ABSTRACT
Are all rockets the same? That is a loaded question. No two rockets are really the same unless they are manufactured in exactly the same way from exactly the same blueprints. But that really isn’t the point of that question in the context used herein. The point of asking this question is to bring to light the fact that there are many different types of rocket engines and they all do not necessarily function in the same way. Though it is likely that there will be very common components, such as an exit diverging nozzle, a combustion chamber, and some sort of propellant, it is just as likely that there will be components of the rocket engines that are completely specific to that type of engine. An example of this specific difference is that nuclear thermal rockets (NTR) do not have a combustion chamber where chemical propellants are reacted together. Instead, they have an expansion chamber where a propellant liquid or gas is heated by the nuclear reactor core. That propellant expands as it is superheated and then the common convergent-divergent nozzle approach comes into play.
