How Rockets and Spaceships Work
Explore the engineering behind humanity's journey into the stars. From the physics of launch to the life-support systems of the ISS, learn how we design machines to survive and thrive in the vacuum of space.
Like Duolingo, but for How Rockets and Spaceships Work. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
67 levels across 7 sections, about 134 minutes end to end, roughly 27 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Launching into the Void, The Art of Orbiting, Building the Machine, Life in a Tin Can, The Invisible Dangers, Steering and Talking, and Returning to Earth. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in How Rockets and Spaceships Work
- Newton's third law in vacuum
- Tyranny of the rocket equation
- Rockets don't need air
- Propellant mass fraction
- Momentum of exhaust gases
- Useful payload fraction
- How a rocket generates thrust in a vacuum
- The ratio of fuel weight to structural weight in a rocket
- Gravity weakens with distance
- Drag is caused by air molecules
- Maximum gravity at launchpad
- Thrust in a vacuum
- Air density drops with altitude
- Gravity in LEO
- Drag is speed and density
- Fuel to structure ratio
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How Rockets and Spaceships Work the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
Why is the vast majority of a rocket's weight made up of fuel and oxidizer?
Get it right to open this lesson and 66 more in the app.
Where How Rockets and Spaceships Work takes you
- 1
Launching into the Void
- The First Ten Minutes
- The Rocket's Heavy Burden
- 2
The Art of Orbiting
- The Infinite Fall
- Choosing the Right Path
- Moving Between Worlds
- 3
Building the Machine
- Why Rockets Have Stages
- Shaping the Fire
- 4
Life in a Tin Can
- Breathing in a Vacuum
- The Water Loop
- Space Suits: The Smallest Spacecraft
- 5
The Invisible Dangers
- Managing the Heat
- Dodging Bullets
- The Radiation Threat
- 6
Steering and Talking
- Pointing the Camera
- Phoning Home
- 7
Returning to Earth
- The Heat of Re-entry
- Landing on Other Worlds
7 sections · 17 units · 67 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
How Rockets and Spaceships Work is taught in the Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start How Rockets and Spaceships Work today.
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