Would rockets work in a vacuum?

Answer 1

Yes they do.

The rockets fuel, either solid, compressed gas would expand on release thru the 'exhaust' of the rocket/fuel container, and cause the rocket to move in the opposite direction.

Example:

Geo-stationary satellites have small rockets to keep them in place, and prevent or correct drifting, so that they can stay locked into their earth relay stations. Minute bursts of firing of these rockets on the satellites is done at an altitude of almost 36000Km above the surface of the earth, in what is near vacuum.

Answer 2

Most people would answer yes. The answer is no.

And I know of Newtons third law and how rockets work.

In the presence of the vacuum the molecules would not get to make enough impacts to create enough heat to raise enough pressure, but will really be expanding because of the state of vacuum in space and the effect it will have on those molecules. This will cause the burning/expanding gases to seem like it is being sucked out of the chamber before it gets to do any work in the chamber itself. In other words the gases will flow towards the more intense vacuum which is outside the craft and will not possess enough force to do work on the inner chamber.

Now... A rocket's spent fuel DOES NOT have to push on external atmosphere to acquire thrust, it just needs to build enough internal pressure to do so. But having said this, there is still pressure on the outside of the rocket (on earth), so a fraction of the force flows towards this lower pressure on the outside area of the rocket and there is enough force being exerted on the inside of the chamber to push the rocket forward. So as i explained earlier, the pressure of the vacuum in space is so low, most of the force from the expanding gases will tend to flow towards the vacuum which is the outside environment and there will be too little of force, if any, being used to create thrust.

A mini rocket may work in a vacuum chamber that some manufacturers sell, but those chambers produce inferior vacuums states.