The Motion of a Human Rocket Using Beans as Fuel

Jason Q. Sun

March 4, 2024

This paper discusses the motion of human rockets and determines the optimal species of beans to
use as fuel. This paper will also discuss the commercial viability of using beans as a more environ-
mentally friendly alternative to conventional rocket fuel.

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Contents
1 The Rocket 3

2 Motion in Space 3

3 Take-off 4

4 Rotation 4

5 Optimal type of fuel 5

2
1 The Rocket
The rocket discussed in this paper is a zero-stage rocket composed of one human astronaut and
one fuel tank. The engine works by converting the solid fuel into a gas via various enzymes and
ejecting the fuel from near the middle of the rocket in short bursts spaced throughout constant
time intervals.

Properties of the rocket

• Total mass of the rocket without fuel: M = 70 kilograms

• Total mass of fuel: mfuel (t) is the amount of fuel remaining at time t. Let the initial amount
of fuel be mf = 40 kilograms.

• Let the total mass of the rocket with fuel at time t be MT (t) = M + mfuel (t).

• Mass ejected per fuel ejection: me = 0.0375 grams[1]

• Frequency of fuel ejection: fe = 15 times/day[2]

• Thrust generated during fuel ejection: F = 0.2 newtons[3]

• Length of fuel ejection: te = 0.25 seconds[4]

• Location of fuel exhaust pipe: 0.92 m from the bottom of the rocket

• Location of the center of mass: 1.03 m from the bottom of the rocket

The location of the fuel exhaust pipe was measured on a Canadian prototype rocket. To measure the
location of the center of mass, the prototype placed itself on a fulcrum until it came to equilibrium.
The distance from the exhaust pipe was then measured to determine the location of the center of
mass.

2 Motion in Space
If the rocket is situated in space in the middle of nowhere, we can calculate the speed of the rocket
at any given time t.

During each fuel ejection, the force on the rocket is equal to the total mass of the rocket at that
time multiplied by its acceleration. That is,

F = (M + mfuel (t)) · (a(t)/c). (2.1)

where c = te fe is the proportion of time where fuel is being ejected. Since fuel is being ejected in
fixed amounts in constant time intervals, we can approximate mfuel (t) as if fuel were being ejected
constantly. As the amount of time in flight approaches infinity, this approximation should get
better and better. Therefore, we write

mfuel (t) = mf − me fe · t. (2.2)

Substituting (2.2) into (2.1) gives

F = (M + mf − me fe · t) · (a(t)/c). (2.3)

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 Fc
a(t) = . (2.4)
M + mf − me fe · t
From this equation, we see that as time goes on, the acceleration of the rocket increases as expected.
Taking the time integral on both sides gives

Fc F/c
v(t) = − ln |M + mf − me fe · t| + ln (M + mf ) (2.5)
me fe me fe
We can rewrite this as  
Fc MT (0)
v(t) = ln . (2.6)
me fe MT (t)
Substituting in the values given by the properties of the rocket, we have
 
110
v(t) = 1333 ln . (2.7)
110 − 0.205 · t

where t is in years and v(t) is in meters per second. We know that the rocket will run out of beans
at
mf = me fe t
which is t = 0.195 years, or about 2.3 months after the rocket starts eating. So, the final speed
of the rocket after all the fuel has been ejected is about 1.74 km/h (for just one soybean engine)
which is an extremely powerful rocket.

3 Take-off
In order for soybean engines to be viable, it needs to be able to lift a human rocket off the ground.
That is, the force generated from the soybean engines must be greater than the force of gravity.
Let n be the number of soybean engines attached to the human rocket. We need

n · F c ≥ Fg = (M + mf )g.

assuming all engines draw from one fuel tank. From this equation, we can derive

n ≥ 125, 000, 000

That is, we need 125 million soybean engines attached to the human rocket for it to be able to take
off into space. If each soybean engine costs $2.00, the human rocket would cost $250 million per
launch. Given that the Apollo 11 cost $355 million to launch and the Apollo 17 cost $450 million
to launch, soybean engines are definitely commercially viable.

4 Rotation
One problem is that since the exhaust pipe is not located at the center of mass, the exhaust exerts
a torque on the rocket which rotates it. This would cause the rocket to go in circles which is a
slight problem.

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How fast will the rocket spin
It has been measured that the exhaust pipe is d = 0.11 meters away from the center of mass. So,
the exhaust exerts a torque of
τ = Fd
The moment of inertia of the rocket is
1 1
I = MT (t)R2 + MT (t)L2
4 12
We will take MT (t) for its largest value, 110 kilograms. The moment of inertia is 16.35 kg·m2 .
Since
τ = F d = Iα,
the angular acceleration is at least

α ≥ 0.000000564 rad/s2

So, when the fuel is all ejected, the angular velocity is at least

ω ≥ 0.55 revolutions/second.

That would make the rocket very hard to aim. To solve this problem, we can just attach a dumbbell
to the bottom of the rocket to shift the center of mass to the exhaust pipe.

5 Optimal type of fuel

We will now discuss the type of fuel that results in the largest value of fe .

It has been experimentally shown that soybeans, pinto beans, black beans, and lentils increase the
engine efficiency. The cost of each type of bean is as follows.

• Soybeans cost $2.30 per kilogram. That’s $92.00 per fuel tank.

• Pinto beans cost $9.90 per kilogram. That’s $396.00 per fuel tank.

• Black beans cost $2.61 per kilogram. That’s $104.40 per fuel tank.

• Lentils cost $3.30 per kilogram. That’s $132.00 per fuel tank.

Since conventional rocket fuel costs thousands of dollars per kilogram, these new and innovative
rocket fuels easily undercut any conventional rocket fuel currently on the market.