Space Shuttle.

Just watched a show on the Columbis disaster, and a question came to me.
Why does the shuttle have to be travelling so fast to re-enter the
atmosphere?

--
Oz Lander.
Straight and Level Down Under Forum.
http://www.straightandleveldownunder.net

Oz Lander wrote:

Just watched a show on the Columbis disaster, and a question came to
me. Why does the shuttle have to be travelling so fast to re-enter
the atmosphere?

Perdon the typo! Columbia!

--
Oz Lander.
Straight and Level Down Under Forum.
http://www.straightandleveldownunder.net

In article ,
"Oz Lander" wrote:

Why does the shuttle have to be travelling so fast to re-enter the
atmosphere?

How do you propose to slow the shuttle down from orbital velocity?

--
Bob Noel
(goodness, please trim replies!!!)

Bob Noel wrote:

In article ,
"Oz Lander" wrote:

Why does the shuttle have to be travelling so fast to re-enter the
atmosphere?

How do you propose to slow the shuttle down from orbital velocity?

That I guess answers my question then. I was not aware that such high
speeds were required to just stay in orbit. What would it take to slow
the shuttle down whilst in orbit, enough to allow it to re-enter at a
slower speed?

--
Oz Lander.
Straight and Level Down Under Forum.
http://www.straightandleveldownunder.net

In article ,
"Oz Lander" wrote:

How do you propose to slow the shuttle down from orbital velocity?

That I guess answers my question then. I was not aware that such high
speeds were required to just stay in orbit. What would it take to slow
the shuttle down whilst in orbit, enough to allow it to re-enter at a
slower speed?

It would require a large amount of fuel, way more than we can currently
afford to put into orbit.

--
Bob Noel
(goodness, please trim replies!!!)

Bob Noel wrote:

In article ,
"Oz Lander" wrote:

How do you propose to slow the shuttle down from orbital velocity?

That I guess answers my question then. I was not aware that such
high speeds were required to just stay in orbit. What would it take
to slow the shuttle down whilst in orbit, enough to allow it to
re-enter at a slower speed?

It would require a large amount of fuel, way more than we can
currently afford to put into orbit.

Question answered. Thanks.
I guess that's where the solar sail technology might one day come in
handy.

--
Oz Lander.
Straight and Level Down Under Forum.
http://www.straightandleveldownunder.net

"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...

How do you propose to slow the shuttle down from orbital velocity?


The shuttle does slow from orbital velocity to re-enter.

Oz Lander" wrote Question answered. Thanks.
I guess that's where the solar sail technology might one day come in
handy.

Not really.

The whole idea behind a solar sail, is to exert a tiny force on a spacecraft
for a very long time, and accelerate it for a long trip between planets.

It would be able to do nothing for slowing down for re-entry.

Really, the ONLY answer is a thrust with tons of force exerted over a very
short time period. Right now, that is chemical burning of something,
and........ that's it!

The other thing left is aero braking, which is what we do now, and have done
for all past programs, and has been done by the Soviets.
--
Jim in NC

Steven P. McNicoll wrote:

"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...

How do you propose to slow the shuttle down from orbital velocity?


The shuttle does slow from orbital velocity to re-enter.

Yeah, by a tiny fraction of it's total horizontal velocity.

Then there is that inconvenient energy of position which gets
converted to energy of motion as it falls back to Earth.

--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
"Oz Lander" wrote in
:

What would it take to slow
the shuttle down whilst in orbit, enough to allow it to re-enter at a
slower speed?

The same amount of fuel that was needed to accelerate it in the first
place, plus lots more to get that extra fuel up. To avoid all that,
spacecraft use the atmosphere for braking. They've been doing that
since the beginning of manned spaceflight, it's not specific to the
shuttle. They just accept the risk associated with that method as a
tradeoff against the extra complication of carrying those enormous
masses of fuel all along.

Regards



They could aero-brake from orbit slower but it would take
forever. If they launched an unmanned fuel source, docked
and then transfered fuel it could be done.

Keep it simple the new Orion(Apollo on steroids) will work
just fine. The Russians have done a good job with safe and
repeated journeys from orbit