Why Space Shuttles Take Off Only Vertically
The view of a rust colored rocket carrying an orbiter on its back spewing giant clouds of smoke and rushing to the sky on its fiery tail is iconic five considering the last space shuttle launch was back in twenty eleven is this the last will ever see of such a thing what's next could improve shuttle be made that takes off and lands like an airplane well let's explore the possibilities.
Use your imagination to draw two parallel horizontal lines now connect these lines at any point you want in two different ways with a vertical line that goes straight from the bottom line to the top one and with a diagonal line which line is shorter of course the vertical one it's the shortest route to connect the top and bottom lines with each other and that's also the most basic answer to a question it's faster and easier to get into orbit by just going straight up from the ground The bottom line is the surface
Our planet is a complex hodgepodge of all kinds of matter which is combined into an impressive mass Almost six two billion times This lake's sixty thousand billions of billions Once as heroes they're Just like my middle school math scores.
All that mass basically works like a colossal magnet that besides other significant feats allows the earth to maintain one thing we all know and love the atmosphere the top line is the limit of the earth's atmosphere Anything beyond that is the planetary orbit and outer space but the atmosphere itself is also filled with matter.
It's a combination of gas that has its own density when the shuttle is launched all the mass of this gas was constantly pushing on it which caused friction effectively slowing it down going through a vacuum is like cutting through the air where as getting through the atmosphere is like going through jelly Rule grape or strawberry It took a lot of energy and forced to get through it Well being pulled back by that giant gravitational magnet called
Use your imagination to draw two parallel horizontal lines now connect these lines at any point you want in two different ways with a vertical line that goes straight from the bottom line to the top one and with a diagonal line which line is shorter of course the vertical one it's the shortest route to connect the top and bottom lines with each other and that's also the most basic answer to a question it's faster and easier to get into orbit by just going straight up from the ground The bottom line is the surface
Our planet is a complex hodgepodge of all kinds of matter which is combined into an impressive mass Almost six two billion times This lake's sixty thousand billions of billions Once as heroes they're Just like my middle school math scores.
All that mass basically works like a colossal magnet that besides other significant feats allows the earth to maintain one thing we all know and love the atmosphere the top line is the limit of the earth's atmosphere Anything beyond that is the planetary orbit and outer space but the atmosphere itself is also filled with matter.
It's a combination of gas that has its own density when the shuttle is launched all the mass of this gas was constantly pushing on it which caused friction effectively slowing it down going through a vacuum is like cutting through the air where as getting through the atmosphere is like going through jelly Rule grape or strawberry It took a lot of energy and forced to get through it Well being pulled back by that giant gravitational magnet called
Airplanes don't struggle this much with getting through the atmosphere because they use its density to lift up from the ground and maintain now the Two things helped them with that the thrust of their engines in the form of their wings.The wings of an airplane forced the air in front of them to split into two streams.
Naturally the streams want to re unite behind the way but the shape of it makes the upper stream go faster the faster the year goes the last dance it becomes and that means that the air stream that goes underneath the wing is denser than the upper one This creates a gradual left for the airplane Basically wings make it so that the airplane can collide on the air But of course that wouldn't be possible without a huge force pushing the airplane along This is what thrust is for Just to take off from the ground An airplane needs to attain a huge speed The speed varies enormously between different kinds of airplanes sixty miles an hour for light planes and about a hundred fifty miles per hour for airliners And just to take off and climbed to ten thousand feet the Boeing seven forty seven needs a little less than three tons of fuel That may sound impressive but let's look at that space shuttle The first obvious things are they cute tiny stubby wings that wouldn't be of any use for horizontal take off but if one was built with more excessive wings they wouldn't be of any use in the vacuum of space it would also be hard to make them sturdy enough to make it through the launching process the little wings of a space shuttle served only one purpose to land the shuttle safely so we can be re used in future missions they were just big enough to prevent the shuttle Spinning Uncontrollably during the descent through the atmosphere and to glide it to the ground it didn't utilize any engine operations during landing at all.
