In aerospace engineering, mass ratio is a measure of the efficiency of a rocket. It describes how much more massive the vehicle is with propellant than without; that is, the ratio of the rocket's wet mass (vehicle plus contents plus propellant) to its dry mass (vehicle plus contents). A more efficient rocket design requires less propellant to achieve a given goal, and would therefore have a lower mass ratio; however, for any given efficiency a higher mass ratio typically permits the vehicle to achieve higher delta-v.
The mass ratio is a useful quantity for back-of-the-envelope rocketry calculations: it is an easy number to derive from either or from rocket and propellant mass, and therefore serves as a handy bridge between the two. It is also a useful for getting an impression of the size of a rocket: while two rockets with mass fractions of, say, 92% and 95% may appear similar, the corresponding mass ratios of 12.5 and 20 clearly indicate that the latter system requires much more propellant.
Typical multistage rockets have mass ratios in the range from 8 to 20. The Space Shuttle, for example, has a mass ratio around 16.
In aerospace engineering, massratio is a measure of the efficiency of a rocket. It describes how much more massive the vehicle is with propellant than...
Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a mass spectrum...
small mole ratios. The mass fraction w i {\displaystyle w_{i}} is the fraction of one substance with mass m i {\displaystyle m_{i}} to the mass of the total...
to be ideal gases. For gases, the volume ratio is ideally the same by the ideal gas law, but the massratio of a single reaction has to be calculated...
charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and 1836 times the mass of an electron (the proton-to-electron massratio). Protons and...
(see concentration) or massratio (see stoichiometry). In atmospheric chemistry, mixing ratio usually refers to the mole ratio ri, which is defined as...
gyromagnetic ratio is γ = q 2 m {\displaystyle \gamma ={\frac {q}{2m}}} where q {\displaystyle {q}} is its charge and m {\displaystyle {m}} is its mass. The derivation...
propellant. Massratio is, for any 'burn', the ratio between the rocket's initial mass and its final mass. Everything else being equal, a high massratio is desirable...
known estimate of the solar mass was by Isaac Newton. In his work Principia (1687), he estimated that the ratio of the mass of Earth to the Sun was about...
1909. Together with the mass-to-charge ratio, the electron mass was determined with reasonable precision. The value of mass that was found for the electron...
mass of the different isotopes of that element (weighted by abundance) to the atomic mass constant. The atomic weight is a massratio, while the mass...
The ratio between the mass of a proton and that of an electron is about 1836. Astronomical measurements show that the proton-to-electron massratio has...
planets are expected to be much rarer given the typical planet to satellite massratio is around 1:10000, they are influenced heavily by the gravitational pull...
In astrophysics, an extreme massratio inspiral (EMRI) is the orbit of a relatively light object around a much heavier (by a factor 10,000 or more) object...
the solid massratios are usually in the .91 to .93 range, as good as or better than most liquid propellant upper stages. The high massratios possible...
of Earth and about 1⁄80 of its mass. The next largest ratios are the Neptune–Triton system at 0.055 (with a massratio of about 1 to 4790), the Saturn–Titan...
equilateral triangle formed with the centers of the two large bodies. When the massratio of the two bodies is large enough, the L4 and L5 points are stable points...
yield-to-weight ratio is the amount of weapon yield compared to the mass of the weapon. The practical maximum yield-to-weight ratio for fusion weapons...