2006-09-09 18:28:17 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The shuttle does not go exactly vertically above the surface of Earth.
besides, due to the orbit of the space station, the shuttle has to travel much longer distance, much much longer than 250 miles.
ORBITAL VELOCITY v=(2gr)^0.5
from this formula, you can calculate the velocity at which the space station travels. from this, you can calculate the distane travelled by it by the time shuttle reaches it
2006-09-09 18:37:10 · answer #1 · answered by ankit pruthi 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Considering it is 250 miles from earth, imagine trying to park a ferrari going 180 mph into a stationary, or slow moving 18 wheeler truck, that just isn't going to work. While the shuttle has the ability to travel 17000 mph, there are too many things that need to be done before docking that would have to be done within the approximate 68 minutes it would take to reach the station at full speed. You also have to take into account the lack of gravity and friction to slow the space ship down, it would be wasteful to use fuel to move that fast and just have to use counter-active measures to correct to a proper docking speed. Many, many, many different reasons but all justified through extensive research.
2006-09-09 18:38:23 · answer #2 · answered by joel m 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Well, for one, the ISS is also traveling at 17000 mph.
They could reach the station quicker, but remember they have to dock with the ISS, which requires a lot of skill and concentration. When the astronauts first get up into space, it takes a little while to get used to zero-g. So unless there was some sort of emergency they would never have the astronauts attempt the docking maneuvers on the first day.
2006-09-09 18:34:35 · answer #3 · answered by kris 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because the relative velocity of the two is much, much smaller than 17,000 MPH. Further, the Shuttle has to launch when Florida passes under the plane of the ISS's orbit, but the ISS isn't necessarily over Florida at the time of launch; it could be on the opposite side of the Earth, leaving as much as 12,000 orbital miles to cover between them.
The Shuttle flies in a lower (faster) orbit until it catches up to the ISS, and it uses the OMS and RCS engines to boost itself higher at the right time to make the rendezvous. If this doesn't make sense to you, study Kepler's laws.
2006-09-09 18:41:48 · answer #4 · answered by Engineer-Poet 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Who said 2 days? It depends. It will not take longer than 2 days.
The docking will take some time.
2006-09-10 01:12:58 · answer #5 · answered by Lady_Marmalade 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It DID use gasoline. more desirable specially, the rockets that released its countless aspects used gasoline (truly various it, honestly) to spice up the aspects to that %. besides the undeniable fact that, there is not any friction in area, so now that the ISS is shifting at that %, it would not require gasoline to shop going. it truly is basically coasting.
2016-11-25 23:05:02 · answer #6 · answered by garling 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think rendezvous and docking intricacies and chasing it in the right direction takes time.
2006-09-09 18:31:50 · answer #7 · answered by Freddy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