The engines of the space shuttle were nothing like the engines of a plane the airplane's engines needed air from the atmosphere to workThe shuttle's engines obviously didn't Since Atmospheric air it would have been hard to find in space instead The shuttle used rocket engines the show it rocket means here And how these engines work just blow up a balloon and release it from your hand it'll fly around until there's no air left inside All the while being pushed in the opposite direction As the air coming out to fly up A rocket engine has to throw off enough for us and burn the right amount of fuel to do the job in fact space shuttles needed so much fuel during their assent to make enough for us that they couldn't do it on its three engines alone they needed to additional solid rocket boosters and a huge separate fuel tank that was jettisoned at the final stage of the launch and the shuttle would only go into orbit if it had enough power the power of the shuttle with three engines and two boosters is around seven point eight million pounds of thrust to power up this much push An external tank killed around one point six million pounds of rocket fuel and to keep the flight under control those three engines had to be mind numbingly complicated instructure But would it be even possible to fly a shuttle into orbit if it was modified to use the atmosphere like planes well unfortunately the answer is no it would take even more fuel to maintain the needed speed for the distance of a diagonal launching trajectory the thing is even if a plane climbs to the upper part of the atmosphere the earth still won't let it get away to escape the atmosphere any object that starts from the earth would have to be fast enough to cross the point of so called Escape velocity This velocity is needed to overpower the gravitational pull of the planet and let an object go into orbit for our planet this orbital speed is seventeen thousand five hundred miles per hour It's obviously way faster than the speed of sound and many many times faster than the cruising speed of an airline and Now Try to imagine an aircraft that goes this fast and how much fuel it would require on top of that It have to be sturdy enough to keep itself in one piece while doing so The cost and complicated technology would just be unrealistic the possibility that shuttles have become a thing of the past has
because scientists and engineers alike to try to find even better solutions for getting into orbit and beyond one such idea proposes that in the future people would be able to go to space on a huge space elevator a space elevator is the concept of a huge tower that connects to a satellite at the top which moves in line with the rotational movement of the earth itself the towers of post to be about twenty two thousand miles high And made of extremely durable material carbon nanotubes The platform inside the tower is planned to be set in motion the electro magnetic powered vehicles the trip from earth to the satellite would take just five hours this mega structure would allow for a cheaper and safer way o
getting into space but carbon nanotubes or prove not sturdy enough for building a tower this huge so the search for an ideal material continues another project that uses a similar approach is called a space tram the structure needed to launch this project isn't as big but still quite impressive it's a vertical vacuum tunnel that pushes a magnetically levitated shuttle it will be slowed down by the air and it'll be pushed and xcelerated with an electro magnetic force through the tunnel it'll then shoot into the skies at a speed close to escape velocity the shuttle powered by this tunnel will weigh less Because It won't need to carry a lot of fuel no word yet on how human beings would survive such acceleration writers might look like pancakes upon arrival If these ideas sound strange to you And they do then Get ready for the last one it's possible that people will use planes as a way of getting into orbit no I didn't live you previously the plane will go into space myself instead it'll be used as a launch platform even better hot for this purpose a special aircraft will be made with an almost four hundred foot wing span and capable of climbing to an altitude of thirty five thousand feet Small shuttles launch from this aircraft won't have to go through so much of the thick atmosphere making it easier for them to get out from the gravitational pull of the year Richard Branson is working on this technique right now with his virgin galactic program to take tourists to the edge of space sounds exciting so could airplanes replace space shuttles all together now but that doesn't mean they won't help them become more effective in the future Hey if you learn something new to Dating give the video a like and share with a friend and here are some other cool videos I think you'll enjoy just click to the left or right and remember stay on the bright side of life.
Naturally the streams want to re unite behind the way but the shape of it makes the upper stream go faster the faster the year goes the last dance it becomes and that means that the air stream that goes underneath the wing is denser than the upper one This creates a gradual left for the airplane Basically wings make it so that the airplane can collide on the air But of course that wouldn't be possible without a huge force pushing the airplane along This is what thrust is for Just to take off from the ground An airplane needs to attain a huge speed The speed varies enormously between different kinds of airplanes sixty miles an hour for light planes and about a hundred fifty miles per hour for airliners And just to take off and climbed to ten thousand feet the Boeing seven forty seven needs a little less than three tons of fuel That may sound impressive but let's look at that space shuttle The first obvious things are they cute tiny stubby wings that wouldn't be of any use for horizontal take off but if one was built with more excessive wings they wouldn't be of any use in the vacuum of space it would also be hard to make them sturdy enough to make it through the launching process the little wings of a space shuttle served only one purpose to land the shuttle safely so we can be re used in future missions they were just big enough to prevent the shuttle Spinning Uncontrollably during the descent through the atmosphere and to glide it to the ground it didn't utilize any engine operations during landing at all.
The engines of the space shuttle were nothing like the engines of a plane the airplane's engines needed air from the atmosphere to workThe shuttle's engines obviously didn't Since Atmospheric air it would have been hard to find in space instead The shuttle used rocket engines the show it rocket means here And how these engines work just blow up a balloon and release it from your hand it'll fly around until there's no air left inside All the while being pushed in the opposite direction As the air coming out to fly up A rocket engine has to throw off enough for us and burn the right amount of fuel to do the job in fact space shuttles needed so much fuel during their assent to make enough for us that they couldn't do it on its three engines alone they needed to additional solid rocket boosters and a huge separate fuel tank that was jettisoned at the final stage of the launch and the shuttle would only go into orbit if it had enough power the power of the shuttle with three engines and two boosters is around seven point eight million pounds of thrust to power up this much push An external tank killed around one point six million pounds of rocket fuel and to keep the flight under control those three engines had to be mind numbingly complicated instructure But would it be even possible to fly a shuttle into orbit if it was modified to use the atmosphere like planes well unfortunately the answer is no it would take even more fuel to maintain the needed speed for the distance of a diagonal launching trajectory the thing is even if a plane climbs to the upper part of the atmosphere the earth still won't let it get away to escape the atmosphere any object that starts from the earth would have to be fast enough to cross the point of so called Escape velocity This velocity is needed to overpower the gravitational pull of the planet and let an object go into orbit for our planet this orbital speed is seventeen thousand five hundred miles per hour It's obviously way faster than the speed of sound and many many times faster than the cruising speed of an airline and Now Try to imagine an aircraft that goes this fast and how much fuel it would require on top of that It have to be sturdy enough to keep itself in one piece while doing so The cost and complicated technology would just be unrealistic the possibility that shuttles have become a thing of the past has
because scientists and engineers alike to try to find even better solutions for getting into orbit and beyond one such idea proposes that in the future people would be able to go to space on a huge space elevator a space elevator is the concept of a huge tower that connects to a satellite at the top which moves in line with the rotational movement of the earth itself the towers of post to be about twenty two thousand miles high And made of extremely durable material carbon nanotubes The platform inside the tower is planned to be set in motion the electro magnetic powered vehicles the trip from earth to the satellite would take just five hours this mega structure would allow for a cheaper and safer way o
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