure mode that thin-walled aerospace structures must be designed to resist under compression?
What is buckling?
This Apollo mission was intended to land on the Moon, but was famously aborted after an onboard explosion. Although it failed to reach the surface, it is still considered a "successful failure" due to the safe return of the crew.
What is Apollo 13?
What is the main trade-off when choosing between a solid and liquid rocket engine?
Solids are simpler and reliable; liquids are controllable and more efficient.
Which dimensionless number represents the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces in a fluid?
What is the Reynolds number?
What is the name of the conic section that represents an escape trajectory with exactly zero total mechanical energy?
What is a parabola?
Describe the primary benefit of using canard configurations in aircraft design.
What is improved pitch control and potentially better stall characteristics?
Which early NASA program developed critical rendezvous and docking techniques used in Apollo missions?
What is Gemini?
This thermodynamic cycle is idealized for airbreathing jet engines and includes isentropic compression, constant-pressure heat addition, and isentropic expansion.
What is the Brayton cycle?