if a space shuttle is traveling say 500mph in space with little or no friction, how can it stop?

Question

Could we stop a ship going the speed of light? If it where possibly to travel that fast?

Answer 1

The space shuttle never stops until it lands and rolls to a stop on the runway. In orbit the shuttle moves at speeds on the order of 17,000 to 18,000 mph, to maintain the centrifugal force required to keep it in orbit.

You may be thinking of animated graphics you have seen of the shuttle docking with the International Space Station. If you don't understand what you are seeing, it may appear that the shuttle is moving very slowly with respect to the station and coming to a stop at the docking collar.

This is an illusion caused by the fact that the ISS is also whizzing along in orbit at roughly 17,500 mph. Clear?

I was in high school when Sputnik made the first orbital flight. I can tell you my classmates in the 1950s were much sharper and better informed than school students are now, in the aggregate. My classmates understood basic rocket science. Now we are getting old and starting to die off. Who will provide the world with a little common sense when we are gone?

Answer 2

Actually, while in orbit, the shuttle goes along at approx 17,000mph not a mere 500. Even while in orbit, it is under the influence of Earth's gravity well. It needs a boost now and then. So, for one if it never got that boost, it would fall back down. The shuttle isn't really in zero g, it is in free fall. It is always falling to the surface of the Earth. It simply has 17,000mph worth of "forward" velocity so that by the times it arcs down, the surface of the Earth is gone and it just keeps on arcing down.
The shuttle enters a return trajectory by firing off retro rockets which slow its "forward" velocity enough the fall a little more steeply where it hits some bit of atmosphere which slows it more due to friction and eventually ends up at either KSC or Edwards AFB.
One idea proposed for ships like the "Project Orion", or large fraction of the speed of light ships is to have the ship accelerate for the first half of its journey, tumble around or flip over and fire the engines again to decelerate in the direction of travel until it arrives at its destination. This would also help maintain a 1g environment as much as possible, since Einstein proved gravity are relativistic acceleration are indistinguishable by an observer.

Answer 3

All it needs is an equal amount of force going the opposite direction. They could simply turn the space ship around so it's traveling backwards, then fire up the engines again and bam, they'll stop instantly. With no air and no friction, they can get up to top speed and then shut off the engines. Then they use small releases of air on one side to turn the ship any direction they want, while still going in the same direction. So they could be traveling backwards in the same line without any negative effects. Except they can't see where they're going!

Answer 4

Been watching too much Star Trek, I think, where they seem to be under the same rules as ships in the sea and can stop, start and slow down at the command of the captain.

Unfortunately the reality is totally different in space, and people obviously cannot comprehend (even Star Trek script writers).

The shuttle needs to be going 17500 mph in order to maintain its orbit. Everything is in gravitational influence of everything else. That is why a probe cannot go straight to Mars, but has to cater for the Earth's gravity, the sun's gravity and then the Martian gravity.

The shuttle cannot just slow down to 500 mph - that would cause it to plummet to Earth. What do you think keeps it up there? Its the orbital speed that provides the exact counter for the graviational pull - this is the law of all orbiting bodies throughout the universe.

Look up Johannes Kepler on Google. He discovered the laws back in 16th century.

As for speed of light, it takes infinite energy to accelerate any mass to that speed, so it would take infinite energy to slow it down.

Sorry, but for all we know at the moment, the speed of light is impossible.

Answer 5

If you wanted to stop the orbiter in a very short time you would have to apply a certain amount of thrust in the opposite direction of the orbit for a certain amount of time, depending on how fast you want to stop it. However if the orbitter literally stopped orbiting, it would not be able stay in space and fall back towards the Earth.
That is why a certain amount of thrust is applied in the opposite direction of the orbit to deorbit and descend. This way the orbital velocity decreases and the orbiter starts to lose altitude.
If you have the means to accelerate an object to the speed of light, logically you should be able to decelerate it.

Answer 6

The commute is located into orbit by utilising propelling itself from liftoff to 17,500 MPH at which factor it no longer desires any thrust to maintain orbit in view that there isn't any friction of an ecosystem to sluggish it down (nonetheless surely there is an extremely tiny bit on the altitude the commute orbits) ... the thrust of the engines push against back of the engine because of the fact the thrust exits the engine nozzle, and that leads to shifting the spacecraft interior the opposing course because of the fact the thrust. In area, the comparable effect occurs ... it has no longer something to do with the ambience. The thrust is greater useful than the completed weight of the craft, so it strikes interior the path opposite the thrust.

Answer 7

A shuttle travels at 17500 mph usually. And reenters by slowing down by firing retro-rockets. It then uses the atmosphere to slow it enough to land.

In order to slow something in space it would be neccessary to apply a force opposite its motion for enough time to decelerate it to a stop. It is possible to slow something down from any speed... if it is possible to reach that speed in the first place.

Answer 8

By just accelerating in the opposite direction the same way you got up to the speed of light would cause the opposite effect.

Answer 9

They have thrusters in the front of the craft to offset.

Here is a good site to see : http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/multimedia/index-how-it-works.html

I would not know about the whole speed of light thing. We would have to ask out little green buddies.

Answer 10

Apply thrust in the direction you are traveling.