Hi All,
"In space, nobody can hear you scream"... but you can get a cracking suntan.
Let's see if I've understood all this banter:
A rocket is whizzing about space at full throttle. 90% of the energy dissipates in a cloud of nasty, hot, smelly, propulsive particles kicked out at a zillion MPH to keep Newton happy. Stay away from the blunt end, then, huh? However, 10% of the energy boings around the aeroshell (smart arse tech term) causing it to vibrate like an AC-DC concert stage.
Can't hear much of either the vibes, or the propulsion, 'cos the vacuum is unable to conduct sound waves. Also 'cos no one is daft enough to be anywhere near the sodding thing. The wibbly-wobbly panels continue to vibrate like buggery, but ultimately get damped by all those molecules tap dancing together. Wobbling molecules generate heat energy causing said aeroshell to heat up.
Said heat doesn't have the nous to leap into the hot, propulsive gases, so they're not going to make much of a contribution to the going forward thing. So the heat says 'sod it' and simply radiates (slowly) in all directions into the vacuum via the electro-magnetic spectrum whatsit. Contrary to what the Hoover Company says, vacuums propagate photons nicely, but are useless at getting dust out of a corner.
Seeing as the rocket, vacuum, gases, electro-magnetic radiation, Coca-Cola logo, and the astronaut with a suntan, are all within the same Universe, then energy is fully conserved, so we can all sleep at night.
TW